MainlineTruths

UCC continues to promote media access myth

Reposted from: UCCtruths.com

In a press release today from the National Council of Churches, leaders in the United Church of Christ are again promoting the myth that big media is locking them out:

"Media consolidation is a question of justice," said the Rev. Robert Chase, UCC's communications minister and current chair of the NCC Communication Commission, which includes the nation's major Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant faith groups.

He recounted the difficulties his denomination had placing paid TV ads that broadcasters judged as "too controversial." He said the ads promoted welcoming and inclusion. "It's time to return the airwaves to the people," he said.

This really isn't all that surprising. Bob Chase and other UCC leaders have lied continually about the reasons why the television ads were rejected. As we demonstrated back in February, 2005, the ads were not rejected because they "promoted welcoming and inclusion," they were rejected because criticized other churches. In fact, one ad was even accepted. From NBC's response to the FCC:

As the UCC admits, it never requested the Station to air the advertisement at issue, called "Night Club." Instead, in February 2004, the UCC, through its advertising agency, approached the Network with the ad, which portrayed other churches and religions as discriminatory in their refusal to accept people who are African- American, Hispanic, disabled, or gay. The Network concluded that the "Night Club" ad inappropriately suggested that churches other than the UCC are not open to people of diverse races and backgrounds and therefore violated the Network's policy against addressing issues of public controversy through paid commercial advertisements.

Accordingly, the Network refused to air the ad.

In November 2004, the UCC approached the Network a second time with the "Night Club" ad and also offered another commercial announcement. The other commercial, which the Network accepted, contained a positive message asserting only that UCC churches are welcoming and inclusive. The Network again rejected the "Night Club" ad as unacceptable under Network policy, however, and offered suggestions to the UCC for modifying the "Night Club" ad to address the Network's objections. The UCC responded to these offers not by telling the Network to run the acceptable ad or modifying the objectionable ad, but rather by filing the Petition – more than 10 months after the objectionable ad was first presented – against a station to which the ad had not even been offered.

There's also another problem with this press release. Rev. Gerald F. Kicanas, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson states "We represent a vast number of people in this country and it is that voice that needs to be heard." While that might be true for Roman Catholics, the UCC national office does not and can not speak for or represent it's members. While the public debate on media ownership rules is a good one, UCC leaders can't speak for denomination members anyways. It's also a bit absurd for a Roman Catholic Bishop to suggest that the Roman Catholic Church is somehow under-represented in the media.

Sudan Crisis Demonstrates the UCC's Failure to Promote Real Justice

Late last October, just before the mid-term elections, the United Church of Christ's Justice and Witness Ministries issued an "Action Alert" calling for the U.N. to send Peace Keepers to Sudan by encouraging people to pressure the U.S. government via an email. The logic? According to the alert, "It is time for the United States to take the lead in pressuring the Sudanese government to end the violence and allow desperately needed humanitarian aid to reach civilians."

Today, the U.N. Human Rights Council rejected a proposal to hold the Sudanese government responsible for halting atrocities in Darfur. As the Associated Press reports, "the council, which took over from the discredited U.N. Human Rights Commission June, is dominated by African and Muslim countries that have sided with China, Cuba and other countries in preventing criticism of any government but Israel."

Make a mental note of that: China and Cuba, not the U.S., prevented the resolution from going forward. Instead of actually doing the right thing by leveraging the resources of the National Council of Churches and our ecumenical partners overseas to apply pressure to the countries blocking progress on the Sudan crisis, the UCC chose to play politics just before an election by suggesting that the U.S. was not taking the lead on Sudan.

OK, we get it. The UCC's Justice and Witness Ministries doesn't like the Bush administration... but is that worth dangling the lives of hundreds of thousands of people? As UCC members, do we really want to support these games?

The UCC's "Action Alert makes it clear that neither Justice and Witness Ministries nor it's Executive Minister, Linda Jaramillo, is really being serious about Sudan. Justice and Witness Ministries exists, in great part, by money raised by Our Churches Wider Ministries (OCWM) which receives it's resources from the generosity of UCC members. It would be too easy to tell other UCC members not to contribute money, but most churches barely contribute today. By the UCC's own numbers, less than 1% of churches give 10% or more of their current operating expenses to Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support. Encouraging people not to contribute to OCWM would literally be "preaching to the choir".

