The Institute on Religion and Democracy

[realFedUp]

(know the enemy...)

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/org/ird.php

The Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) describes itself as “an ecumenical alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches’ social witness, in accord with biblical and historic Christian teachings, thereby contributing to the renewal of democratic society at home and abroad.” A major focus of IRD is reforming the mainline Protestant churches. According to the IRD, “Never has there been a greater need for strong churches as a crucial component of civil society. America and the world require a fresh impetus of Christian evangelization, transforming both individuals and cultures. Yet tragically, important segments of the American church are spiraling into deep decline as they retreat from this task. Particularly in the historic “mainline” Protestant denominations, but also in other churches, many leaders and institutions have lost their focus on the Gospel, the basis of their existence. They have turned toward political agendas mandated neither by Scripture nor by Christian tradition. They have thrown themselves into multiple, often leftist crusades--radical forms of feminism, environmentalism, pacifism, multi-culturalism, revolutionary socialism, sexual liberation and so forth.” (1)

IRD’s officers include: Ellen Bork (treasurer), the daughter of Robert Bork and deputy director of the Project for the New American Century; Thomas Oden (chairman); Diane Knippers (president). Board members include Fred Barnes (Weekly Standard editor), Richard J. Neuhaus (founder of Institute for Religion and Public Life), Michael Novak (American Enterprise Institute), George Weigel (Ethics and Public Policy Center), Carl Henry (Christianity Today), and James Neucherlein (First Things). (2) IRD shares board members with numerous neocon institutes such as Empower America, Project for the New American Century and Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. It is intricately interlinked with the Ethics and Public Center and the Institute for Religion and Public Life through common board members, including George Weigel, Michael Novak, Mary Ann Glendon, and John Neuhaus.

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For more than two decades IRD has advocated U.S. military interventionism. During the 1980s IRD attempted to rally U.S. Christians around a program of higher military budgets and military campaigns against the Soviet Union and allied countries such as Nicaragua, Angola, and Cuba. IRD was a leading advocate of U.S. military aid and intervention in Central America and the Caribbean during the Reagan administrations, and it routinely challenged the patriotism and the belief systems of Christians who didn’t share its militarism and interventionist spirit. When IRD wasn’t criticizing the Protestant denominations for being soft on communism, it was charging that they were anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli. For its part, IRD has long echoed the policies of the Likud Party militarists and right-wing Zionists. In addition to the Protestant denominations, IRD considers the National Council of Churches (NCC) and its counterpart World Council of Churches to be instruments of liberalism and secularism. (3)