A Must Listen-To State of Belief This Sunday on Air America

This Sunday, May 21, on Air America’s radio important show, “State of Belief,� Rev. Welton Gaddy takes on the coordinated effort by the Far-Right to infiltrate and take over the mainstream Protestant churches. This is an important broadcast that will help expose an on-going effort by a few powerful folks who are attempting to stifle the Social Gospel message of the National Council of Churches.

Guests include three important opponents of this nefarious effort:

Dr. Bruce Prescott, Executive Director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, is, like Welton, a veteran of the purges that marked the conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Dr. John Dorhauer, minister for the St. Louis Association of the United Churches of Christ, has seen congregations around him descend into in-fighting, provoked by right-wing propaganda.

Dr. Andrew Weaver, a United Methodist pastor and research psychologist, has traced the campaign against mainline Protestantism largely to the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a think-tank funded by ultra-conservative foundations such as Richard Mellon Scaife “Four Sisters� as well as those of the Koch and Coors family. Weaver says that the IRD and so-called religious "renewal" groups are funneling money in "a systematic effort to undermine mainline churches that still have democratic, transparent processes." The problem in countering these efforts, he says, is that "All of these traditions have niceness at the core; while we've been thinking it's touch football, they've been playing tackle."

This issue has never before been discussed on national radio, and continues State of Belief's focus on how religion is being manipulated for partisan political purposes. It may stun listeners - and it is sure to inspire Protestant congregations to reclaim their role as a positive and much needed healing force in our nation. State of Belief: religion and radio, done differently.

State of Belief is heard nationwide on Air America Radio on Sundays from 5 to 6 PM EST. Information about affiliates, listening live via the internet, or podcasting can be found at www.StateofBelief.com.