So what should you do?

Talk about it with other church members and educate them about the difference between political games and the real work of justice.

FALN Terrorist Honored by UCC

The entertainment was great and the artwork was beautiful... but no one dared to mention the crimes committed by the artists (or the victims they killed and maimed) at an art show honoring convicted terrorists at the UCC headquarters last evening. For a church so vocal against violence and armed conflict, the silence said more than the art.

In his closing remarks, UCC President John Thomas referred to the artwork of Oscar Lopez Rivera and Carlos Alberto Torres as the "imaginative vision of Shalom" while plainly ignoring the violence which lead to their imprisonment in the first place. Thomas's fawning over convicted terrorist Alejandrina Torres without mentioning her crimes or her victims also spoke volumes about his character, his faith and his politics. Apparently, his often repeated message of peace and non-violence doesn't apply when it comes to people like Alejandrina Torres who was caught on surveillance video building a bomb in the 80's as part of her activities with the FALN. Instead of seizing the moment to, again, preach against violence, Thomas embraced the indignant and unremorseful Torres. Certainly an "imaginative vision of Shalom".

More disappointing than Thomas was Linda Jaramillo, the UCC's executive minister of the Justice and Witness Ministries, who called Alejandrina Torres a "friend" and "role-model".

The event did feature some beautiful demonstrations of Puerto Rican pride, but this pride really had nothing to do with the FALN terrorists, the artwork or Alejandrina Torres.

UCC: Puerto Rican terrorists are unfairly labeled

When UCCtruths.com reported on October 17th that the National Office of the UCC would be hosting a terrorist art exhibit, many were skeptical since the event wasn't mentioned on the UCC's own web site and because the idea was too absurd to be believed. Well... the UCC has finally posted information about the exhibit on their web site.

Adding insult to injury, the UCC's Justice and Witness Ministries (JWM) also approved a bizarre affirmation of the terrorists without mentioning the dozens of victims killed and injured by over 150 bombings in the 70's and 80's. However, the JWM resolution does claim that "Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar Lopez Rivera are in prison for having advocated on behalf of the people who have suffered under colonization for over 400 years" and were "unjustly labeled as “terrorists” for lifting a prophetic voice through artistic expression on behalf of the voiceless". As we documented last week, Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar Lopez Rivera were convicted of extremely serious crimes and were labeled as terrorists by law enforcement and by members of Congress because of the crimes they committed ~ not because of their "artistic expression".

This will be a widely discussed topic and we'll be posting more on this over the next few days.

United Church of Christ's National Office Hosts Terrorist Art Exhibit

I've gone off the deep end on this over at UCCtruths.com, but it's worth mentioning here as well.

No issue has bothered me more than the UCC's relationship with convicted Puerto Rican terrorists that are responsible for over 150 bombings in the U.S. during the 70's and 80's. There is no moral or theological reason for defending members of this group who have killed and injured dozens of people. What is further shocking and completely contradictory to any of our beliefs is that there is no record (in the nearly 30 years that the UCC has been advocating for these terrorists) that our denomination ever reached out to the victims of FALN violence.

From November 16 until December 1, the national offices of the United Church of Christ will be co-sponsoring and hosting the traveling art exhibition "Not Enough Space" commemorating the 25 years of imprisonment of terrorists Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar López Rivera.

In their promotional materials, the UCC is positioning the terrorists as political prisoners "serving long prison terms for acts and beliefs in favor of Puerto Rican independence."

Sounds innocent enough, doesn't it? The truth is much different.

Oscar Lopez-Rivera, was convicted on August 11, 1981 of seditious conspiracy, interference with interstate commerce by threats or violence, possession of an unregistered firearm, carrying firearms during the commission of seditious conspiracy and interference with interstate commerce by violence, interstate transportation of firearms with the intent to commit seditious conspiracy and interference with interstate commerce by violence and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle.

