Post's letter to church leaders followed a series of media attacks launched by the institute's operatives against the National Council of Churches and it's member denominations, that appeared in the Readers Digest and on 60 Minutes.

Both pieces were smear jobs. 60 Minutes producer Don Hewitt told Larry King in 2002 that it was the one program he truly regretted in his career. Twenty years late, but at least he acknowledge the error. But the damage had already been done, and in the meantime, the IRD has continued its attacks.

A few weeks ago, Methodist ministers Andrew Weaver and Fred Kandeler wrote about this dark chapter in media and church history at Talk to Action.

Now I am pleased to announced that starting this Tuesday, we will have a weekly post by Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer on the attacks on the mainline churches and what is being done about it. He is, as he writes in his Talk to Action bio

Associate Conference Minister of the Missouri Mid-South Conference of the United Church of Christ. Dr. Dorhauer serves on a task force for the United Church of Christ which tracks attacks from right wing groups intent on destabilizing Mainline Christian churches. The unique polity and liberal theology of the United Church of Christ has made them susceptible to church take-overs (because their polity confers complete autonomy on every congregation, right wing groups can perform takeovers and end up with millions of dollars in property, membership contributions, and endowments). Dr. Dorhauer has been tracking the tactics and actions of some of these right wing factions, and will write about their methods, his experiences, and strategies that are being developed to effectively counter and prevent such hostile attacks and takeovers.

Avery Post was spot-on in his analysis, and prophetic in his warning back in 1982. Unfortunately, he was not widely heeded at the time.

But there have been efforts in recent years, to better understand what IRD and its allies have been doing; accompanied by efforts to widen public understanding and response. We hope that Talk to Action and John Dorhauer can provide be a further catalyst for those efforts.