Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr.

Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr.

Overview

* Helped rewrite the Bible to correspond to politically correct notions of gender
* Represented the World Council of Churches
* Opposed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq
* Died on October 27, 2013


Thomas L. Hoyt was born on March 14, 1941. He served for some time as head of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the seven black-member communions of the National Council of Churches (NCC). In January 2004, Bishop Hoyt began a two-year stint as the NCC’s 22nd president.

Between 1983 and 1985, Hoyt, a pastor, preacher and New Testament scholar, served on a 12-member committee of leftwing religious figures that produced the Inclusive Language Lectionary. A how-to guide for rewriting the Bible to correspond to politically correct notions of gender, the lectionary revised scripture wherever “male-biased or otherwise inappropriately exclusive language could be modified to reflect an inclusiveness of all persons.” Thus, for instance, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16), became “For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Child.” [Italics added.] Proudly justifying his participation in the process whereby such changes have been implemented, Hoyt described his mission as one of “bringing people together around their humanity, not around their skin color, gender, class or disability.”

On more than a few occasions, Hoyt also represented the World Council of Churches (WCC), an umbrella organization of left-leaning churches with a lengthy record of support for Communist regimes. In August 1993, for instance, Hoyt represented the WCC as a delegate to the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order in Spain. One WCC declaration, produced during the conference, expressed “thankfulness for the breakthroughs to freedom that have occurred, for example, in Eastern Europe.” It failed to make note of the fact that the WCC’s leadership had supported Communist regimes in the former Eastern Block.

Later, Hoyt used his lofty position at NCC role as a bully-pulpit from which to oppose the U.S. military campaign in Iraq. In January 2003, he allied with 46 other left-leaning religious leaders in signing a letter to President Bush. The letter expressed the signatories’ “continuing uneasiness about the moral justification for war on Iraq,” and pressed the President to reconsider.

Hoyt died on October 27, 2013 in Washington, D.C. at the age of 72.

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