Right-Wing Pressure Forces Kerry’s Religion Advisor to Quit

News moves fast... two days ago I wrote that the new adviser for religious outreach to John Kerry's campaign was a supporter of Newdow's case against the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. The outrage from the Radical Christian Right has now forced Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson to resign.

The Kansas City Star reports:

"The whirlwind was more than I could just about stand. It was amazing," Peterson said Thursday. ... Blaming "recent negative publicity," Peterson resigned on Wednesday, saying, "I feel it is no longer possible for me to do my job effectively. I do not want my support of this case to serve as a distraction or ammunition for Republicans and their allies," Peterson said in a statement released to the media.

Peterson's resignation saddened many of her friends in Central Kentucky, where she lived until taking a job with the Clergy Leadership Network in Washington last year. The network is a liberal organization calling for "national leadership change" on Capitol Hill and at the White House.

"I think she probably made the necessary decision once a scurrilous and intemperate and irresponsible attack was leveled on her by a splinter right-wing Catholic group," said Clergy Leadership Network chief executive officer the Rev. Albert Pennybacker of Lexington. "It's a great loss for the DNC."

That “irresponsible attack” comment refers to attacks from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights which compared Peterson to being a “gay basher.” According to William Donohue, a person who insists on the strict separation of church and state, even if they are a devout Christian and a minister, is to other Christians what a gay basher is to homosexuals.

The Catholic League and other religious extremists say that the Democratic Party is “imploding” on religion — because they don’t accept radical and extremists religious beliefs like those which the Catholic League promotes. You see, you can’t be genuinely religious unless you agree with them. That’s part of what make them radical and extremists.

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