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A United Methodist Insight Exclusive
Dozens of former United Methodist Reporter newspaper subscribers were startled and angry during the week of May 12 to receive unsolicited email from the ultraconservative Institute on Religion & Democracy's UM Action committee urging them to "Help Keep Renegade Bishop from Wrecking United Methodism!"
The mailing also dismayed the owners of the current digital incarnation of the United Methodist Reporter, causing its executive editor to investigate whether the new publication was being misrepresented.
The UMAction mailing, signed by IRD president Mark Tooley, targeted retired Bishop Melvin G. Talbert, who last fall performed a religious wedding ceremony for a gay couple in Birmingham, Ala., against the wishes of the resident episcopal leader, Bishop Deborah Wallace-Padgett and the Council of Bishops. Bishop Talbert is a leading proponent of a campaign called "Biblical Obedience" through which several United Methodist clergy have vowed to perform same-sex marriages in defiance of The United Methodist Church's prohibitions against such ceremonies. Bishop Talbert is currently under investigation by the Council of Bishops for having violated the Book of Discipline, the churchwide covenant containing United Methodist doctrine and policies.
The UMAction mailing apparently went to former Reporter newspaper subscribers throughout the United States. In the Dallas area, members and pastors of two prominent LGBT-friendly congregations, Northaven UMC and St. Stephen UMC, told UM Insight they were particularly upset by the unsolicited IRD mailing. Church members said they were as angry that their mailing information had been sold without their permission as they were incensed by the inflammatory language and approach used in the mailing itself (see accompanying photos).
To be removed from UMAction's mailing list, call (202) 682-4131 or e-mail info@theird.org
The Rev. Nancy DeStefano, St. Stephen's pastor, reported on Facebook that she called the IRD office in Washington, DC, to ask that her name be removed from its mailing list. That was when Rev. DeStefano said she learned that UMR Communications Inc. had sold its final subscriber mailing list to the IRD at the time of the newspaper's closing in May 2013.
The Rev. Eric Folkerth, pastor of Northaven UMC, also reported on Facebook that he had received several distressed telephone calls from Dallas-area friends wondering how their names had been submitted to the IRD.
The Rev. Jay Voorhees, executive editor of the current online-only incarnation of the United Methodist Reporter, referred to the IRD furor in an editorial statement on the publication's website. In a telephone call with UM Insight, Rev. Voorhees gave permission to quote from his article:
It became quickly clear that IRD was using a mailing list that seemed to correspond to the old UMR newspaper mailing lists, and when asked the IRD shared that they had purchased the mailing from “The United Methodist Reporter.” Of course, the next person they called was me!
Worried that someone was misrepresenting our company, we called Luke Moon, Business Manager at The IRD to find out how they obtained the list. We learned that in the days when UMR Inc. was going out of business, The IRD had reached out to UMR Inc. CEO Alan Heath about the possibility of purchasing any mailing lists the company had available. UMR Inc. had a huge database of names and mailing addresses from annual conferences and local churches who hired UMC Inc. to produce and mail their customized copies of The United Methodist Reporter newspaper. Searching for income to pay off remaining debts and provide severance compensation for staff, Heath sold the entire list of names and addresses to The IRD for an undisclosed sum.
Some critics have suggested that UMR Inc. improperly sold off information that was not their property nor approved under terms of the agreements with the conferences and churches that used their service. Mr. Heath said that to his knowledge, none of the conferences or churches were operating under a specific contract, and that there were no specific agreements regarding the ownership of that data or usage by UMR Inc. for business purposes, for at the time most of those agreements were issued, concerns about data ownership and privacy were not in the public consciousness.
The good news is that The IRD is sensitive to the fact that there are United Methodists across the connection that want nothing to do with their organization, and they are willing to remove any name and address from their list if asked. You can call them at (202) 682-4131 or e-mail them at info@theird.org to make your desire known.
Selling mailing lists had been a frequent practice of UMR Communications, the Reporter's parent company, throughout its late 20th century history, according to former staff. However, local churches and annual conferences, the official owners of their mailing lists, had the final say as to whether their lists could be sold. In addition, mailing list purchasers were vetted by UMR staff, since the publishing ministry had a policy not to sell mailing lists for any purposes that contradicted the United Methodist Social Principles, such as the sale of alcohol, tobacco or firearms, or for partisan political purposes.
United Methodist Insight's email inquiry of the IRD regarding the ethics of sending material to people without their permission was not returned by 5 PM (CDT) May 16. According to the IRD website, its UMAction committee "works to defend biblical faithfulness and a disciple-making focus in the United Methodist Church, as sought by the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, and challenge those who would divert our church from the holy mission to which God has called us."
Disclosure: United Methodist Insight is sponsored by St. Stephen United Methodist Church. The author of this article was editor and vice president of UMR Communications Inc. from 2000 to 2005, and was a member of the national editorial staff beginning in 1988.