Democrats lose religion aide
By Frank E. Lockwood
Knight Ridder News Service
LEXINGTON, Ky. — The national Democratic Party's top religion adviser resigned this week after being denounced by religious conservatives for opposing the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson, 56, former pastor of Newtown Christian Church in Scott County, Ky., and an ordained Disciples of Christ minister, stepped down after less than two weeks on the job in the face of withering criticism.
"The whirlwind was more than I could just about stand. It was amazing," Peterson said Thursday.
The Catholic League had blasted Peterson, the Democratic National Committee's senior adviser for religious outreach, for signing a friend of the court brief earlier this year urging the U.S. Supreme Court to remove "under God" from the patriotic oath.
The brief, filed by 32 religious leaders and the Unitarian Universalist Association, argued that the pledge is an unconstitutional "religious creed" that only promotes "the God of the Christians."
Peterson's involvement in the controversial Supreme Court case was little known when she joined the DNC staff on July 22. But officials with the Catholic League repeatedly seized on the brief this week, saying it shows Peterson and the DNC are out-of-touch with America's religious majority.
The Catholic League portrayed Peterson as a "left-wing activist" who favored taxes and winked at gay marriage and abortion.
The Catholic League's scathing, daily anti-Peterson press releases, faxed to newsrooms around America on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, were effective. Blaming "recent negative publicity," Peterson resigned on Wednesday, saying, "I feel it is no longer possible for me to do my job effectively.
"I do not want my support of this case to serve as a distraction or ammunition for Republicans and their allies," Peterson said in a statement released to the media.
DNC officials did not return phone calls Thursday.
Two weeks ago, when he appointed Peterson just before the Democratic National Convention, party chairman Terry McAuliffe said in a statement that the hiring "reflects the DNC's commitment to reaching all people of faith and their participation in this election year."
During the Democrats' convention in Boston, Peterson helped lead the party's "People of Faith Luncheon" and submitted "A Prayer for People of Faith for John Kerry" to the party's Weblog.
In a July 22 press release, the DNC said Peterson would help "spread John Kerry's positive vision to people of all faiths" and would work well with religious, ethnic and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people of faith.
The Catholic League hailed the resignation, saying that the Kerry campaign and the national Democratic Party are "imploding on religion."
