The "Wild Goose" Festival

Evangelical Left Flocks to Carolina Field to Tout Big Government, Pacifism, Vapid Theology

"Much of what 'Wild Goose' features is not new or novel but old-fashioned liberal causes, freshly repackaged for young evangelicals." -- Mark Tooley, IRD President

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- Evangelical and Religious Left groups are converging on a North Carolina field near Chapel Hill this weekend for a four-day festival of music acts, yoga and liberal Christian speakers. The IRD will provide onsite coverage.

The "Wild Goose" festival, patterned on Britain's 37-year-old "Greenbelt" festival, will feature Emergent Church guru Brian McLaren, pacifist activist Shane Claiborne, and author Jay Bakker, the pastor son of former televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Combining "justice" issues with a vague "spirituality," the festival is also showcasing "evangelical progressives" like Tony Campolo, a spiritual advisor to former President Bill Clinton during his impeachment scandal, and Sojourners chief Jim Wallis.

IRD President Mark Tooley commented:

"Much of what 'Wild Goose' features is not new or novel but old-fashioned liberal causes, freshly repackaged for young evangelicals.

"Most Religious Left groups that advocated leftist policies in past generations are now in severe decline, and their activists are now targeting evangelical youth.

"Influenced by gnostic beliefs that Christianity has repeatedly rejected, many 'Wild Goose' voices flatter themselves with fanciful dreams of sophistication and praise from secular elites. Their 1960s-style hoopla is supposedly updated for the 21st century. But ultimately this featherless old Wild Goose won't fly."

The Institute on Religion & Democracy works to reaffirm the church's biblical and historical teachings, strengthen and reform its role in public life, protect religious freedom, and renew democracy at home and abroad.

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