Actually, these are the people who lent their meeting facilities to bring in speakers to raise public awareness about the issues involving the school board's more controversial actions.

The pastors and governing boards didn't take public positions themselves, but they did allow some of us working together to use their fellowship halls to hold candidate debates and roundtable discussions, with the proviso that they be balanced and non-partisan. Privately, there was a lot of support for free discussion and quite a bit of disapproval for any public statements vilifying or demeaning people out of ignorance or fear. I found this very instructive, because it made me re-examine the way I evaluated my ideas and other people's.

The group in power attended other churches, which tended to say things like "Some Catholics are very nice people but they're going to Hell anyway," and, "The Bible says the world is 6,000 years old, and I believe God before I'd believe an atheist scientist." There were two members of the old school board who attended churches preaching this kind of theology but who nevertheless behaved in a way that demonstrated respect for viewpoints other than their own. These two were not voted off the board, became important swing votes on more controversial issues, and gave the extremely conservative churches public representatives who were respected by a wide range of citizens outside of their congregations.

(I recall one conversation I had with one of those board members outside after a meeting, in which he asked me about my religious beliefs. You develop personal relationships with adversaries after a while, and he was curious without being obnoxious or confrontational. So I explained that, though I found the proof of God's existence to be less than adequate, no one had proved the non-existence of God to my satisfaction either. "So I have no faith, only hope," I said, "and if there is a God and He wants me to believe, I guess something will come up." Andy smiled broadly, chuckled, and said, "That sounds an awful lot like faith to me!" Then we said good night. :) )

Far left politicians and activists would not recognize the peace church congregations as liberals, but I believe that they represent liberal applications of traditional Christianity at its best. If I believed in God, I'd join. I think they'd accept me even though I don't believe, but I don't think of churches as the spiritual equivalent of the Rotary, so I kind-of can't. ;)

Regards--
Mary Anne