Texas Baptists Committed and TIA: 

Dr. David Currie’s Defense

In an article on the Texas Baptists Committed web site, Dr. Currie notes that he and Dr. Foy Valentine serve together on the executive board of The Interfaith Alliance.  He then states:  “I would urge all our TBC readers to support the Interfaith Alliance.”[i]  However, in the January 2000 issue of the Texas Baptists Committed newsletter he also states: 

The fundamentalists say that some of my Interfaith board members supposedly have different views from me on homosexuality, abortion and other issues and therefore, I am evil for associating with them.  I’m using the word supposedly because these issues have never come up at a board meeting.  I do not understand the fundamentalist logic of guilt by association.[ii] (emphasis ours)      

In the March 1999 Texas Baptists Committed newsletter, Dr. Currie stated nearly the same thing.  Noting that TIA “is a non-partisan group which advocates for religious liberty and urges civility in matters of faith and politics,” Dr. Currie responds to a video produced by the Missouri Baptist Laymen’s Association: 

According to the video, some members [of the TIA board] support homosexual and abortion rights.  I have no idea if [the video] is correct.  I have been on the board three years and have never missed a meeting.  The issues of homosexuality and abortion have never been mentioned during a meeting, nor to me in private conversation by a fellow member.[iii] 

Dr. Currie goes on to state that the video, which raises numerous concerns about various organizations closely related to the CBF, is “un-Christian, un-Biblical, unethical and immoral!  It is mean-spirited, slanderous and contradictory to the teachings of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”[iv]  This same Texas Baptists Committed article written by Dr. Currie also appeared in the May and June 1999 issues of the Mainstream Missouri Baptists newsletter. 

The Interfaith Alliance:  Advocates for Homosexuality

Despite Dr. Currie’s insistence that The Interfaith Alliance has never discussed the issues of homosexuality or abortion during a board meeting or in private during the three years he has served on the TIA board of directors, TIA has been a leading pro-homosexual “religious” voice.  Framing the political debate surrounding the issue of homosexuality as “discrimination, justice and civil rights,” TIA leaders have been outspoken advocates for the full acceptance of homosexuality, both within TIA and without. 

One such example of using “discrimination” as a political vehicle to advance the agenda of full acceptance of homosexuality came in May of 1993, one year prior to the formation of TIA.  Three soon-to-be TIA board members were listed in a United Church of Christ press release supporting gays in the military.  In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, the Rev. Paul Sherry, president of the United Church of Christ (UCC), stated that the UCC ‘“has urged an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation’ since 1975.”  Sherry then stated before the committee:  “I have been asked by colleagues among the religious leaders of this country to convey to you their own support for ending discrimination against gay and lesbian persons in the military.”[v] (emphasis ours)  TIA board members presented before Congress in support of gays in the military by Rev. Sherry included Edmond Browning, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Joan Brown Campbell, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches and Bishop Frederick James of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. 

TIA Supports ENDA

In 1997, The Interfaith Alliance endorsed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).[vi]  According to Baptist Press, ENDA is proposed federal legislation “establish[ing] homosexuality, under the title of ‘sexual orientation,’ as a classification deserving protection in the same way race, ethnicity, gender, age, national origin, religion and disability now have protected status in the workplace.”[vii]   

In 1994, the CBF-funded Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, which includes two TIA board members on its Religious Liberty Council, worked with “a number of religious and gay and lesbian groups” on ENDA, the centerpiece of gay rights legislation.[viii]  By adding a “religious exemption” for churches and not-for-profit religious organizations, the BJCPA claims to have made ENDA “politically more saleable.”[ix]  However, BJCPA general counsel Brent Walker made it emphatically clear that “those with religious objections to hiring homosexuals should not be able to discriminate when they engage exclusively in for-profit enterprises.”[x]  By 1996, ENDA, which includes protection for bisexuality, failed in the U.S. Senate by only one vote.    

