IRD "human rights" concerns locales

[Moses]

The following are the locales of the IRD's "human rights" concerns:

URL: www.ird-renew.org/About/About.cfm?ID=826&c=5

Resolutions on Religious Liberty for the 2004 United Methodist Church General Conference
March 2, 2004




The following resolutions on religious liberty and human rights concerns around the world were submitted for consideration for this year's United Methodist Church General Conference by UMAction Executive Director Mark Tooley. If approved, they would be added to the United Methodist Church's Book of Resolutions. The General Conference, which is the denomination's top governing body, will meet for ten days in Pittsburgh starting on April 27.

 <br>* Resolution Supporting Human Rights in China
* Resolution Supporting Human Rights in Cuba
* Resolution Supporting Human Rights in Egypt
* Resolution Supporting Human Rights in Iran
* Resolution Supporting Human Rights in Laos
* Resolution Supporting Human Rights in Libya
* Resolution Supporting Human Rights in North Korea
* Resolution Supporting Human Rights in Pakistan
* Resolution Supporting Human Rights in Saudi Arabia
* Resolution Supporting Human Rights in Sudan
* Resolution Supporting Human Rights in Syria
* Resolution Supporting Human Rights in Vietnam

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[Moses]

Mark Tooley 

Mark Tooley directs the United Methodist committee (UMAction) of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, an ecumenical watchdog of mainline church denominations.  UMAction helps traditional [sic] United Methodists working to reclaim America's third largest religious body for historic [sic] Christian [sic] beliefs.  Mark is the editor of UMAction Briefing, a publication with a circulation of 300,000 households.  Among the publications that have published his articles are The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, The Weekly Standard, Human Events, The Washington Times, Crisis, Touchstone, and The Chicago Tribune.

Prior to joining the IRD in 1994, Mark worked 8 years for the Central Intelligence Agency as an analyst.  He is a graduate of Georgetown University and is a native of Arlington, Virginia.  Since 1993 he has served as a board member of Good News, an evangelical renewal caucus within United Methodism.  He is a life-long United Methodist and belongs to Pender United Methodist Church in Fairfax, Virginia.

[Moses]

Who are these guys, anyway?

In a recent Chicago Sun Times article, Mark Tooley of the Institute for Religion and Democracy labeled United Methodist Bishop C. Joseph Sprague as the most prominent active liberal bishop in Protestantism today. Mr. Tooley stated that Bishop Sprague has explicitly denied historic Christian beliefs and betrayed his calling. He called upon the bishop to resign.

Who is this Mark Tooley, anyway? Who and what does he represent, and why is he given so much ink when it comes to the affairs of The United Methodist Church? (Editor’s Note: A Q&A interview with Mr. Tooley appears in this issue on page 13).

For all his rhetoric, Mr. Tooley has no official status in The United Methodist Church. Rather, he is a hired gun for a far-right political juggernaut that seeks to discredit religious leaders who take seriously the stringent mandates of the Christian Gospel. Funded by large (and mostly hidden) ultra-conservative economic interests, the IRD uses lies and misleading information to neutralize Christian leaders who take a prophetic stand for peace and social justice. (Editor’s Note: See the related article in this issue starting on page 11).

The IRD’s agenda is political, not religious. Neither Mr. Tooley nor his patrons would recognize the Sermon on the Mount if it hit them in the face. Their game is to keep people focused on simplistic affirmations and correct doctrine while the architects of the political right launch disastrous military adventures and equally disastrous domestic initiatives to rape the environment, create and exploit scapegoats, keep the poor in their place, tax the least able and line the pockets of the super-rich.

It is against such principalities and powers that Bishop Sprague continues to make his witness. Not only do Mark Tooley and his patrons represent the very antithesis of what Jesus of Nazareth said and did, they offer an agenda that, if pursued to its fullest, will do irreparable damage to the moral fabric of our nation.

Thomas E. Sagendorf
Hamilton, Indiana