More controversy at NRB

The new president of the National Religious Broadcasters has offered to resign following a controversy over his effort to de-politicize the organization – a brouhaha first reported in WorldNetDaily, according to a statement to be distributed this weekend to the group's membership in Nashville, but even that seemingly simple, straightforward issue appears clouded in doubt.

Wayne Pederson had been scheduled to be installed as the president of the NRB this weekend at the group's annual national convention in Nashville, Tenn. Now the question is whether the organization's board will allow him to continue.

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Pederson ran into a hornet's nest of controversy after he gave an interview to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, his home town paper, in January in which he said he was concerned about the perception of the NRB as part of the "political right."

According to recent NRB executive committee minutes obtained by WorldNetDaily, Pederson has, in fact, been vacillating about whether to tender a resignation and now is leaning toward not leaving, which would likely force the full board into making a decision about his fate.

According to the minutes of a Jan. 23 meeting of the executive committee, Jerry Falwell, a powerful evangelical leader and WorldNetDaily columnist, told Pederson he would quietly leave NRB if the group changed direction – emphasizing only the spiritual rather than the socio-cultural-political issues that have partly defined the organization in recent years. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family Ministries, also told executive committee members he would withdraw from the organization and decline to speak at the opening session in Nashville if Pederson remains as president.

"But what's probably more disturbing to me is that evangelicals are identified politically more than theologically," Pederson told the Star Tribune. "We get associated with the far Christian right and marginalized. To me the important thing is to keep focus on what's important to us spiritually. We're all entitled to our political views, and evangelicals tend to gravitate toward more conservative politics, but sometimes in taking our stands we've allowed ourselves to be typecast and the effectiveness spiritually has been diminished."

Pederson went on to say, "There's an element in NRB that wants us to be politically oriented – to take stands on public issues, but that's not in our constitution. Our constitution says we're to make the Christian media as effective as it can be. We need not be pulled into the political arena."

Pederson's comments were met with a firestorm of protest from members of the NRB – including board members and members of the executive committee. A memo dated Feb. 12 from NRB Chairman Glenn R. Plummer says the executive committee voted 4-4 on whether to accept Pederson's resignation. Plummer cast the tie-breaking vote not to accept it, deferring the action to the full board.

But had Pederson actually offered his resignation? That is not clear from the minutes. What is clear is that he is vacillating – and hoping to make a comeback at the convention this weekend. There appear to have been at least two unanimous votes by the executive committee offering Pederson the opportunity to resign. As of last week, according to the minutes, he had still not made a final decision.

Pederson's original comments were criticized by many well-known Christian broadcasters, including Don Wildmon, president and founder of the American Family Association, Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy with James Dobson's Focus on the Family ministry, Richard Bott, president of Bott Radio Network, and Tim LaHaye, founder of Tim LaHaye Ministries and the best-selling author of the "Left Behind" series.

According to the executive committee minutes, Pederson believes the article in the Star Tribune took his words out of context. However, the NRB national office distributed copies of the article following its publication.

Pederson told the executive committee he has no desire to change the NRB's public policy profile.

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