The Family Research Council has asked pastors in its “Watchmen on the Wall” network to distribute a bulletin insert to members of their churches this month. The insert “introduces readers to the ministry of Family Research Council, recaps a busy and successful year, and offers ways people can partner with us,” reads the email from Kenyn Cureton, FRC’s vice president for church ministries.
The two-sided bulletin insert is basically a promotional flyer that extolls FRC’s lobbying and public relations operations, as well as its church ministries. It encourages readers to become a “STAND Member”—a monthly donor—and “join like-minded believers to transform America.”
Pushing for the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh is the first bullet point on a list of things about which FRC says “we thank God for all that He allowed us to accomplish through the prayers and partnership of faithful supporters.”
The same email from Cureton offers pastors a few sample sermons they might use during the Christmas season, complete with PowerPoint presentations. Not surprisingly, there are some political messages woven in to celebrations of the Bible’s Christmas narrative. One contains this uplifting passage: “If man is so smart, and man is so wise, then tell me why we allow one black robed bully to overturn the will of multiplied thousands, tell me why we celebrate what God calls an abomination, tell me why we kill thousands of babies in the womb every day?”
There’s a potential downside to this approach: political topics are not as timeless as the Christmas story. Conservative pastors planning to save some sermon prep time by using one of the FRC sermons should be careful to read ahead for necessary updating. Otherwise, they might invoke the wrath of their Trump-adoring congregants if they utter this phrase from a sermon prepared in December 2016, even though it is more accurate now than when originally written: “We’re facing two more years of an Imperial President who has little regard for the rule of law. How can we prevail over that?”
FRC opposes LGBTQ equality and reproductive choice. It describes itself as committed to religious liberty, but its leaders have argued that Muslims—and even liberal Christians—don’t deserve the same religious liberty protections that “orthodox” Christians do.
