NCC Relies on Liberal Foundations

From Orthodoxy Today:
The National Council of Churches (NCC) now receives more funding from private foundations, most of them secular and politically liberal, than from its member denominations, it was revealed at its fall 2005 Governing Board meeting.

Founded nearly 60 years ago, the council is America's oldest and largest ecumenical organization. It claims to speak for over 45 million church members who belong to its 35 member denominations.

"Some may think that foundation money dilutes our responsibility to the churches," NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar preemptively commented at the meeting. But he insisted that the money was spent on church-based programs. He also commented defensively that the foundations have "people of faith" on their boards.

[…]The foundations include the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Tides Foundation, the Better World Fund, the Sierra Club, the AARP, the Ocean Conservancy, and the National Religious Partnership on the Environment. Almost all of the grants went for the NCC's political work, especially in favor of stricter environmental regulations. Other council programs receiving substantial support included its "multilateralism" project opposing U.S. foreign policy and its "FaithfulAmerica" website and action program, which attempted to increase liberal voter turn-out during last year's elections.

Please read the whole article yourself. Any comments I make will overstep the bounds of Christian charity; my thoughts are enough to require confession. I've been snarky enough this week as it is, and have been properly chastised for it.

Can you imagine the uproar there would be if the Southern Baptists were found to be financed by Republican front groups, or – gasp – Halliburton? I suspect there are plenty of “people of faith” there too.

I have got to stop reading stuff like this – it is killing me both physically and spiritually - but I don’t know how to get away from it. I can’t join a monastery. (a) I’m married, and I don’t think Lovely-and-Faithful wife would appreciate it; and (b) they don’t pay enough to get Beloved-but-Expensive daughter through school. I can’t afford a desert island, and I don’t know how to run a ‘Roo Ranch in the Outback, by Crikey. Oh well…