Users outfox Washington Office by opposing lobbying messages
The Layman Online, February 18, 2003
Some Presbyterians have begun using the Washington Office’s high-tech Web site to lobby against the political views of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The backfire has caused consternation in the Washington Office, where the lobbying agency’s executive director intercepted a message to members of Congress and called the letter-writer to defend her agency.
The Washington Office purchased for its Web site a lobbying tool called CapWiz, which allows users to send e-letters to President George W. Bush and members of Congress on such issues as possible military intervention in Iraq.
The Washington Office installed the service hoping that Presbyterians would flood Congress with letters that repeat the agency’s left-leaning political views. All a user would have to do is fill in his name, address, e-mail and zip code. The zip code selects the names of the user’s U.S. senators and representative.
But not everybody is dutifully sending the prescribed letters. The Layman Online has received notice from two writers who composed their own letters that were contrary to the Washington Office’s views.
The following is one such letter (the writer asked not to be identified).
- You may be contacted from time to time from the Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), who lobby for the denomination.
- It is of great concern to many Presbyterians that the PCUSA Washington Office does not at all speak for our concerns. Instead, the office seems quite captive to a marriage of liberal theology and liberal politics, which do not necessarily go together.
- The office is not being deceptive, but they may leave the impression that Presbyterians are lined up in massive support of their office. Just the opposite is true: In most cases, the direction the Washington Office of the PCUSA advocates is usually just the opposite of the viewpoint of the majority of Presbyterians, although it may ostensibly be the policy pressed through some agency.
- In other words: When you receive something from the Washington Office of the PCUSA, nearly always the majority of Presbyterians are actually on the OTHER side of the issue. Just thought I’d warn you!
Eleanor Ivory Giddings, the director of the Washington Office, read the letter and contacted the writer by phone to defend her agency.
Thus, the letter writer said he learned “that a third party was reading private communications between a citizen and his representatives. There was no warning, so I got on her case and forced her to put the warning that’s now on the letter template, so that people writing Congress now will know that the Washington Office can and will read their letters.”
After that conversation, users are now warned that members of the Washington Office staff may take a peek at what you wrote. This warning has been added to the site: “Your e-mail messages to Congress are stored in a system that PCUSA Washington Office associates have access to, and from time to time your letters to Congress may be read by us, as we gauge public interest in our E-Serve system.”
Jim Kettlewell of Canton, Ohio, also outfoxed the Washington Office’s Internet CapWiz system. Kettlewell shunned the Washington Office’s letters and sent the following to his congressional representatives (along with a copy to The Layman Online):
- Please pay no attention to messages from Presbyterian Church officials who have no understanding of the threats posed by Iraq.
- The leaders of my denomination who are promoting extreme pacifism are an embarrassment to me, and I urge you to have the resolve to support our president and the overwhelming majority of our allies who stand with us against the threat Iraq poses.
- I support the use of the military forces of the US and its allies in eliminating the Iraqi threats to US security and the security of all peace-loving nations.