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Archive
From 12/2003:
Mailbag
I love all the
email... and at
this point it's about 50/50 between praise and scorn... but the
interesting thing is that none of the scorn is about the website or
it's content, it's focused on me and suggestions of conspiracy... "who
funds you?", "what group are you with?", and my favorite... "what is
your real agenda?" I always respond to their emails explaining there's
no hidden agenda and the mission of the site is
clearly linked
from every page of the site. Whether you love the site or hate it,
keep the email coming! Also, don't forget that the
message board
is open to all.
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Howard Dean and the UCC
At this point, it appears that Howard Dean
will probably get the Democratic Party's nomination for President.
This speculation has also caused some national interest in Dean's
faith... and as the political process forges ahead, we can probably
expect more interest ~ and scrutiny ~ of the United Church of Christ.
Front Page Magazine has an opinion piece titled
Lowell Ponte.
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Politics As Usual
Apparently, religious persecution is OK as
long as it's someone else's faith that's persecuted.
According to Albert M. Pennybacker,
head of the new Clergy Leadership Network:
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And he took sometimes controversial
stands - vigorously defending China's religious policies when the
Communist government was arresting evangelicals and persecuting
Catholic bishops.
(The
Christians who are persecuted, he said, are "anti-government,
anti-Communism and have been infected with all that kind of
propaganda.") |
The United Church of Christ has vigorously
supported the China Christian Council - an apparatus of the Chinese
government that registers "official" churches and oppresses those who
are not "official". It wasn't that long ago that our denomination had
a conscious about religious persecution - and a disdain for
state-backed religion. As long as the United Church of Christ supports
religious persecution and state-sponsored religion in China, it has no
moral authority to speak about the separation of church and state in
this country.
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The Real Women of Iraq
The much criticized "Women of Iraq" tour (click
for details) is thankfully winding down (next UCC stop for the
Ba'athists is Sunday at Bethany United Church of Christ in Seattle,
Washington).
Newsweek
has a feature about the real
women of Iraq and their search for recognition in the new Iraq.
Instead of grandstanding and grinding political axes, these women are
proactively meeting with groups that could influence the role of women
in the new Iraq. Let's hope our government hears their voice.
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A Beautiful Service
The Marshall County Ministerial Alliance
(which includes a UCC church) in Kansas held a community "Service
for Soldiers Deployed Into War Zone Duty" as Kansas National Guard
Troops are preparing to deploy next month to Iraq. The beautiful and
supportive service is in sharp contrast to the
2003 Easter
message of John Thomas (General Minister and President of the UCC)
where he states "photographs
of soldiers receiving Holy Communion before going into battle make me
more than a little uneasy." The contrast should be a lesson for all
clergy.
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NCC Statement on Hussein Capture
The National Council of Churches has
issued a statement
on the capture of Saddam Hussein. With the rush to internationalize
the proceedings against Hussein by trying him in an international
court, the NCC made a surprising (and welcome) comment: "the Iraqis
themselves must play a prominent role in what should be a public
trial".
The United Church of Christ is a member of
the National Council of Churches.
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Smear Campaign?
In an effort to salvage the "Women of
Iraq" tour (see
details in the archive), the "Fellowship of Reconciliation" is
crying foul. From the
Toledo Blade:
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Juliana
Keen, project coordinator with Fellowship of Reconciliation, the
group that organized the national tour, said supporters of the
invasion started a "smear campaign" against Ms. Al-Khediary in an
effort to discredit her. |
Unfortunately, it was
Amal Al-Khedairy's
own words that have discredited a tour designed to promote peace:
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"This country needs to
be ruled with firmness, you know. And this firmness needs a little
bit of cruelty.”
-Amal
Al-Khedairy on Iraq and Saddam Hussein, "Iraq's
Bloody Summer", By Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, August 11,
2003
"Every time Iraq
has flourished, it’s had a firm hand."
-Amal
Al-Khedairy, New Haven Register 12/11/2003 |
Meanwhile, today's
New
York Post editorial calls the other half of the duo,
Nermin Al-Mufti,
"a longtime
Ba'athist activist and propagandist for the Saddam regime."
The Connecticut Conference of the UCC
promoted the tour that included a stop at a UCC church in Connecticut.
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The Christmas Spirit
The
Christmas Spirit is alive and well in Southern Florida... and
surprisingly, it didn't require political action, a collegium
proclamation, a boycott or a manufactured protest. No, it's not a
paradigm shift in the UCC, it's just another local church doing what
it can in the spirit of Christmas.
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Howard Dean on Religious Hypocrisy
"One thing I feel
about religion, you have to be very careful not to be a hypocrite if
you're a religious person. It is really tough to preach one thing and
do something else."
-Howard
Dean on CNN, December 8, 2003
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Saddam Apologists Remain Firm
The "Women of Iraq" tour grinds on (read
details here)... and it looks like the discussion
got a little 'heated' at Yale. The quote of the day came from
Amal Al-Khedairy:
"Every time Iraq
has flourished, it’s had a firm hand." I don't think this is what
the "Fellowship of Reconciliation"
had in mind as a "way to
contribute to rebuilding and sustaining a peaceful world."
