by Dean Snyder…

The Institute on Religion and Democracy has crossed a line. They targeted a preacher who agreed to speak at Foundry Church not because of anything she said or did but simply because she agreed to preach at Foundry.

Sure, Foundry Church in Washington, DC, has some commitments and opinions that IRD disagrees with. We are a reconciling congregation and favor the full inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians in the life, rituals and leadership of our churches. We minister with Hispanic day laborers, helping them organize, and we support United Methodist efforts to figure out humane immigration policies. We work with the Washington Interfaith Network on its efforts to cap the interest rates lenders are allowed to charge. I understand IRD may have some strong opinions on these matters of faith and ethics that are different from ours.

This summer Foundry Church is engaged in “A Summer of Great Discernment.” We are trying to decide how to deal with the reality that same gender marriage is now legal in Washington, DC, and some of our gay and lesbian members want to get married by their pastor in their church. I understand IRD has a strong opinion about this.

There are also things that I assume IRD and Foundry agree about. Foundry is deeply committed to evangelism. Two Sundays ago 24 persons, some of them previously unchurched, joined our congregation. While we respect other religions, we regularly do adult baptisms, including persons who grew up in other religions. We are very concerned about Africa. Like IRD, we certainly support religious freedom.

For a number of years now Foundry has hosted an outstanding preaching series during the month of July. We invite persons who have the gift of preaching to speak in our pulpit each Sunday during the month of July. We do not assign them a topic but ask them to bring the message God gives them for us.

Foundry loves good preaching. The congregation is tolerant of me, but if any of our guest preachers fall short of their expectations, I hear about it. I am careful to make sure to invite preachers who can really preach.

More than a year ago, before anybody had any inkling that same gender marriage would become legal in our city, I decided to invite four bishops to preach this July. Here’s a secret. While most bishops are solid preachers, not all bishops are outstanding preachers. I chose very carefully.

Bishop John Schol is a very fine preacher and also happens to be our bishop, so I invited him. Bishop Woodie White, bishop in residence at Candler Seminary, preached the most famous sermon ever preached during my lifetime at a United Methodist General Conference. I invited him.

I listen to a lot of podcasts of sermons while walking to work or jogging on the treadmill at the gym, maybe 6 or 7 a week. One of my favorite podcasts is the midweek Lenten preaching series at Calvary Church in downtown Memphis. During Lent 2009 one of the preachers for the series was the Episcopalian bishop of New Hampshire, Bishop V. Gene Robinson. His sermon was excellent. One of the pluses of inviting him would be that the gay members of our congregation would get to hear an openly gay bishop preach but I invited him because he is a strong preacher.

I asked everyone I know for suggestions of other bishops who are excellent preachers. One of the names I heard over and over was Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, the United Methodist bishop of Mississippi. She had been an urban pastor for many years, and Foundry is an urban church. Her conference has attracted more young adults into ordained ministry than any other bishop in the country, and Foundry is an increasingly young adult congregation. I invited her.

The Sunday that Bishop Robinson preached, a staff writer from IRD was in the congregation. He wrote a fairly accurate report on the bishop’s sermon.

IRD’s misstep happened when Mark Tooley, IRD’s executive director, sent out his weekly fund-raising email. Here’s how Mark began his email:

Last Sunday, famously liberal Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., once home church of Bill and Hillary Clinton, hosted openly homosexual New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson. Foundry is thinking about blessing same-sex unions, thereby violating United Methodist rules. And of course, Robinson was cheering them on.

Mark continued to criticize Bishop Robinson. He wrote about another Episcopalian bishop he’d heard speak at Foundry years ago whom he also disagreed with. Then he wrote this:

This Sunday, United Methodist Bishop Hope Morgan Ward of Mississippi will speak at Foundry Church. She ignited enormous controversy by featuring a lesbian couple at her annual conference last year. What will she say this year? Why is she at Foundry Church? Stay tuned!

Bishop Ward’s sermon had nothing to do with the issue of marriage equality. We hadn’t invited her to address the topic and didn’t expect her to. We had invited her long before it was an issue here in Washington. We knew, given her background, she was more likely to address urban ministry and homelessness, which is exactly what she did.

Why did IRD target her just for agreeing to preach at Foundry? Well, the clue is in how Mark Tooley ended his fund-raising email: “Your gift of $10, $25, $50, or more means that ultra-liberal church officials will not go unchallenged!”

I’d bet Mark thinks he’ll take in a lot of contributions from United Methodists in Mississippi and the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church … simply because Bishop Ward accepted an invitation to preach at the same church that had also invited a gay bishop to preach. This supposedly makes her an enemy of traditionalists and a threat to orthodoxy?

Why did Mark single out Bishop Ward and not other speakers in the series? A pastor friend from Florida, when he saw the fundraising letter, noticed this and emailed me his thought. “I guess,” he wrote, “it is easier to pick on a woman.”

When Mark Tooley was promoted to the executive director position at IRD I sent him a note congratulating him. I said in the note that I think it is important that conservative mainline Christians have an articulate and thoughtful voice for their positions.

I think IRD could be such a voice. But I think IRD underestimates its supporters. I really don’t think IRD needs to use innuendo and polarization to raise money. I don’t think it has to caricature bishops and other church leaders to raise money.

I think that if IRD were to articulate clear and reasonable conservative perspectives in a non-polemical way, it would get the financial support it needs. I don’t think IRD needs to target people or polarize and caricature to raise money.

I have invited speakers to Foundry who probably do not agree with our stance as a reconciling congregation, but they share other passions with us – ending homelessness, Africa, reaching people for Christ. Do I now have to warn everyone I invite to speak at Foundry that they may be targeted if they accept the invitation?

The Sunday Bishop Ward spoke at Foundry, at the end of the service I told the congregation that IRD had targeted our preacher of the morning merely because she had agreed to preach at Foundry. I said IRD had crossed a line and that we needed to respond in the strongest way possible. I asked the congregation to raise their hands toward IRD’s offices which are a few blocks away from our church and to pray with me.

We prayed that IRD’s offices might be flooded with grace. I know when I am tempted by the sin of cynicism, this is what helps me. Grace and more grace. This is our prayer for IRD.

Dean Snyder is the senior minister of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington DC.