Posted on September 13, 2007 by Ian
Although they have been active since the early 1980s, until a few months ago I had never heard of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. After I came across Culver and Dorhauer’s book Steeplejacking, I blogged about issues related to the IRD several times. Despite this, what I saw tonight was still an [...]
Filed under: Institute on Religion and Democracy, Progressive Christianity, Right-wing Christianity, Theocracy | 4 Comments »
Posted on July 24, 2007 by Ian
While I found Culver and Dorhauer’s book Steeplejacking to be very disturbing, it also has an element of hope - both in the story of a church that was saved from steeplejacking, and in the idea that, but getting the word out, it was possible to avert some of these tragedies. The IRD, it [...]
Filed under: Institute on Religion and Democracy, Religion, Steeplejacking | No Comments »
Posted on July 17, 2007 by Ian
John Dorhauer replies to criticisms levelled by IRD employee Steve Rempe in his review of Steeplejacking. Dorhauer answers Rempe’s accusations quite effectively by quoting from IRD documents, and concludes that either:
If Rempe is still unclear about how the IRD is infiltrating our churches, then it means he has not been included in these internal [...]
Filed under: Institute on Religion and Democracy, Progressive Christianity, Religion, Steeplejacking, intelligent design | No Comments »
Posted on July 13, 2007 by Ian
As I mentioned previously, I found Culver and Dorhauser’s book Steeplejacking to be both highly informative and deeply disturbing. Most importantly - it was effective. It was well-written, and it did a good job of conveying the threat to mainline churches. It also sheds light on the actions of the neo-conservative Institute [...]
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Posted on June 21, 2007 by Ian
I have always had immense respect for the United Church of Christ. I love their Marriage Equality position and their history of openness. And this is why I find the book Steeplejacking so distressing.
Culver and Dorhauser discuss the development of the Institute on Religion and Democracy from the early 1980s when it [...]
Filed under: Institute on Religion and Democracy, LBGT rights, Progressive Christianity, Religion, Steeplejacking | 1 Comment »
Posted on June 21, 2007 by Ian
I was chilled when I first heard of the Institute on Religion and Democracy a few months ago. As Charles Currie said:
IRD, as a refresher, is a conservative political group set-up in the early 1980s by Republican activists who aimed to silence Christian voices opposed to the Reagan administration’s foreign and domestic policies. [...]
Filed under: Institute on Religion and Democracy, Politics, Progressive Christianity, Religion, Steeplejacking | No Comments »