As president of an ecumenical think tank devoted to helping people form a social and political witness rooted in historic Christian teaching, I think a lot about the intersection of faith and democracy. But my views on these matters were shaped, in part, by books I read as a young man.
While in college, I read The Betrayal of the Church (Crossway 1986) by United Methodist evangelist Edmund Robb and his journalist daughter Julia Robb. The book documented how the mainline denominations, unbeknownst to most laity, were funding Marxist objectives informed by liberation theology. Ed Robb co-founded the Institute on Religion & Democracy (IRD), which since 1981 has made Christian arguments for democracy, human rights, and religious freedom.
The Robbs’ book covered all seven then-still influential mainline Protestant denominations, but most obnoxious to me as a United Methodist was their coverage of how my denomination’s New York–based missions board had largely replaced evangelism with radical politics, including support for the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Marxist rebels in El Salvador, and similar revolutionary groups in the Philippines and elsewhere.
For hardcore liberation theology advocates, the Sandinistas and similar regimes were ushering in God’s kingdom. But as the Robbs argued, Marxist dreams of an egalitarian society resulted in suppression of basic human rights, including religious freedom, freedom of speech, and trial by jury. Their book inspired me to alert United Methodist congregations in Virginia about where their dollars were going. This volunteer activism eventually led to my full-time employment with the IRD.
(Read the article here.)
Comment by Gary Bebop on May 19, 2025 at 4:44 pm
Mark Tooley has been in an honorable fight. But the UMC hasn’t treated him with much dignity. The clergy who were persuaded in support of the Sandinistas castigated the IRD, and the Good News Coalition and lined up with Marxists and linked arms with the Rainbow Reich. The UMC appears committed to that relationship “till death us do part.” Ironically, the corruption of that commitment is being exposed for its true nature.
Mark Tolley’s Christian patriotism is being vindicated.
Comment by Tim Ware on May 19, 2025 at 11:02 pm
Liberation Theology was still being taught as Gospel-truth in mainline seminaries in the early 2000’s. Required readings in a variety of courses included many Marxist (and non-Christian) authors. If you wanted to be accepted by the denominational authorities, you had to conform. Students were indoctrinated and then sent out into unsuspecting congregations, which, judging by the declining numbers, they promptly destroyed, believing they were doing God’s work. Sad.