Kersten's IRD connection highlighted in Strib
One of those questions that bugs the hell out of me is why the Star Tribune retains a theocrat like Katherine Kersten to write ostensibly 'local' commentary that is little more than thinly veiled rhetoric for the extreme religious right.
Kersten has written a number of pieces like this one, highly critical of mainstream religious efforts to promote diversity. This should come as little surprise to anyone who knows from whence this poisonous woman hails. Kersten sits on the advisory board of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), a right wing political action group dedicated to undermining and destroying the social witness of mainstream denominations such as the Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and United Church of Christ. The IRD privately funds and supports fundamentalist splinter factions in each of these churches, in much the same way that Tehran funds Islamist groups in moderate Arab nations.
So bravo for a the group of retired United Methodist clergy who responded today with a sharp expose of Kersten's tactics.