Just before he was set to be formally installed, Wayne Pederson, the new president of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), resigned Feb. 16.
Pederson had been under pressure since he told a newspaper in January he was concerned “that evangelicals are identified politically more than theologically.”
He became president in October, succeeding Brandt Gustavson, who died in May. But Pederson’s formal installation at the NRB’s annual convention in Nashville never took place because of a disagreement in the disparate association of more than 1,400 broadcasters.
“It’s a tightrope to walk to keep these folks who have passionate disagreements on certain issues together under the same umbrella,” said NRB chairman Glenn Plummer, who was elected in February as the first black person to serve a three-year term as the association’s chairman. “Wayne kind of tripped the wire on a land mine.”
According to the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis, Pederson said he was disturbed that evangelicals are “associated with the far Christian right.”
“There’s an element in NRB that want us to be politically oriented- to take stands on public issues, but that’s not in our constitution,” Pederson said in the story.
Plummer said the remarks created a “firestorm,” even prompting some prominent members of the organization to threaten to leave if Pederson did not resign. He attributed record-high attendance at the convention- more than 5,800 people- in part to the controversy.
On Jan. 28, after weeks of conference calls and other meetings, the executive committee voted 5-4 – with Plummer breaking the tie- to retain Pederson.
But after that vote, as it appeared that the 59-year-pld association was growing more fractured over the controversy, executive committee members decided they would give Pederson “the opportunity to resign,” Plummer said.
(RNS)
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