Alan Wisdom is a writer focused on mainline Protestant church politics and religious liberty issues. He contributed articles to The Weekly Standard covering topics such as the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s Israel divestment debates and questions of religious tolerance. He has been associated with the Institute on Religion and Democracy, which monitors theological and political trends in mainline denominations.
Six years ago, the nearly 3 million member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) became the first and only U.S. religious body to adopt a divestment policy against Israel. After a large uproar from Christians and Jews, including a personal appeal from Presbyterian former CIA Director James Woolsey at the…
A tussle over same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia reveals how high the stakes of the debate have risen. Proponents of redefining marriage frequently assert that this would be only a minor adjustment, expanding the institution slightly to accommodate the two to three percent of the…