Interfaith Alliance

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For Immediate Release
Contact: Ari Geller - Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications  202-265-3000

WASHINGTON, March 15 —At its National Leadership Gathering in Nashville, The Interfaith Alliance, a nonpartisan grassroots organization representing more than 150,000 members of various faith traditions, presented the 6^th Annual Bishop P. Francis Murphy Local Activism award to The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado for its advocacy and educational work throughout the state.

The award honors the memory of Bishop Murphy, an Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore, and founding board member of The Interfaith Alliance, who believed passionately that religion can be a constructive and healing force in public life.

Accepting the award for TIA Colorado were Sister Maureen McCormack (Order of Loretto), President of TIA Colorado, and Sigrid Higdon, board member of TIA Colorado.

"Bishop Murphy's passion for social justice and his tireless commitment to the role of religion as a constructive and healing force in public life is an inspiration to our chapter and to people across many faith traditions,” McCormack said. “Through this award, The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado hopes to connect with his courage and his wisdom."

Presenting the award, the Rev. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance, cited the chapter’s outstanding grassroots work and public awareness of religious freedom.

“We are a national organization, but our real work is done in the grassroots,” Gaddy said.  “We are thankful to have a group in Colorado which recognizes the threat religious liberty is facing and is willing to stand up and fight to preserve rights for all Americans.”

In 2005, TIA Colorado opened interfaith dialogue on Islam, participated in statewide coalitions and lobbied to restore funding to healthcare and education.  TIA Colorado also advocated to protect the filibuster and oppose a federal budget cut that would harm programs providing food stamps, student loans and health care to those in need.

• For more information on the Bishop Murphy Award and past recipients, go to www.interfaithalliance.org.

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The Interfaith Alliance celebrates religious freedom by championing individual rights, promoting policies that protect both religion and democracy, and uniting diverse voices to challenge extremism. Founded in 1994, the Interfaith Alliance has 185,000 members across the country from 75 faith traditions as well as those without a faith tradition. For more information visit www.interfaithalliance.org.

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For Immediate Release
Contact: Ari Geller - Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications  202-265-3000

Washington, March 10 – This Sunday on "State of Belief," best-selling author Chris Hedges talks with the Rev. Welton Gaddy about the dangerous intersection of religion and nationalism in America. In his weekly review of religion in the news, Welton declares that insanity has taken hold across the nation.

Also on the show:

-          Patty and Terry Laban, creators of the nationally syndicated comic strip Edge City, say that incorporating their faith into the comic strip broadened their audience;

-          The Rev. Tim Carson, Senior Minister of Webster Groves Christian Church in St Louis expresses alarm at Missouri’s attempt to establish Christianity as the official state religion; and

-          Commentary from the Rev. Dr. Joseph C. Hough, Jr., president of Union Theological Seminary.

“There’s no other way to put it: insanity takes hold across the nation,” Welton says. “Missouri’s trying to establish a state religion; Kentucky’s attempting a religious test for public office; and South Dakota is banning abortion -- except for ‘religious virgins,’ of course.”

Hedges tells Welton that the religious right is similar to "the intolerant and totalitarian movements I've covered in Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe….The religious right in this country is really about the destruction of reality-based media....The hard right wants the destruction of institutions that can engage in self-criticism."

A religion scholar, war correspondent, and Harvard Divinity School graduate, Hedges is the author of “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” and “Losing Moses on the Freeway.”

Welton also comments on:

-          Jerry Falwell and Gary Bauer now allowing Jews to enter Heaven;

-          President Bush taking another whack at the wall separating religion and government;

-          California’s Cardinal Mahony vowing to defy the law if Congress requires houses of worship to deny help to anyone lacking government documentation.

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The Interfaith Alliance celebrates religious freedom by championing individual rights, promoting policies that protect both religion and democracy, and uniting diverse voices to challenge extremism. Founded in 1994, the Interfaith Alliance has 185,000 members across the country from 75 faith traditions as well as those without a faith tradition. For more information visit www.interfaithalliance.org.

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For Immediate Release
Contact: Ari Geller - Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications  202-265-3000

(Washington, DC) – In response to the Missouri State Legislature’s Resolution (HCR 13) endorsing Christianity as the state’s official religion, the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance released the following statement:

“This Resolution is not about religion.  It’s about politics.  In grade school, we are taught that in matters of faith, government must not take sides.  This seems to have been lost on the sponsors of this Resolution. Surely those who have read their history know that government’s endorsement of religion is a death knell to religious liberty.  They are doing no service to Christianity or to the inter-religious community of this nation.

“When reading the Missouri State Legislature Resolution endorsing Christianity as the state’s official religion, it’s hard to suppress the images and feelings I once knew growing up in the segregated South.  The Civil Rights movement began because this country had sent a message to those who were different, that they didn’t belong.  Decades earlier, our country did the same thing in denying women the right to vote.  Today, Missouri legislators are denying equal rights and opportunities to their own residents whose religious beliefs and practices are different from those of the majority.  No citizen’s rights or opportunities should ever depend on their, or anyone else’s, religious beliefs or practices, period.

“When will we finally heed history’s lessons that denying Americans their basic rights, because they are considered different is un-American? Missouri is the ‘Show Me’ state and for the sake of present and future generations, I urge the residents of this great state to show the rest of the country they will not tolerate such blatant prejudice on the part of those they chose to represent them.  Tell the Christian Right, ‘You’re not going to steal our government; you do not speak for me.’  At the end of the day, if there is not freedom from the imposition of religion, there is no religious freedom.”

LINK TO RESOLUTION
http://www.house.mo.gov/bills061/biltxt/intro/HCR0013I.htm

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The Interfaith Alliance celebrates religious freedom by championing individual rights, promoting policies that protect both religion and democracy, and uniting diverse voices to challenge extremism. Founded in 1994, the Interfaith Alliance has 185,000 members across the country from 75 faith traditions as well as those without a faith tradition. For more information visit www.interfaithalliance.org.

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For Immediate Release
Contact: Ari Geller - Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications  202-265-3000

Washington, February 24– In response to the Internal Revenue Service report released today, which examines partisan political activity by tax-exempt organizations during the 2004 election cycle and lays out new guidelines and procedures for the 2006 elections identifying which types of political activities might jeopardize the tax-exempt status of houses of worship, The Interfaith Alliance released the following comments by the Rev. Dr. Welton Gaddy, leader of the interfaith movement’s national advocacy voice.

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“In recent elections, we have witnessed and alerted Americans to the increased manipulation of religion by political groups for partisan political purposes and manipulation of government by religious groups for sectarian purposes,” Gaddy said.

“These activities threaten the sanctity of religion and damage the integrity of our democracy.

“Religious leaders should speak to moral issues in a non-partisan manner, not attempt to control government or influence who is elected.  They must not use their freedom of speech to divide their congregations -- or America -- with partisan political activity. Houses of worship have a vital role to play at election time, informing and educating on issues. It is good to urge congregants to vote, however, they must not be told how to vote. 

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The Interfaith Alliance celebrates religious freedom by championing individual rights, promoting policies that protect both religion and democracy, and uniting diverse voices to challenge extremism. Founded in 1994, the Interfaith Alliance has 185,000 members across the country from 75 faith traditions as well as those without a faith tradition. For more information visit www.interfaithalliance.org.