According to a 1997 TIA press release, The Interfaith Alliance “expressed its disappointment in the efforts of Pat Robertson of the Christian Coalition, James Dobson of Focus on the Family, and other political religious extremists to block passage of ENDA.  ‘On ENDA, as on so many other things, Pat Robertson and James Dobson do not speak for all people of faith.  In fact, they do not even speak for all Christians…’”[xi]  (emphasis ours) 

In an effort to demonstrate that not all “Christians” are opposed to homosexuality, TIA presents numerous pro-homosexual statements from various liberal religious organizations in a publication entitled, “What the Faith Communities Say About the Lesbian and Gay Community.”  The publication then states: “While the Christian Coalition, Family Research Council, and other religious right organizations, purport to represent the religious viewpoint (and certainly the Christian position), it is clear from these statements that Robertson, Bauer, Dobson, and their colleagues are very much in the minority among religious entities and their leaders.”[xii]  (emphasis ours) 

Promoting Homosexuality with “Religious Voices”

The Interfaith Alliance strategy of pitting clergy against clergy and religious group against religious group to advance its pro-homosexual agenda has been a well orchestrated effort within the Religious Left.  This strategy was probably most clearly articulated in a 1994 far-left political training manual entitled How to Win: A Practical Guide for Defeating the Radical Right in Your Community.  TIA was one of 68 participating organizations in this extreme pro-homosexual, pro-abortion, pro-pornography manual.  According to this 252-page manual, in an article entitled: “Using Religious Voices to Confront the Religious Right,” it states:   

[The best way to] oppose the agenda of the religious right [is] from a religious viewpoint.  Representatives of such viewpoints clearly illustrate that your side also has moral and value-based arguments it can marshal.  Inclusion of such individuals or faith groups indicates clearly that religious people believe the separation of church and state to be good for religion, that religious people support gay and lesbian rights, and that religious people - in fact most mainstream religious denominations - support a woman’s right to choose [an abortion] for reasons rooted in their faith.  With religious support for your cause, you will have come one giant step closer to defeating the religious right.[xiii]  (emphasis ours)

The How to Win manual further states:  “There is a rich and diverse gay and lesbian spiritual community that is very welcoming.  Attend a service or become a member of a congregation…  The church is a strong force in the lesbian and gay community.  Use it, and build bridges to your own congregations, if possible.  Consider creating a coalition of gay and non-gay church leaders to oppose Radical Right religious arguments.”[xiv] (emphasis ours) Along with TIA, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs were participating organizations in the How to Win manual.

Also participating in the How to Win manual is People for the American Way (PAW).  According to PAW staffer Mary Jean Collins, TIA was an outgrowth of PAW’s clergy network and its efforts to organize  “progressive clergy” at the local level.[xv]  In the September 12, 1995 issue of the Nashville Banner, TIA board member Dan Rosemergy, a United Church of Christ minister, stated that TIA was a part of the national network set up by PAW.[xvi]

PAW has been a leading advocate for the full array of abortion rights, including the partial-birth-abortion procedure and gay rights, including homosexual marriages.  Carole Shields, the most recent past president of PAW, served until recently on the board of directors of the CBF-funded Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs.[xvii]  Shields’ father, Grady Cothen, also served as a former BJCPA board member; a past co-chair of the BJCPA’s Religious Liberty Council; a former president of the SBC’s Baptist Sunday School board; and was a significant leader in the formation of the CBF.[xviii]

At the back of the How to Win manual, a “directory” is provided entitled “PFLAG: Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays, Celebrating Real Family Values.”  The directory is subtitled: “PFLAG Allies in the Field, State by State Summary.”  PFLAG, a leading homosexual rights organization, lists The Interfaith Alliance as its pro-homosexual ally for the District of Columbia.  TIA’s executive director at that time, Jill Hanauer, is listed as the contact person.[xix] 

Table of Contents 

Previous page 

Next page