LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This Talk to Action article talks about the overt and protracted attempts to 'undermine and destroy' mainline churches in the US.

Rev. John Thomas, president of the United Church of Christ acknowledged on Friday what mainline church leaders have been reluctant to address for two decades. The rightist Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) and allied groups are seeking to undermine if not destroy the mainline Christian churches in the United States.

The conservative movement and parts of the corporate sector have loathed the rise of the social gospel in the mainline churches for a century. They have loathed the social justice traditions that were catalysts for the civil rights movement, women's rights, and principled opposition to the excesses of American foreign policy from Vietnam to Central America. [emphasis mine- ed] It was the latter that led to the formation of the IRD as a hub of antichurch organizing. Since then, IRD-affiliated "renewal" groups have been at the center of nearly every controversy in mainline Christianity -- most recently, but certainly not exclusively, issues of gay and lesbian equality in church and public life.

Read the whole article. If you do not believe that the extreme right is out to destroy all churches that are either progressive or 'not Christian enough', this might help to convince you that it is true.