Rick Warren, Barack Obama's favorite Religious Right leader, is back in the news, enthusiastically fanning the flames of division and discord in mainline Protestantism as he has for years.

Rick (abortion is a "holocaust" and prochoice pols are "holocaust deniers") Warren was the featured speaker at the first conference of American rightist, breakaway Episcopalians, who now call themselves Anglicans, and are seeking recognition as a legitimate member of the worldwide Anglican Communion.  

Warren, a Southern Baptist, has, according to the Associated Press,

"extended support before to conservative Episcopalians and Anglicans and has offered space to seceding Episcopalians at his Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California."

It is Sunday morning at the First Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.  The famous pastor by the name of J. Frank Norris enters the pulpit carrying a broken quart bottle with him.  It is the early part of the 20th century and the church is relieved that their pastor was just acquitted in court of allegations that he had torched the church.  With fervent passion the preacher is proud in his exoneration from the accusations.  He preaches a sermon from the text, "Thou are weighed in the balances and found wanting."  He tears into the attorney who brought charges against him. The lawyer has just met a horrible death driving his Cadillac on North Main accompanied by a lady companion. His vehicle is full of liquor and is driven head on into the streetcar.  Pastor J. Frank announces to the congregation that in the broken bottle there is whiskey and brains from the lawyer. The story is a splendid portrait of the life and ministry of J. Frank Norris.

We have written much about Archbishop Peter (The Persecutor) Akinola here at Talk to Action. We have discussed his role as a fave of the IRD set, and his apparent involvement in an infamous massacre of Muslims in Nigeria -- among many other things.  

Episcopal Cafe reports that The Persecutor is back -- advocating draconian criminal penalties for anyone who enages in same sex marriage -- that is already illegal in Nigeria. The church is even busing supporters to the hearings on the proposed national legislation.  (It should be recalled that eleven Episcopal Churches in Virginia left the Episcopal Church USA and placed themselves under the authority of Archbishop Akinola.)  Episcopal Cafe has the scoop as well as the text of The Persecutor's letter (PDF), in which he declares that same sex marriage could create a "moral and social holocaust," "extincting mankind," (sic) as a result of "annihilation that will follow the wrath of God."

 Excerpts on the flip.

In light of the dust-ups over the Poverty Forum and the peculiar partnership between Jim Wallis and Michael Gerson, I thought it would be helpful to remind ourselves about Gerson and his life as an Akinola Anglican. And for this, there is no better refresher than Jim Naughton's guest front page post from May 2 of 2008 -- FC

We are very pleased to welcome guest front pager Jim Naughton, who is the editor of Episcopal Cafe, where this post first appeared. -- FC

In today's Washington Post, columnist Michael Gerson once again takes Sen. Barack Obama to task for his relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In breaking with Wright, Gerson writes, Obama has woken from a theological slumber. But contrast Wright's words and actions with those of Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, the leader of Gerson's church, and ask yourself who has been sleeping.  

Gerson is a member of the Falls Church in Falls Church, Va. His congregation and the nearby Truro Church, played the key role in leading 11 Virginia parishes out of the Episcopal Church after the Church consecrated Gene Robinson, an openly gay man as bishop in 2003. Most of these parishes joined the Church of Nigeria, which Akinola leads.

In what is a radical departure from Baptist protocol, an editor of a Baptist splinter group in Texas has called for state funding of religion.  Baptists used to champion the  cause that govenrment should not prop up religion.  Baptist in early New England did not want to pay taxes that went to supporting religious doctrines they did not agree with.  Things are changing.
     Gary Ledbetter, editor of the news magazine for Southern Baptists of Texas, a group that left traditional Baptist work in the state, has a new view of Baptist life.  Gary wants the state to give money for church ministries and that money be used to discriminate against other faiths in hiring practices.  He also sees nothing wrong with the state funds being used to win converts.  Writing in the December 31, 2008 isue of SOUTHERN BAPTIST TEXAN, Gary fears the new president will reverse a practice instigated by current President Bush.
    Most of the money handed out by Catholic Charities comes from the government.  Many denominational social programs have government funding.  These groups practice a separation of ministries.  They historically have not used state funds to promote their faith or discriminate in hiring.  Bush and his administration promised to allow this.
     This is the same magazine that claimed that the reason a gun man shot and killed several church members in Fort Worth is because of the separation of church and state.

