I remember so well the founding days of IRD. We were such a small and humble organization, so few of us, so lightly funded. Yet we had strong hearts, bold ambitions, and lots and lots of good information. As anyone can guess, Richard John Neuhaus (from New York) was the leading spirit, the intellectual guide. He was still a Lutheran then and loved to nail manifestoes on Cathedral doors.
So he nailed up the founding manifesto of IRD, telling how the key democratic ideas of human dignity, equality, fraternity and liberty flowed from Christian roots and Christian understandings. And he expressed shock – SHOCK – at how many of our local parishes were using materials that attacked democracy, coming out of the National Council of Churches on Riverside Drive, New York. Anti-Democratic materials, such as:
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