Why has AMERICANS UNITED FOR CHURCH AND STATE been in the BGAV budget?
Vol. IX, No. 9, October 1996
The "default" budget plan (that is, the plan YOUR church's money goes to if your church gives through the BGAV and has not taken specific action to donate through some other plan) includes a special line item for Americans United. To check this out, take a look at your 1995 BGAV Annual. On page 39 you will find the figures for the 1996 budget. AU is the last entry at the bottom of the WM-2 column.
In case you are not familiar with where AU stands on issues, here are just a few facts.
Founded 1947. Executive Director: Barry Lynn. President: Calvin Didier
Over 10 signers of HUMANIST MANIFESTOS I & II have served on the executive staff or on the Board of Directors of Americans United.
The ADVISORY BOARD for AU has several well known Southern Baptist leaders serving during the last ten years.
Dr. James Dunn - Trustee of AU, Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs (BJC)
Dr. Foy Valentine - former liberal Executive Director, SBC Christian Life Commission
Dr. Jimmy Allen - former moderate head of SBC Radio & Television Commission
Dr. Stan Hastey - Executive Director of liberal Alliance of Baptists, formerly on BJC staff
Cecil Sherman - recently retired Coordinator, CBF
John Hewett - former Moderator, CBF
Brent Walker - General Counsel, BJCPA
Jeanette Holt - Coordinating Council, CBF; Associate Director, Alliance of Baptists; and former BJCPA staffer
Babs Baugh Morrison - Coordinating Council, CBF
Dr. Presnell Wood - Editor, Texas Baptist Standard
Dr. Lynn Clayton - Editor, The Baptist Message, Alexandria, LA.
Dr. Robert Maddox - ordained Baptist minister, Executive Director of AU 1984-92
Others on the advisory board include:
Sarah Weddington - Attorney who won abortion case ROE V. WADE
Anthony Podesta - People for the American Way
Dr. William Schultz - President, Unitarian Universalist Association
It is important to note that L. G. Puckett who served at one time as Executive Director of AU, later chaired the Board of the Baptist Joint Committee. He also served as Chairman of Associated Baptist Press and now as Editor of the Biblical Recorder, Raleigh, NC.
AU SUPPORTS ABORTION RIGHTS:
*In their monthly journal CHURCH & STATE, AU stated, "in the last analysis, the U.S.
Supreme Court's 1973 ruling leaves abortion decisions where they belong in a pluralistic society, in the hands of the individual woman." June 1974
*In 1978, AU filed a friend-of-the-court brief, stating that “the denial of taxpayer money for 'elective abortions' was a violation of both the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment.” Church & State, November 1978
AU opposes any constitutional amendments for voluntary prayer in the schools and display of the TEN COMMANDMENTS.
AU SUPPORTS THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS (NEA):
*At the 1990 AU Conference, they gave their prestigious Madison-Jefferson Award to Congressman Pat Williams, who led the congressional battle to refund the NEA. Church & State November 1990. The NEA uses federal tax dollars to fund blatantly obscene 'art.'
RE-DEFINING THE FAMILY:
*According to Barry Lynn, AU's Executive Director: "We live in a much more diverse nation of families: single-parent families, families with members of three generations, same-gender families... These are all the American family of 1995." (Church and State, June 1995, p. 23)
THANKING GOD FOR DIVERSITY:
*In another column appearing in AU's journal, Church and State, Barry Lynn states that he finds
"no fault with such a theological stance" as thanking God for the "diversity" that he created,
'.making us male and female, black, white, gay and straight." (Church and State, December, 1994, p. 21)
HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT SIN:
*In an August 1991 interview with AU Executive Director Robert Maddox (a Southern Baptist minister) and Assistant Editor of AU's Church and State journal, Rob Boston, the two agreed that the act of homosexuality is neither "sin" nor "wrong in and of itself," but that it becomes sin at the point where the life-style becomes destructive. Maddox stated in response to his position: "I have a few friends who have lived a gay life-style for a long, long time, in great stability - in great productivity and creativity."
HOMOSEXUALITY: A CHURCH/STATE ISSUE:
*In a workshop at AU's 1994 National Conference, AU staffer Bunnie Riedel listed 11 top
church/state issues for 1995. Number four on the list was the need to combat Religious Right
opposition to "promoting homosexuality" and "homosexual issues."
AU PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN THE HOW TO WIN MANUAL:
*Along with the BJCPA, AU was also listed as one of the organizations "whose hard work on the editorial and media committees made [the How to Win] manual a reality." Many of the participating organizations in this far left training manual are represented on the governing board of AU.
*Many of the organizations represented on the governing board of AU openly support homosexuality including the ACLU, People for the American Way, and the National Education Association.
*AU's most recent addition to their governing board is the Rev. Meg Riley, Director of the Office of Lesbian and Gay Concerns for the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Here's the conclusion one Southern Baptist editor came to regarding AU: "...I resigned in protest from [the governing board of Americans United] because it did not reflect what I understand to be a centrist position on church and state issues. I concluded that many of the charges of its critics were true, that it was becoming a 'liberal' group and I was not willing to be associated with it any longer." Bob Terry, then editor of Word & Way, the Missouri state Baptist paper, in a letter to select Missouri Baptist pastors, 27 July 1995, p. 3. Terry has opposed much of the conservative resurgence, so this testimony is particularly telling coming from a man of his persuasion.
It will be a step in the right direction if the BGAV does delete Americans United from next year’s budget as reportedly is the intent.