(from www.globeandmail.com)
Sustained attacks by the Christian right rattle one of the oldest women’s groups in the United States
The culture wars that deeply divide U.S. society on political, social and religious questions have taken their toll this week on one of the nation’s oldest women’s organizations.
Patricia Ireland was quietly dismissed from her position as executive director of the YWCA late last week, less than six months after her appointment to the top position at the 144-year-old organization. She had become the subject of organized protests from right-wing groups in Washington, which opposed her pro-abortion views and tolerance of homosexuality.
“Our organization proved to be the wrong platform for all of her issues,” Audrey Peeples, chairwoman of the YWCA’s national board of directors, said in an interview. “We remain committed to economic empowerment and racial equality, but for confidential reasons we felt that she was not right.”
Ms. Peeples’s announcement comes after months of attacks and calls for boycotts by right-wing groups, which had protested against the hiring of a feminist to head a women’s organization.
The situation seems to be unique to the United States, where Christian groups have been staging an organized assault on traditionally secular organizations.
In Canada and most other countries, the YWCA is a non-religious group that advocates women’s rights. It was founded nearly 150 years ago to offer charitable services to the poor.
“She is a liberal extremist and the soccer moms dropping their kids off at the local Y don’t want any part of her and her strange friends,” Andrea Lafferty, head of the Washington-based Traditional Values Coalition, said in an interview.
“Patricia Ireland has been a lifelong advocate of anti-Christian policies and beliefs. They hired her because they wanted a radical bisexual feminist — she’s the antithesis of the YWCA.”
Ms. Lafferty, whose group had called for a boycott of the YWCA, also referred to Ms. Ireland as a “pro-abortion lesbian.” Ms. Ireland has been married for 35 years, but said in May that she had previously been involved in a lesbian relationship.
The right-wing groups that had opposed Ms. Ireland’s appointment have considerable clout in Washington, with many members of President George W. Bush’s administration and the Republican-led Congress supporting fundamentalist Christian causes.
Ms. Lafferty had asked that Tommy Thompson, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, rescind the $114-million (U.S.) in government funding that YWCA organizations receive.
Right-wing groups are also leading a campaign against legal decisions that forbid Boy Scout and Girl Scout groups from firing homosexual leaders.
It is a surprising move from the YWCA, which champions women’s issues and announced this summer that it had decided to take on a larger role in feminist advocacy when it hired Ms. Ireland, who achieved national prominence as head of the National Organization of Women in the 1990s.
“As part of our restructure, we decided to focus on our advocacy issues. . . .” Ms. Peeples said in July. “We wanted a louder voice in Congress; that’s why we hired Patricia Ireland.”
While the YWCA has Christian origins, it does not consider itself a “faith-based” group, and Christianity has not been part of its core program for decades. Ms. Peeples stressed that it remains a multifaith organization that “embraces women of all races, faiths and sexual orientations. . . . We have people of all sexual orientations and religions in our leadership.”
Initially, this argument had been used by the YWCA to support Ms. Ireland’s appointment. “I’m not the head of a Christian organization,” Ms. Ireland said in May. “I’m the head of a social-justice women’s organization.”
While that statement met an angry response among Christian groups, it was not controversial within the YWCA, whose official documents say its mission “is to create opportunities for women’s growth, leadership and power in order to attain a common vision: peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all people.”
The YWCA no longer has a Christian mission. Its mission statement says it is “nourished by its roots in the Christian faith and sustained by the richness of many beliefs and values.” This has put it at odds with some Americans who live in fundamentalist Christian communities.
In Marion, Ind., the executive director of the local YWCA said she considers hers a strictly Christian organization. “As long as I am the executive director here, we will serve the Lord,” Vanessa Sloan said. “We will run this organization with biblical, foundational truths. Every staff member that works here is a Christian believer, an active Christian involved in ministry. We pray with the children. We pray with the young moms.”
Ms. Peeples denied that there is a major schism within her organization, noting that the dismissal of the executive director required a two-thirds majority vote of the 22-member board of directors. “We got more than two thirds,” she said.