Riverside Church is a Baptist church that was founded by J.D. Rockefeller, believe it or not. It’s a huge neo-Gothic building (with great bells!) located near Columbia University on the Upper West Side (Morningside Heights area).
I don’t know where they went wrong, but ever since the 1960s and possibly before they have had raving leftists running the show. I grew up near there and I did like the bells, though!
The book Covert Cadre describes the cozy relationship between the Riverside Church leadership and the Soviet KGB during the 1960s and 70s.
According to Bonhoeffer the pastor who took part in an assassination plot against Hitler, Riverside was far gone as a church in the 30s preaching politics rather than the Gospel of Christ. The Union Seminary in town was as well.
That’s interesting. O’l John D had a reputation for being pretty buttoned down. And he was anything but a leftist.
In 2010 they played host to a bunch of loons including VIPS’ Ray McGovern …
https://juicyecumenism.com/2010/02/08/religious-truth-commission-to-examine-u-s-war-atrocities/
Ray’s group of truthers and leakers (Kwiatkowski, Cannistraro, Pat Lang, Sybil Edmonds, etc) joined the former Ambassador to Gabon, Joe Wilson, in trying to set up Dick Cheney for impeachment or resignation, but ended up only getting Scooter Libby. McGovern also writes for Russia Today. The church is also part of the Global Zero nuclear disarmament movement that Joe Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame is part of.