Americans United -- Wolves or Sheep?
Commentary by Kerry Messer

   On November 13-14, 1994 Americans United for Separation of Church and
State (AU) held their 47th National Conference at the International
Vista Hotel in Washington D.C. The conference was entitled _Public
Schools Under Assault -- Why The Religious Right Must Lose!_

    For two long days, Roger Moran and I sat, listened, talked, taped
and photographed more leaders of the Religious Left than most people see
in a lifetime. Roger and I have spent quite some time researching and
exposing the impact that extremist groups like the American Humanist
Association (AHA), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the
Communist Party USA have had on national politics and our society.

   Through our research we were greatly disturbed to find how deeply the
radical Left had infiltrated and influenced so many of the churches in
America. Not a single religious denomination seems to have eluded their
impact.

   For instance, James Dunn, a prominent AU Trustee and Executive
Director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs (BJC), has
developed close ties to the Clinton administration in support of
Clinton's radical social agendas. Keep in mind the BJC (the primary
founder of AU), has represented as many as 10 Baptist denominations
across the nation with memberships in the millions.

   Dunn, an outspoken critic of the Religious Right, has consistently
aligned his organization with the radical Left. Some examples include:
sharing the platform with a Wiccan (witchcraft) Priestess and the
director of "Lesbian and Gay Concerns" of the Unitarian Universalist
Association; recommending as "must reading" a book authored by the
chairman of the American Humanist Association; and leading in the
production of a manual on how to defeat the Religious Right on the
community level. (See _Friends and Allies of AU_ article, pg. 16).

   In this special report, put together as an exclusive for the _St.
Louis MetroVoice_, we have combined a series of articles and charts
covering AU's recent National Conference on church/ state separation,
and exposing what AU's agenda is really all about.

   While most, if not all, Bible-believing Christians believe in the
principle of keeping the institutions of church and state separate to
allow both the church and the state to operate within their proper
spheres of authority, this is not what separation of church and state
means to Americans United and their allies on the left.

   What they are really about is eradicating the influence of
conservative, Bible-believing Christians in American society. According
to AU and friends, Christians who focus on the fundamentals of the faith
-- the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, the blood atonement, the
bodily resurrection of Christ, sin, repentance, salvation by grace
through faith, etc. -- are the root of America's problems, causing
"social fragmentation," "political divisiveness," and social division
along religious lines. Such Christians -- the Religious Right -- AU
proudly proclaims, "must be stopped."

   Over the years, AU has cleverly framed their issues and articulated
well their arguments, even to the point that many Christians sincerely
committed to religious freedom have fallen prey to the deceit of the
most radical elements within American politics.

   For AU, religious liberty begins with a Constitutional mandate that
all government institutions, agencies and employees refrain from
acknowledging God in any way, shape or form. For the radical Left to
demand such a thing is nothing new, the Bible says:

   "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
   God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which
   are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness,
   fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of
   envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters,
   haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil
   things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant
   breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful"
   (Romans 1:28-31)

   America was once committed to the conviction that "Blessed is the
nation whose God is the Lord." We governed ourselves by the biblical
principle that "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to
any people." However, the exposing of sin and the concept of repentance
has long been replaced with demands for "tolerance," a human virtue now
considered higher than proclaiming truth.

   It is time to expose the false prophets and wolves in sheep's
clothing that have ravaged so many of our churches and taken captive so
many of God's people. It is clearly time for God's people to stand up
and proclaim the whole council of God -- whether it's politically
correct or not!

From: St. Louis MetroVoice, May 1995, Vol. 5, No. 5.

