John Lomperis, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Posted Wednesday, September 22, 2004
During the recent Republican Convention in New York, the National Council of Churches (NCC) organized an interfaith rally against Republican policies.
Speakers at the August 31 rally denounced the Bush administration for its policies on tax cuts, Iraq and gun control. They repeatedly called for expanded government welfare spending, in line with the Democratic platform.
The interfaith gathering, convened at famously liberal Riverside Church, was part of the NCC’s “Let Justice Roll” program, which aims to mobilize “progressive” religious voters to “end poverty.” The program includes extensive voter registration drives, voter “education” work, and efforts to increase voter turnout among certain groups.
Official “participating organizations” in the NCC’s project include numerous liberal groups, such as the Unitarian D.C. lobby office, USAction, and Norman Lear’s People for the American Way.
Several denominations were listed on a flyer as co-sponsors of the demonstrations, including the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the American Baptist Churches. Another prominent co-sponsor was the mainline denomination-supported Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), which had a table set up in the church narthex to distribute pins, bumper stickers, and brochures.
The Presbyterian Church (USA) was not listed as a co-sponsor – which has been fending off criticism of its General Assembly votes against Israel for the Iraq war and for partial-birth abortion – but the denomination’s Presbytery of New York was.
Interfaith themes were stressed during the rally at Riverside Church. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, approvingly quoted Riverside Church’s pastor, who “has often said that the next Great Awakening in this nation will be interfaith in nature.”
That pastor, James Forbes, inclusively told his audience that “if you don’t want to call it ‘God,'” there are several other names available. In wishing others to “be happy, well, and peaceful,” the Venerable T. Kenjitsu of the Buddhist Council of New York prayed for the well-being of plants, animals, and “leprechauns.”
A press release was distributed at the rally in which Forbes complained that the design of a podium used at the Republican Convention reminded him of a cross and declared that “[t]his blatant cooptation of the cross is an attempt by the right to present Christianity as representative of both God and America.” Few independent commentators took seriously the claims of some liberal activists that the podium conveyed a coded religious message.
Several speakers at the rally warned against dividing America along religious lines. They also denounced any attempt to distinguish between different “sexual orientations.” A lead musician for the evening was United Methodist homosexual activist Mark Miller. Forbes himself has recently been active in opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
But expanding the welfare state was a more dominant theme at the rally. Wanda Imasuen of Families United for Racial and Economic Equality cried, “We demand the [social] services that are entitled to us!” Joseph Hough, president of Union Seminary in New York, scolded “right-wing politicians” for allegedly underestimating the number of people who suffer from poverty.
Ethel Long-Scott of the “Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign” declared that “poverty is a human rights violation” and claimed there was an “undeclared war on the poor” in the United States.
We are “protesting the billions [of dollars] that are spent on this war, and not a dime on the poor!” Long-Scott exclaimed, in a remark that echoed the sentiments of Democrat John Kerry. She spoke of envisioning a world completely devoid of poverty, unemployment, addiction, and inadequate health care. Her demand was that U.S. political leaders “abolish poverty” and “not just ameliorate it.”
Long-Scott bragged that that her group’s march the previous evening, in which NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar participated, had been non-violent, which was what they had always intended. However, parts of her protest did get violent when some of the marchers tried to break through police barricades near the Republican Convention site, causing one plainclothes police officer to be hospitalized.
Welton Gaddy asked the crowd, “How can we spend billions [of dollars] on fighting a ‘War on Terror,’ but not enough to save people from the terror of poverty?”
Several rally speakers insisted, “We’re not partisan.” However, the overall tone of the event made it clear that this was an event of, by and for anti-Republican protesters. In addition to the political sectarianism of the official speeches, anti-Republican, anti-Bush, anti-war, and pro-abortion rights pins abounded amongst the New York rally participants. There was a marked contrast to a parallel “Let Justice Roll” rally organized in Boston during the Democratic National Convention. That rally included Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who were representing the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign, and nearly 300 Democratic convention delegates.
Near the beginning of his sermon, Forbes did announce that a Republican would always be welcome in his church, noting that a certain Republican (presumably, John D. Rockefeller Jr.) was instrumental in the building of Riverside Church. However, Forbes prefaced his invitation with the qualifying phrase, “If there’s a Republican in the house,” provoking chuckles at that unlikely possibility.
The press packet distributed at Riverside Church boasted that Forbes had been an official speaker at the Democratic Convention. The packet also included news releases touting the speech of former President Bill Clinton at the church the previous Sunday, when Clinton encouraged the congregation and Forbes to continue their political mobilizing.
According to the Palm Beach Post, Forbes has made it clear how he intends to be quasi-partisan in this campaign. He plans to avoid “call[ing] anybody’s name” with a direct endorsement of a candidate. But when the Riverside minister explains the “principles I think our faith would cause us to concentrate on,” he expects his audience to understand that he means for them to support the Democratic presidential nominee.
At the end of the rally inside the church, the participants streamed outside to join other anti-Republican protesters lining up along city sidewalks for a flashlight vigil (in lieu of a candlelight vigil). A press release from Riverside Church described the demonstration as “a symbolic chain to reconnect America with its spiritual, moral, and democratic values.” Some of the participants loudly sang Stop the War! to the tune of The Star Spangled Banner.