c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) I pity Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. The journalists who broke open the Watergate scandal in the 1970s had only one “Deep Throat” source who provided them important information.

I have four “Deep Throats,” and they’re all religious. In fact, I have Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim sources in high places who leak spiritual truths and denominational dirt to me.

Similar to Mark Felt’s arrangement with Woodward, I talk separately with my key sources at four secret locations, and I am only allowed to ask direct questions. Although Felt has revealed his closely guarded identity, my quartet must remain anonymous.

The Protestant “Deep Throat” and I rendezvous at a darkened, deserted choir loft on Monday nights, the slowest day of the week for many churches. It has become clear the split between religiously conservative Protestants and moderates is rapidly widening. The rift is more than theological.

It focuses on the growing political clout of evangelicals and their political allies and the shrinking influence of progressives. “Deep Throat” confirms that as the mainline churches shrink in size and increase in median age, they may soon become “sideline” denominations in the Protestant world.

I always meet the Catholic “Deep Throat” in either an abandoned parochial school or a former parish building. In an eerie coincidence, my source repeats the mantra from the film “All the President’s Men”: “Follow the money.”

As diocese after diocese pays enormous legal fees and victims’ compensation as a result of the priestly sexual abuse scandals, an increasing number of faithful lay people are growing angry and even disillusioned by these huge payouts. Some have cut back on their church contributions and the shortage of men and women studying to be priests or nuns is growing acute.

“Deep Throat” smiles and tells me: “Such folks really love their church. They’re `cradle Catholics’ who are not running out to become Episcopalians. But the millions of dollars that have left the dioceses is like a continuing hemorrhage.”

My Jewish “Deep Throat” is a popular person who gets invited to many bar/bat mitzvahs. As a result, we often meet amid the always large crowds that attend receptions following the worship service. Our meetings are never in the same synagogue twice.

My source says the Jewish community currently has two gnawing concerns. Being Jewish myself, I laugh and ask: “Only two concerns? Come on, as a people we’ve multitasked our worries, anxieties and fears. How do you think we’ve been able to survive? We take all `concerns,’ as you politely call them, seriously. But OK, let’s only talk about the two you have in mind.”

Although it doesn’t publicly surface too often, many Jews are ambivalent about the proposed Israeli disengagement from Gaza and some West Bank settlements. “Deep Throat” confirms there is a belief the Palestinian Authority is either unable or unwilling to disarm the anti-Israel terrorists in its midst. And many Jews sense the Gaza/West Bank pullbacks will never satisfy those who are actively working to annihilate Israel as a sovereign state.

The second worry is that the United States is becoming more and more a de facto Christian theocracy in which Jews and other minority religions will end up merely being tolerated in a nation where Christian conservatives, both religious and political, impose their beliefs on the entire nation.

My contacts with the Muslim “Deep Throat” are the most secretive of all. But I can reveal we meet regularly at Middle Eastern restaurants in different cities that attract both Muslim and Jewish customers who love the food.

It appears Muslims in America are all fearful of what they perceive as a growing tide of anti-Islamic feeling in the United States. The general suspicion created by the Sept. 11 attacks has not abated. In fact, “Deep Throat” says it has actually increased as the result of our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Finally, many Muslims believe zealots, extremists and terrorists have hijacked Islam for their own lethal, reprehensible purposes. I ask “Deep Throat” what Muslims are doing to reclaim their religion. The answer: “Not very much yet, but we shall overcome.”

I reply, “Imshallah, God willing!”

MO/PH END RNS

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Adviser, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.)