Oscar Lopez-Rivera, was convicted a second time, on February 26, 1988 of conspiracy to escape, to transport explosives with intent to kill and injure people, and to destroy government buildings and property, aiding and abetting travel in interstate commerce to carry on arson, and using a telephone to carry on arson.

Lopez was sentenced to fifty-five years and fifteen years, respectively. He rejected the offer of clemency from President Clinton in 1999 (which was heavily promoted by the UCC), which would commute his total effective sentence from seventy to forty-four years.

There's more... much more at UCCtruths.com.

UCC and ELCA sued in alleged sex assault cases

The New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ and the New Jersey Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) are being sued in seperate cases of alleged sex assaults.

First, the United Church of Christ suit from the Nashua Telegraph:

NASHUA – A Nashua-area man claims a United Church of Christ camp counselor sexually assaulted him repeatedly when he was a teenager.

The man, now 25, filed suit against the counselor, John Tanguay of North Conway, and the New Hampshire Conference United Church of Christ on Sept. 28 in Hillsborough County Superior Court.

Then, the ELCA suit from the Asbury Park Press:

TOMS RIVER — Five more plaintiffs have come forward to accuse a onetime pastor of St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Brick of molesting them when they were boys during the 1970s and 1980s.

That brings to 11 the number of men who are suing the church on Salmon Street and its officials over alleged sexual abuse.

Meanwhile, the clergyman at the center of the multimillion-dollar lawsuit, the Rev. Robert L. Slegel, who resigned as pastor of the church amid scandal in 1993, died Sept. 1 at age 77. He had been living in Southern Shores, N.C., near Kitty Hawk, according to an obituary prepared by Twiford Colony Chapel in Manteo, N.C.

Dover Township attorney Robert R. Fuggi Jr. filed the $30 million lawsuit against the church last year on behalf of six men who said they were molested by Slegel when they were boys in the 1970s. The suit named as defendants the church; two of its former pastors, identified in court papers only by their initials; the New Jersey Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Let's hope, if true, these are only isolated cases.

Barry Lynn "concerned" about deal between UCC and Connecticut

I had a great discussion with Rev. Barry Lynn following tonight's Church and State discussion forum in Columbus. Lynn, the Executive Director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and I discussed AU's investigation of a $100,000 grant from the State of Connecticut to help defray the convention center costs for the UCC's 2007 General Synod in Hartford. Lynn, an ordained UCC minister, made it clear that he was "concerned" about the arrangement.

Lynn and I compared and contrasted the deal with a similar arrangement that the State of Maryland made to host a Baptist convention in June. In that deal, a $150,000 state grant was used to help defray the costs of transportation for the group's convention in Baltimore. Lynn called the grant "totally inappropriate and clearly unconstitutional. Religious groups should pass the collection plate to their own members, not the taxpayers.”

In the UCC case, Lynn said "There are a number of questions that need to be answered. Is there a precedence in Connecticut of other religious groups receiving similar grants or is the UCC an exception?"

While secular groups regularly receive grants from states to attract convention business, Lynn made it clear that there is a distinction between secular and religious groups being the beneficiary of these types of grants.

The UCC adds a new church

PastorDan is getting all excited because the UCC added a new church... apparently it's a watershed moment. No mention of the 200+ churches that have left... why rain on his parade? After all, according to PastorDan, the churches that are leaving "were only loosely affiliated with the denomination, often not contributing much if any financial support to wider church ministries".

The truth is that most of the UCC's local churches aren't contributing much. According to the UCC's own numbers, less than a half of a percent of UCC churches "give 10% or more of their current operating expenses to Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support". Using PastorDan's logic, it wouldn't really matter if 99.5% of local churches left the denomination.

PastorDan's 'herd mentality' is unproductive because it misses some obvious problems in the UCC which are deeper than just the debates over gay marriage. The people in the pews are literally not buying into the message. While UCC members quickly raised nearly $6,000,000 for Hurricane Katrina relief (which roughly equates to about half of the annual OCWM basic support budget), the enthusiasm for OCWM just isn't there and simply adding a church here and there isn't going to fix the problems in the UCC.

