Archive

From April, 2004:

UCC Minister Back From Iraq

U.S. Army Reserve Lt. David Ellis, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, returned home from Iraq at the end of March. From the Berkshire Eagle in Massachusetts:

"One thing I realized when I was over there was that there were some things I was seeing and experiencing on a personal level that had spiritual ramifications as well," Ellis said. "When you're dealing with issues of right and wrong, life and death, you try and see where God is in all of this. War really focuses a person, when you're in the midst of it, to look at things going on around you and to come to terms with that." He said he spoke with Iraqi citizens on a daily basis. "One thing I heard repeatedly was, 'Thank you. You saved us from a monster,' " Ellis said. "The number of times I heard thank you from Iraqi people, I will never forget for as long as I live."

He kept a diary and hopefully we'll get to learn more about his experiences.

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Another Rwanda

Bernice Powell Jackson's weekly rant raised the issue of Sudan's ongoing ethnic cleansing of black Sudanese. The awareness would have been great if she didn't add her classic, misleading spin:

In truth, the U.S. has been one of the only countries (unilaterally) to condemn Sudan. The U.N.'s Human Rights Commission in Geneva just wrapped up meetings without condemning Sudan and simply passed a measure to send a monitor to the region. The U.S. delegate voted against the measure:

U.S. Ambassador Richard Williamson voted against the resolution, which he criticized for failing to condemn racial and ethnic cleansing in the western Darfur region. "We fear a terrible famine to come when tens of thousands may well perish," he added. "The commission so far has failed to meet its responsibility today."

Human Rights Watch has a scathing report on the ongoing massacre in Sudan. The situation is a full blown crisis, but you won't much information about it from the United Church of Christ. While UCC national office spins it's wheels about "Just Peace," and railing against the United States unilateralism, you won't find an action alert on Sudan, you won't find a pastoral letter from John Thomas about the crisis and you won't find a declaration from the collegium on the massacres. In fact, a quick search of the UCC website sparsely mentions the problems in Sudan and relegates the crisis to a footnote of global problems.

Why the inaction? Is it possible that "Just Peace" is little more than bumper sticker politics?

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Clueless in Cleveland, Part II

Must be something in the water on the North Coast this weekend. Bernice Powell Jackson opines about Rwanda in her weekly rant... but fails to mention that the U.S. knew within 16 days that a genocide would be taking place. She does claims that our inaction "signed the death warrants for tens of thousands of Rwandans" (even though it was more like hundreds of thousands). She tops off her "witness" with this gem: "Clearly, knowing when to intervene is a complex matter."

Maybe these things are complex in her universe, but in the real world, when hundreds of thousands are being threatened and terms like "genocide" are being used, it's probably a good idea to intervene. It's not just Bernice Powell Jackson either - the slaughter in Rwanda serves as a reminder that the UCC's  "Just Peace" ideology is not only ineffective, it can be deadly.

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Clueless in Cleveland

Rev. Stephen Coates of the Brunswick United Church of Christ was the main speaker at the Cleveland Islamic Center's Grand Mosque Open House on Sunday. Normally, such interfaith meetings should be encouraged, but the Mosque's leader is Imam Fawaz Damra who faces federal charges that he "lied on his citizenship forms by concealing his affiliation with several terrorist groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad." Last month, a federal judge refused Damra's request to travel to Virginia to attend a "United Association for Studies and Research" meeting because prosecutors and congressional investigators have linked the organization to the terrorist group Hamas.

In January, Coates claimed "We love the imam. We know he's innocent." As we noted in January, we've seen this before with Mike Hawash - the Oregon engineer who rallied the religious community (including the outspoken support from the United Church of Christ) but later confessed to trying to join the Taliban.

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Clergy Leadership Network Bankrupt?

According to the Center for Public Integrity, as of April 15, 2004, the Clergy Leadership Network has expenditures of $79,237 while only bringing in $51,570. Even more interesting, $45,000 was donated by one source: George Soros' "Americans Coming Together." If fundraising is any indication of their support, the Clergy Leadership Network is in trouble.

Updated 4/21/2004: The Center for Public Integrity updated contributions and expenditures for the Clergy Leadership Network... only $2,770 raised in 2004.

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Amistad Challenge

As politics and faith get more intertwined in this election year, the political focus of the UCC national leadership continues to be the war in Iraq. It's worth noting that before the war in Iraq, the United Church of Christ (and for that matter, the NCC and Churches for Middle East Peace) did nothing to encourage the UN weapons inspection program and instead focused on ending the sanctions. Dexter Van Zile summed it up best in his article, "Amistad Challenge":

The inconsistent political morality is most obvious when you contrast the UCC reaction of war with Iraq to the genocide in Rwanda. While folks in the UCC national office (like John Thomas and Bernice Powell Jackson) grind their teeth about Iraq, they have completely ignored information that our government knew in advance that hundreds of thousands of Rwandans would be slaughtered. And it's not just Rwanda and Iraq. From the suicide bombings in Israel to the nuclear weapons program in North Korea, the political morality of the UCC is opportunistically reactive and not proactive. This isn't about faith and peace, it's about politics.

