Contact: Jeff Walton, Institute on Religion and Democracy, 202-682-4131, 202-413-5639 cell, jwalton@TheIRD.org

WASHINGTON, April 15 /Christian Newswire/ -- A professor from a United Methodist seminary who argued that the World Trade Center and Pentagon were actually attacked on September 11, 2001 by the Bush Administration is back with another outrageous book.

David Ray Griffin, author of "Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11", is releasing a ninth book on the attacks, this time alleging that the Obama administration is attempting to undermine 9/11 conspiracy theorists. Griffin's earlier work was published by Westminster John Knox Press, the official publishing house of the Presbyterian Church (USA), a move that sparked controversy in the denomination. Starting April 23, Griffin is also launching a 15-city lecture tour questioning the justification for the war in Afghanistan. The tour will feature stops at Episcopal and United Methodist Churches, as well as schools such as Iowa's Drake University.

Griffin, a professor emeritus of philosophy and theology at United Methodist Claremont School of Theology in California, is a member of "Scholars for 9/11 Truth," a group that says it is "dedicated to exposing falsehoods and to revealing truths behind 9/11." Griffin is a process theologian who believes that God is constantly evolving. He asserts that the apostles and early church covered up Jesus Christ's real agenda, which was the overthrow of the Roman Empire. Like this hidden Jesus, Griffin wants to overthrow the American "empire."

IRD President Mark Tooley commented:

"It was a scandal that senior mainline church officials would publish Griffin's absurd revisionist history. Once again, mainline congregations are more than willing to entertain Griffin's views, with both Episcopal and United Methodist churches hosting his upcoming conspiracy-laden lectures.
 
"Griffin does not see the 'false flag' attack of 9/11 as an aberration, a devious plan that only the Bush administration would devise. Instead, he makes the entire nation complicit in the attack by offering a litany of contrived foreign wars and staged terrorist attacks ranging from contemporary events all the way back to the Mexican-American War.
 
"On the left, it is common to explain the Bush administration's 'imperial' policies as the work of whacky 'Left-Behind' evangelicals who supposedly think that the Second Coming will be precipitated by war in the Middle East. But those people on the right, if they actually exist, are almost dull when compared to the nuttiness of Professor Griffin and his colleagues in the curia of old-line Protestantism who countenance his silly theories."