Monday, July 24, 2006

Peter Laarman on the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD)

Quote, from an entry on the Huffington Post [emphasis mine]:

Created by cunning Schactmanites and by ex-CIA operatives during the time of Reagan's dirty wars in Central America, the IRD's core work plan has always called for dividing and disabling the larger Mainline Protestant denominations -- the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, United Methodists, and Evangelical Lutherans -- using any means necessary. The means that has worked best by far is relentlessly flogging the issue of homosexuality and accusing religious progressives of departing from the true faith by preaching that God really does love everybody.

Thanks to the IRD's skillful fingering of this hot button through the different front groups it operates within each body, all four national denominations have been pretty much AWOL from the more urgent moral debates this moment: e.g., imperial wars of choice, torture, civil liberties, Katrina, climate change, and economic terrorism from above. The denoms just don't have the energy. Nearly all their attention and focus have been consumed by internal debates on matters Levitical.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can't argue that the IRD's guerilla warfare tactics of infiltrate and destabilize from within haven't been effective. They've succeeded in keeping the mainline denominations in turmoil while the fundamentalist denominations have gained power.

You can argue that everyone in the IRD will eventually burn in hell for serving the anti-christ by working against Christianity and trying to destroy parts of the Body of Christ, but you can't argue with their effectiveness.

Someone would be doing Christianity a favor if they would nuke the next meeting of the IRD and it's backers.

Matt Thompson said...

Thanks for the comment, but no one does anyone a favor by advocating violence, even if figurative. Sorry.