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National Council of Churches to Remember Rwanda

The National Council of Churches will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide on April 23rd. From the NCC announcement: "For all the horror of the Rwandan Genocide, it remains largely a forgotten episode in the recent history of the world for most Americans," said Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, the NCC's associate general secretary for international affairs and peace. The depth of horror of the Rwandan genocide should never be forgotten... and we shouldn't forget our culpability since we knew it was going to happen.

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Ohio Conference Minister Suspended

Rev. David Schwab has been suspended "pending an investigation into an allegation of misconduct". According to the Associated Press, "Church officials won't say what the nature of the complaint was against the Reverend David Schwab because of confidentiality rules".

While he deserves the presumption of innocence and the respect of confidentiality, in light of the scandals in the Catholic Church, the conference and denomination have a responsibility to the membership and the public to disclose the nature of the complaint against the conference minister without disclosing specific information.

Updated 4/07/2004: After seeing some discussions in different forums about the roll of the church in disclosing the nature of the allegations, a clarification of our own needs to be made: Pastors, like school teachers, serve a unique and very public role which separates them from other vocations. If a teacher was suspended for "misconduct", it's reasonable for parents to know what the nature of the offense was. That doesn't mean they are entitled to the seedy details, but they deserve to know enough to determine that their child is safe. The same principle applies to churches and pastors.

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$$ AGAIN! $$

UCC enlisted to support Comcast

Updated 4/05/2004: Comcast woos public-interest types - "Simon's first assignment is to build support for Comcast's bid to buy Disney among the public interest community and to track web blogging about Comcast".

Updated 4/04/2004: Flop Shock - United Church of Christ filed petition AGAINST Comcast / AT&T merger in 2002

Updated 4/04/2004: Still more - Comcast refused Anti-War Ads During 2003 State Of Union; UCC minister outraged

Updated 4/04/2004: Learn More - Mother Jones article explains how Issues Dynamics manufactures grass-roots campaigns

First it was WorldCom's competitors who leveraged the support of the UCC in their corporate fight against WorldCom, now Comcast is enlisting the UCC in their effort to take over Disney. Sam Simon of Issue Dynamics, Inc. (IDI), the architect of the WorldCom fiasco, is again at the center this new controversy.  From the Wall Street Journal:

MICKEY MOUSE POLITICS: Comcast Corp. hires Washington hands to aid Disney takeover bid. The cable operator enlists advocacy firm Issue Dynamics after the proposed deal draws criticism from public interest critics of media mergers. IDI's founder, ex-Naderite Samuel Simon, helps Comcast executive Joe Waz pursue allies. "They said they wanted to 'build bridges between public corporations and business groups,' " says Celia Wexler of Common Cause. "We made it clear we still thought the merger was a bad idea." Comcast also reached out to the United Church of Christ, where former Federal Communications Commissioner Gloria Tristani works as information chief. Though Mr. Simon has public-interest pedigree, his firm represents corporate titans from Verizon to Novartis.

Robert Chase, director of the UCC's Office of Communication, Inc. (which petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to block the transfer of WorldCom's federal licenses), serves on the board of another "advocacy" and lobbying firm headed by Simon, the Telecommunications Research & Action Center. Both also serve as co-chairs of the United Church of Christ / OC Inc.'s Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture Planning Committee, which, according to the Washington Post article, operates out of Simon's building.

From the Washington Post article, Chase said he consulted with Simon on the WorldCom issue. "We've worked together on this and other projects," Chase said, describing Simon as "a trusted friend and confidante." The same article also described IDI:

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Response from Rev. Hagler

Rev. Graylan Hagler sent a response to last month's article "11th Commandment: Thou shall strike". Thanks to Rev. Hagler for his feedback.

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Zionist Conspiracy Theory

The Churches for Middle-East Peace (CMEP) (which the UCC is a member of) have jumped on the "Christian Zionists" conspiracy band-wagon. The theory works like this: Evangelical Christian support for Israel isn't genuine, it's only intended to fulfill scripture. Now, CMEP is circulating a Washington Post article they believe supports the "conspiracy theory". What they didn't circulate was the accompanying article by the same author, on the same day, from the same page titled "Backing Israel for Different Reasons"... and for good reason: The article actually articulates the different reasons for evangelical support. Of course, this doesn't support the "conspiracy theory" so it doesn't get circulated. From the article:

This "conspiracy theory" is now the strategy of the UCC which was affirmed in a General Synod resolution. The idea now is to paint all Christian support for Israel as an evil Zionist plot, which is simply not true. But it is consistent with the UCC political strategy: If you can't change minds with the truth, lie.

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