No word yet how they were received at the
United Church on the Green last night.
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It Couldn't Have Been the Drugs
40 people protested outside Cincinnati's
city hall over the death of Nathaniel Jones who was beaten by police
after resisting arrest.
From the
Cincinnati Post:
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The Rev. William
Land, pastor of La Amistad United Church of Christ in Walnut
Hills, told the demonstrators that "God does not mean for anybody
to be whipped to death."
"We are not here to
disrespect anybody," said Land. "We're here in support of life.
Life is the most important thing there is. Man does not have the
right to take life." |
Land's inaccurate and inflammatory
reference that Jones was "whipped" seems to ignore the fact that Jones
was juiced up on cocaine,
PCP and embalming fluid when he attacked police officers.
It was La Amistad that
orchestrated a UCC boycott of Cincinnati last year... a boycott
that was rejected by most of the local UCC churches.
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What Goes Around, Comes Around
According to
Telecomweb,
the Telecommunications Research and Action
Center (TRAC) is "virtually" bankrupt. Robert Chase,
director of the
UCC's Office of Communication,
Inc. and principal architect of the UCC's boycott of bankrupt
WorldCom/MCI, is on TRAC's board of
directors. Chase's relationship with TRAC chairman Samuel A. Simon
fueled media speculation that the campaign against WorldCom was
funded by WorldCom competitors and it raised
serious ethical
issues about the United Church of Christ.
_________________________
Name Game
According to the
Associated Press, a new, anti-Bush clergy group called the
Clergy Leadership Network
has been formed. The group "is
registering with the Internal Revenue Service as a political
organization."
The name of the group is being challenged
though. From a different
Associated Press article:
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Dallas-based
Leadership Network Inc., a nonprofit foundation that
works with churches to develop more effective ministries, demanded
Thursday that the newly formed Clergy
Leadership Network in Washington stop all uses of that
name. |
Paul Sherry, former United Church of
Christ President (and
apologist for the FALN terrorists), is a member of the Clergy
Leadership Network.
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More From the Saddam Apologists
The
Fellowship of Reconciliation has a
new
press release attempting to disclaim comments from the Kurds about
"The Women of Iraq" (see
archive). The interesting thing is that the point-by-point
response doesn't come from the women, it comes from one of their
sons... who isn't named. More than a few of the responses are directly
contradicted by
Amal Al-Khedairy's
own comments to the press. For instance:
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To describe Ms. Al
Khedeiry as an "apologist" for the previous regime's crimes is
totally absurd. She is a person who was standing strong for her
country and foresaw the dangers ahead. |
From The New Yorker, August 11, 2003
Amal Al-Khedairy
is quoted saying this
about Iraq and Saddam Hussein:
| |
"This country needs
to be ruled with firmness, you know. And this firmness needs a
little bit of cruelty.” |
To which the response in the press release
is:
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What Amal Al
Khedeiry did in The New Yorker article is reflect the anger and
frustration of many silent Iraqis after the fall of Baghdad. |
So let's get this straight... to claim
that your fellow Iraqi's need an ass kicking from a ruthless dictator
is how someone expresses "anger and frustration"?
The equation is pretty simple even to the
most naive:
Amal Al-Khedairy had a pretty good life while Saddam was in
charge. Now that he's not in charge, her life is ruined. No wonder she
doesn't like occupation.
Again, the Ba'athists will be visiting the UCC at
United Church on the Green on
Wednesday, Dec. 10th 7:30 pm, 270 Temple St. in New Haven, CT. It
would be great if a few folks showed up to ask them some appropriate
questions.
UPDATE 12/02:
Saddam Apologist on video tape:
Nermin Al-Mufti
was interviewed by the Canadian Broadcasting Company just before the
start of the war. The video is archived at the
CBC website. Here is a telling piece of the interview:
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Christopher Thomas
(CBC): Is there no anger at all with Saddam Hussein for
getting Iraq into this situation?
Nermin Al-Mufti: No, Saddam Hussein did his best for the
nation, for the Iraqi's... he did his best for this county, he did
his best for the Arabs |
How can the "Fellowship
of Reconciliation" claim Nermin Al-Mufti is not an apologist for
Saddam Hussein?
This
pictorial of mass graves
shows how Saddam did "his best for Iraq".
_________________________
Health Care
Bernice Powell Jackson's weekly rant
this week
focuses on universal health care... a respectable and worthy
endeavor of the church... but the United Church of Christ has it's own
issues on health care.
Advocate Health Care of Illinois is affiliated with the UCC and
is under investigation by the Attorney General of the State of
Illinois regarding it's billing practices. According to the
Service Employees International Union's Hospital Accountability
Project: "Advocate is the leading price gouger of Chicago's
uninsured as it charges that group 139 percent more for the same
treatment than those with insurance coverage" and "The project
also claims Advocate is Cook County's leading predatory collector, as
it sues to recover uncollected bills at a rate three times more than
area hospitals."
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Questions?
Comments? Email:
UCCtruths@yahoo.com
