This is funny

The Values Voter Summit, a dog and pony show put on by the Family Research Council, has expanded their list of enemies. This year they are accusing the "Emergent Church" movement of being an instrument of evil. Nothing bears witness to God's love like Christians spouting off about who they hate. Previous honorees included Satan, political liberals, communism, socialism, fascism, and Islam.

A portion of the upcoming Values Voter Summit in Washington will stray from its usual focus on politics and consider the Emergent Church as one of three “channels the adversary is using to bring America down.” Art Ally, president of The Timothy Plan, a Florida-based mutual fund company devoted to “biblically responsible investing,” will lead the breakout session. 

“Why would Satan use Communism? It’s a godless form of government,” said Ally. “Why would Satan use Islam? Same reason. It’s not a religion. It’s a movement to dominate the world under the guise of religion. The Emergent Church plays right into that by weakening further our church community.”

Quite a bit of irony packed in there. An avowed evangelical Christian, who makes a living selling stock to wealthy Christians, is calling fellow Christians evil because of some supposed doctrinal crime. Jackpot. The Timothy Plan's mutual fund mission has been called hypocritical and money-grubbing.

I didn't examine all 23 funds, but I did focus on two. Its Timothy Plan Large/Mid-Cap Growth fund, invested in the likes of Tiffany (NYSE: TIF ) , Legg Mason (NYSE: LM ) , and Nokia (NYSE: NOK ) , has underperformed the S&P 500 in every year since its inception in 2000. The fund is relatively focused, though, with fewer than 60 holdings. That can be effective when the holdings perform well. The expense ratio, at 1.53%, though, is on the steep side. 

On the other hand, the Timothy Plan Large/Mid-Cap Value fund sported better results, such as a five-year average annual return of almost 13% that topped the S&P 500. Its top holdings recently included ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM ) and First Data (NYSE: FDC ) . It's interesting that First Data, which is very involved in the credit card industry, wasn't shunned. One could argue that credit card debt is harming American families as much as many other frowned-upon activities.

So charging fellow Christians an exorbitant fee and investing heavily in the usury industry qualifies as an example of a company based on biblical principles. Fascinating. Does that bible include the works of godless philosophers like Ayn Rand or godless economists like Ludwig von Mises?

Tony Jones, one of the instigators of the Emergent Church movement, was puzzled about why the highly political Family Research Council would want to target the movement.

The Emergent (or Emerging) Church was a hot topic a decade ago as authors and pastors like Brian McLaren and Tony Jones challenged churches to adapt to a postmodern culture, but the movement never organized itself well, and the debate surrounding it eventually died down.

“The Emerging Church was founded to get the evangelical church to take art, social justice and other what might be considered progressive issues more seriously. It was also founded to get the Mainline church to loosen their neckties a little bit.”

Come now, Tony. The saintly leadership of the Family Research Council does not want anyone promoting social justice to evangelical Christians. They are going full bore on their gospel of guaranteed prosperity and there is no room for concern about the poor and other riffraff. Now that is funny but the laughter is twisted.