The other institute interested in SMU
Issue date: 4/27/07 Section: Opinion
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Both critics and supporters of the Bush Library are aware that SMU has recently come under scrutiny by the Institute for Religion and Democracy. An op-ed article by that group's director, Mark Tooley, follows an earlier op-ed critique of the Institute's attack on Protestant denominational leaders. It is well that folks at SMU understand the Institute for Religion and Democracy. IRD plays religious and political hardball. With the almost assured arrival of the George W. Bush Library and Institute, we'll probably hear more from and about this group in days to come.
Formed in 1981, the IRD by its own admission made its debut as the red-scare public opinion "education for democracy" mill of the Reagan-era's clandestine assault on Nicaraguan peasants and political institutions. They became the unofficial publicists for the once-clandestine, U.S.-supported, Honduras-based mercenary group known as "Contras." Remember the Contras?
IRD would have us believe that theirs is a religiously motivated grassroots effort among Methodist, Episcopalians and Presbyterians. While they do plead for disgruntled church members to send their congregations' membership directories to their office in Washington, they are hardly "grassroots" and are in no way representative. The vast bulk of IRD's support comes neither from "grass-root Christians" nor from religious organizations at all. Primary funding for IRD comes from non-church far-right-wing secular foundations such as the Scaife, Olin, Richardson and Bradley funds. Leaders of these foundations have provided millions of dollars for IRD's campaigns against mainline Christian denominations. Interestingly, Scaife underwrote more than $2 million of the costs of the "Arkansas Project," the unsuccessful eight-year attempt to harass President Bill Clinton into leaving the office of the president.
In the '80s, before targeting mainline U.S Protestant churches and their leaders for their social justice commitments, IRD crusaded against the evils of child health care projects, land reform, literacy education, and other such "socialist-inspired" community-based programs in post-Somoza Nicaragua. In both Nicaragua and El Salvador, Christian missionaries became IRD's targets first for verbal bashing and then for lethal Contra violence.
Formed in 1981, the IRD by its own admission made its debut as the red-scare public opinion "education for democracy" mill of the Reagan-era's clandestine assault on Nicaraguan peasants and political institutions. They became the unofficial publicists for the once-clandestine, U.S.-supported, Honduras-based mercenary group known as "Contras." Remember the Contras?
IRD would have us believe that theirs is a religiously motivated grassroots effort among Methodist, Episcopalians and Presbyterians. While they do plead for disgruntled church members to send their congregations' membership directories to their office in Washington, they are hardly "grassroots" and are in no way representative. The vast bulk of IRD's support comes neither from "grass-root Christians" nor from religious organizations at all. Primary funding for IRD comes from non-church far-right-wing secular foundations such as the Scaife, Olin, Richardson and Bradley funds. Leaders of these foundations have provided millions of dollars for IRD's campaigns against mainline Christian denominations. Interestingly, Scaife underwrote more than $2 million of the costs of the "Arkansas Project," the unsuccessful eight-year attempt to harass President Bill Clinton into leaving the office of the president.
In the '80s, before targeting mainline U.S Protestant churches and their leaders for their social justice commitments, IRD crusaded against the evils of child health care projects, land reform, literacy education, and other such "socialist-inspired" community-based programs in post-Somoza Nicaragua. In both Nicaragua and El Salvador, Christian missionaries became IRD's targets first for verbal bashing and then for lethal Contra violence.
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