New Clergy Group Mobilizes Against Bush Administration

November 14, 2003

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/17/politics/17CLER.html?ei=5070&en=0a8c3023499b78ec&ex=1070773200&pagewanted=print&position=

On November 14, 2003 The New York Times reported that "in an effort to counter the influence of conservative Christian organizations, a coalition of moderate and liberal religious leaders is starting a political advocacy organization to mobilize voters in opposition to Bush administration policies. The nonprofit organization, the Clergy Leadership Network, plans to formally announce its formation on Friday and will operate from an expressly religious, expressly partisan point of view. The group cannot, under Internal Revenue Service guidelines, endorse political candidates, and it will have no official ties to the Democratic Party... The new group's roughly 25-member committee is predominantly composed of Protestant Christians. It includes prominent figures like the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, who was a leader in the Civil Rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement, and the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, former general secretary of the National Council of Churches. The founding group also includes Catholic and Jewish members, and organizers said they hoped to draw Muslim members as well. "