Diane Knippers Dies at 53; Strategist for Christian Right

[Roland99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/23/politics/23knippers.html?oref=login

Diane Knippers, a religious strategist who helped conservative Christians raise an increasingly loud and unified voice in the traditionally liberal bastions of mainline Protestantism in recent years, died on Monday in Arlington, Va. She was 53.

The cause was cancer, according to the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a small but influential Washington group, of which Mrs. Knippers, a laywoman, was the longtime president.

The institute is a resource center for conservative members of the mainline denominations - primarily the Presbyterian, Methodist and Episcopal Churches - disaffected by their churches' policies, especially on sexuality.

When the Episcopal Church consecrated its first gay bishop in 2003, Mrs. Knippers, a member of the church's Standing Commission on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, helped lay the groundwork for a rebellion that threatens to split the church.

[raysr]

1. Hope she

wasn't disappointed.

[charlyvi]

2. This calls for a really funny Rapture joke,

but I'm a bigger person than that.

[jaysunb]

No...please express

yourself. :evilgrin:

oops , intended to reply to post above.

[rodeodance]

4. I hope her God is ready for her.

[Straight Shooter]

3. Well, I hope she didn't suffer too much.

Now let's see what other head pops up on the Hydra to replace her.

[yorkiemommie1]

10. there sure seems to be an endless supply of them!

n/t

[Roland99]

5. I can picture the wake now

Person A: "But we were praying so hard for her to recover."

Person B: "Well, God has his plan."

[nine30]

6. RIP

In accordance with her Karma, she will share a bunk bed in Heaven(or Hell) with a departed-from-earth homosexual, who will give her a proper "Orientation".

[RPM]

15. couldnt have said it better myself

:-)

[nine30]

17. Well..

..it didn't sound good, and I try not to speak ill of, or welcome death upon, anybody.

[RPM]

18. uhhh - were you responding to my post...

before the one above was edited or after?

I'll stand behind the original, but not the statement as edited.

Yes - when i see an enemy die, i am happy. EoD.

[nine30]

21. Before..

..to your reply to my earlier succinct comment. :-)

[RPM]

19. there you go changing on me....

you're killin' me

[Dogmudgeon]

28. I don't believe it

A prison rape joke -- about the afterlife!

This is one "meme" that has gotten way out of control.

--p!

[siliconefreak]

7. damn...

and Anita Bryant is still alive, as far as I know.

[murielm99]

8. This woman did her best to destabilize mainstream

denominations, and dreamed of making all Protestants marched in conservative lockstep.

Leave her to heaven. Let her try to create schisms there.

[deadparrot]

9. May she RIP.

I may have loathed what she stood for, but I'll give the dead a little respect.

[punpirate]

11. I believe that the underground sluice of money...

... to her organization comes from no less than Howard F. Ahmanson....

[kcass1954]

12. Hope it wasn't a cancer that might have been helped by...

stem cell research.

[FreepFryer]

13. She has finished moving into the 4th layer of Hell, where Muslims will

have to watch her undress as part of THEIR Hell.

RIP, Broomhilda.

[Maat]

14. May she rest in peace.

And I'm twisting my own arm to say that.

I hope that her own destructive negative Kharma didn't bring this on.

I've helped my friends visit and join congregations that promote progressive values, and that has helped them heal from this kind of destructiveness.

Peace and Blessings to All DUers,

[burrowowl]

27. Of course

she could spend a little time in purgatory.

[SangamonTaylor]

16. What small, influential liberal Washington group do us Presbyterians have?

What small, influential Washington group do us mainline Presbyterians have for the advancement of liberal causes?

I almost feel bad saying this, but as a Presbyterian, I'd really like to know where our voice is. I usually don't like it when people of faith wear their religion on their sleeve (guess that's typical of my denomination)...but it's just bothersome that most people I know (including many people I really care about) think that everyone who is a Christian is a right-wing nutjob who is hell-bent on damnation of the sinners.

I'd honestly like to know. I know of a group called More Light Presbyterians, and of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians...but they seem to be more one-issue organizations (sexuality).

I guess I don't need some insider organization. I have my church. We believe in keeping the environment clean, lifting people out of poverty, providing healthcare for everyone, feeding the hungy (across the world and with our local food bank), building houses, preventing domestic violence, and alcohol and drug addition, opposing war, and the death penalty, and furthering social justice. I have my church.

[jdj]

20. and I thought only the good died young.... n/t

[Judi Lynn]

22. Oh, dear. Her husband is Edward Knippers, Christian artist

This is one of his whatchamacallits, er, "triptychs"...


http://www.askart.com/artist/K/edward_knippers.asp?ID=101796

Another:

http://www-stu.calvin.edu/chimes/991022/ae_03.html

Article on Diane Knippers:

.....In February, she was ranked by Time magazine as one of the nation's "25 most influential evangelicals," alongside James Dobson of Focus on the Family, the Rev. Rick Warren of The Purpose-Driven Life and evangelists Billy and Franklin Graham.

"IRD is starting to have the kind of impact that think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institution enjoy," evangelical scholar Randall Balmer told Time in its Feb. 7 cover story.

Knippers was not, however, without controversy. When IRD published a scathing report last September about mainline churches' policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the National Council of Churches accused Knippers of playing "partisan secular politics."

Knippers and the IRD often accused the NCC and the Geneva-based World Council of Churches of leftist political activity, and urged member churches to yank funding to both bodies.
(snip/...)

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/116/23.0.html

[Zhade]

23. No loss to humanity.

Condolences to her family. That's all I'll say.

[VegasWolf]

24. Isn't the term "Christian Right" an oxymoron? n/t

[cyr330]

25. Oh dear. . . .

I hope she's paying for her behavior on earth, and I must admit that I wish her lots of ill will.

[VegasWolf]

26. She's worm food. She's not doing or paying crap. n/t

[Rainscents]

29. You mean... God didn't heal her cancer???

I thought, since she was good christan, God would heal of her cancer. Maybe she forgot to pray hard.

[ima_sinnic]

30. good riddance

and no I don't "respect" the dead who did not earn respect in life.
karmic justice will be her reincarnation as a gay person who ends up in a "Christian" re-education gulag.

[NVMojo]

31. I wish she'd be reincarnated as a poor child of color born to a crack mom.

That could help her soul learn a thing or two she didn't learn while here on her last round ...

[Piperay]

32. No comment

'if you can't say something good about someone dead yada yada yada'...so I have no comment.

[apple_ridge]

33. It looks like someone didn't pray hard enough......