In the minds of many observers, the schismatic former Episcopalians aligned with the Institute on Religion and Democracy had not really migrated into the Religious Right. The Religious Right was more the terriory of fiery Southern Baptists and apocalyptic Pentecostals than starchy Episcopalians. But times do change.

Chunks of the American Episcopal Church have broken off (including the church of Washington Post columnist and former Bush speechwriter Michael ("Axis of Evil") Gerson) and placed themselves under the authority of the fiercely anti-gay, anti-Muslim Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria. Akinola's missionary bishop to the United States is the Rev. Martyn Minns -- who recently spoke at the Family Research Council's Values Voters Summit in DC.

In Kenneth Bailey's SOUTHERN WHITE PROTESTANTISM, Bailey reminds the reader about historic ethical stances taken in the South among Baptists.  In l920 the Southern Baptist Convention's Social Service Commission condemned teen dancing as a grave social evil.  The Convention also had a chance to take a stand on the abuse of child labor practiced by many industrialists in the region.  They declined to take a stand but instead passed several resolutions against tobacco and alcohol.  Living in the midst of  a two tier social system based on Jim Crow social justice. the convention was strangely silent.  That is until people like Foy Valentine led the Convention to think in terms of a deeper Christian ethic. Richard Land took Foy's place and drug the Conventon back into an ethical system of justice limited to below-the -belt social concerns.

Over the years there have been few institutional commitments to investigate and to counter the Scaife/Olin/Ahmanson funded efforts to disrupt and divide the historic communions of mainline Protestantism. We have written a great deal about these matters here at Talk to Action, and therefore I am pleased to report that Political Research Associates has recently launched a major research project. (PRA has reported on these struggles over the years in The Public Eye, including my 2006 article The Battle for the Mainline Churches.)

The full text of the announcment follows on the flip.

Peter Akinola is not exactly a household name, but he could well be the problem pastor of neo-conservatism. He is certainly less well known in the U.S. than John ("McCain threw me under the bus") Hagee, but he is every bit as consequential.

He is the spiritual leader of thousands of Americans, including many Washington insiders who attend schismatic Episcopal churches that have placed themselves under his authority in recent years. He is Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, a cruel and ostentatiously anti-gay cleric and a driving force in the widening schism in the worldwide Anglican communion, who makes James Dobson seem liberal and Hagee a relative man of peace.  

While right-wing Baptist emails are buzzing with rumors of Obama being secretly Muslim, or even worse the anti-Christ, writers are wondering what role if any the group will play in the next election.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is holding its bi-annual national meeting in San Jose, CA this week. Staff from the Institute on Religion and Democracy will be on hand along with their allies in Presbyterian division and discord. In light of this, I decided to reprise this post about IRD's Presbyterian point man, which I think says alot about what Presbyterians gathered in San Jose can expect. -- FC

Over at the Berkley Blog -- that's the blog of Jim Berkley, Director of Presbyterian Action at the infamous Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) -- the eponymous author has provided us a window on the methods of his employer.  IRD is, of course, the agency that for a quarter century has sought to disrupt and divide the leading churches of mainline Protestantism. In this they have enjoyed considerable success and will no doubt be noted for their efforts in the history of Protestantism.  

But things seem to be unraveling a bit for IRD, as we have seen in their recent inept attacks on their critics -- which revealed so much about thier methods and their character.  Jim Berkley was similarly revelatory in a May 22nd blog  post in which he harshly denounced the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

The notorious Institute on Religion and Democracy recently launched a new web site. Some changes naturally, do not necessarily acknowledge aspects of the organization's past. But it is also fair to say that the site changes, have the effect (intended or unintended) of scrubbing and sanitizing some aspects of its past it would probably prefer we not remember.

For example, the organization once featured prominent conservative Catholics and Jews on its board and advisor board -- until many of them quietly disappeared after Andrew Weaver  exposed their involvement. (There are still a number of Catholics, but not as many as before.) Also missing is the Association for Church Renewal, which was organized under IRD's auspices in 1995 and whose membership included leading Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist and UCC "renewal" groups. Fortunately there is a terrific searchable internet archive called the Way Back Machine. It is not comprehensive, but it is a helpful research tool.

For our purposes, it unscrubs some important dimensions of the not-so-way-back past of IRD and its affiliates.