Spring Break
A preview of a partisan presidential think tank
Andrew Weaver, Contributing Writer, aweaver747@aol.com
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: Opinion
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If you want a preview of the sort of disinformation that many of us expect from the proposed Bush partisan think tank at SMU, which the president told the press he wants to call the Institute on Democracy, take a gander at the opinion piece by Mark Tooley published in The Daily Campus on March 21 titled "Bush Library controversy: Who's really 'disconnected'"?
Mr. Tooley was employed by the CIA before he became head of the United Methodist unit (UMAction) within the neoconservative think tank the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) in Washington, D.C. He also writes a regular column for David Horowitz's FrontPageMagazine.com. Horowitz is known for his attacks upon academic freedom and tenure and is the author of the seedy little book, "The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America."
IRD spends about $1 million a year, raised mostly from secular donors with political motivations; bashing mainstream Protestant churches (particularly the Presbyterians, Episcopalians and United Methodists). Its right-wing benefactors include Richard Mellon Scaife, Howard Ahmanson, Joseph Coors, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.
Bishop Kenneth Carder, professor of the practice of pastoral formation at Duke University Divinity School recently wrote:
The tactics of the IRD to take statements out of context, divide the church into "us" and "them," foster polarization and conflict for financial and ideological purposes, capitalize on and manipulate fear and mistrust, promote a narrow political agenda - all in the name of "defending faith and freedom" - are disingenuous at best and diabolical at worst. In my opinion, the IRD and UMAction inflict wounds on the body of Christ, distract from the church's mission, and create unnecessary polarization. The opinion piece by Mr. Tooley is, as usual, replete with untruths and half-truths. Space, however, only allows me to address one piece of disinformation.
Mr. Tooley was employed by the CIA before he became head of the United Methodist unit (UMAction) within the neoconservative think tank the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) in Washington, D.C. He also writes a regular column for David Horowitz's FrontPageMagazine.com. Horowitz is known for his attacks upon academic freedom and tenure and is the author of the seedy little book, "The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America."
IRD spends about $1 million a year, raised mostly from secular donors with political motivations; bashing mainstream Protestant churches (particularly the Presbyterians, Episcopalians and United Methodists). Its right-wing benefactors include Richard Mellon Scaife, Howard Ahmanson, Joseph Coors, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.
Bishop Kenneth Carder, professor of the practice of pastoral formation at Duke University Divinity School recently wrote:
The tactics of the IRD to take statements out of context, divide the church into "us" and "them," foster polarization and conflict for financial and ideological purposes, capitalize on and manipulate fear and mistrust, promote a narrow political agenda - all in the name of "defending faith and freedom" - are disingenuous at best and diabolical at worst. In my opinion, the IRD and UMAction inflict wounds on the body of Christ, distract from the church's mission, and create unnecessary polarization. The opinion piece by Mr. Tooley is, as usual, replete with untruths and half-truths. Space, however, only allows me to address one piece of disinformation.
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