More mileage for the comma

Greg Mitchell at Editor & Publisher is theorizing that President Bush's recent reference to the Iraq war as "just a comma" may have it's sources in the United Church of Christ's "God is Still Speaking" campaign. Who knows... and who cares? If anything, the UCC will get some pings out of it. PastorDan chimes in with probably the best observation:

Anyway, I highly doubt that Bush was playing off the UCC's comma. First of all, his access to mass media seems to be limited to ESPN and pre-screened newspaper articles. He's probably never even heard the quote. Second, if it was a dog whistle, it was a piss-poor one. Why would we he send a coded message to conservative evangelicals using the language of...um...their polar opposites? Doesn't make sense.

I don't agree with PastorDan on much (although I think he's one of the more interesting and thought provoking bloggers out there), but I think he's right on this one.

UCC President makes a mockery of Jewish-Christian relationship

According to UC News, UCC President John Thomas delivered another speech on Jewish and  Christian relationships -and the strained relationship of the UCC with major Jewish groups - in his Fall Convocation Address at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities this week.

And again, John Thomas misses the reason why the UCC's relationship with Jewish groups has soured.

While Thomas reflected positively on the UCC's history with Jewish groups (and our denomination's explicit recognition of God's covenant with Jews), Thomas failed to take any responsibility for the problems he personally, and completely unnecessarily, created in the last three years. Instead, Thomas continued to misrepresent the issues and challenges. Specifically:

1. Thomas mischaracterized the Presbyterian Divestment resolution of 2004 as targeting companies "whose business in Israel is found to be directly or indirectly causing harm to innocent people, Palestinian or Israeli." In practice, the 2004 Presbyterian resolution only
   targeted businesses doing business with Israel. After all, what company can you divest from when a Russian made Katyusha rocket kills innocent Israelis?
2. Thomas laments the breakdown in communication between Jewish and Christian groups that started in 2004. However, Thomas refused to communicate with Jewish groups before the UCC's 2005 General Synod. At least two of the largest Jewish organizations in the U.S., the
   Simon Wiesenthal Center and the American Jewish Congress, asked for dialog on the issue of divestment before the UCC's 2005 General Synod. According to both groups, Thomas didn't respond.
3. Thomas again falsely claims that "some Jewish organizations" like the Simon Wiesenthal Center were in an alliance or partnership with the Institute for Religion and Democracy and cites a joint press conference held during the 2005 Disciples of Christ General Assembly
   as an example. While both groups held the same position on divestment and shared a podium to share those views, there has never been any relationship between the groups - a fact that Thomas was publicly alerted to the last time he made this claim six months ago.
4. Thomas asserts that there is an "influence of Christian Zionism" among "supporters of Israel in the United States". While true, Christian Zionism has not been a factor in any of the discussions around divestment nor has any Christian Zionist group that I am aware of ever participated in opposing any church divestment efforts. It's a completely disingenuous for Thomas to reference a Christian Zionist influence that doesn't exist within the context of mainline churches... and it's probably why he doesn't cite any examples of this influence.

Simply put, Thomas's speech was intended to provide a cover for his own contribution to the disintegration in the relationship between the Jewish community and the UCC.

Remember:

• It was John Thomas who personally sought to change the General Synod committee resolution that stripped out any reference to divestment
• It was John Thomas who ignored the counsel of his Pension Board on the issue of divestment
• It was John Thomas who refused to meet with two of the largest Jewish organizations in the country before the 2005 General Synod
• It was John Thomas who falsely claimed that there is an alliance between the Institute on Religion and Democracy and "some Jewish organizations"
• It was John Thomas who claimed "our own churches are subject to intense lobbying by Jewish groups demonizing the Palestinian community" when the truth is that Jewish groups were simply opposed to the UCC's divestment proposals
• It was John Thomas who has tried to marginalize opposition to divestment whose opponents include: the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Congress, the David Project, Martin Peretz (editor of The New Republic), James Rudin
  (writing for Religion News Service) and best-selling author Rabbi Harold Kushner. Opposition to divestment spans the full spectrum of political and theological beliefs.

Without any doubt, John Thomas is personally responsible for the breakdown in the UCC's relationship with national Jewish groups - a relationship cultivated by his predecessors. Unfortunately for the UCC, it's a legacy it will have to live with long after Thomas is gone.