Archive

From August, 2004:

Mirror of Pain

August 24, 2004 - UCC Justice and Witness Ministries is collecting material to create a "Wall of Pain" to draw attention to those who do not have health care insurance coverage. Somewhere in their self-righteousness, Justice and Witness Ministries will probably gloss over their own lack of attention to the healthcare crisis - particularly the crisis at the UCC-affiliated Advocate Healthcare of Illinois. Advocate is being sued by former patients because of the higher prices uninsured patients are forced to pay:

The lawsuits contend that the hospitals charge uninsured patients undiscounted prices and then use aggressive collection methods, including the seizure of assets and garnishing of wages.  These cases accuse the hospitals of breaches of contract, breaches of good faith and fair dealing, breaches of charitable trust, consumer fraud and violations of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA).   EMTALA requires that hospitals treat patients in emergency cases regardless of whether they are insured or not. The lawsuits contend the hospitals would not admit a patient unless the patient agreed to pay charges in full.

The Illinois Attorney General has also publicly stated that the price discrimination against the uninsured “as alleged in the complaint, violates public policy."

If Justice and Witness Ministries cannot address the issues with it's own affiliated hospitals, how can it speak on the broader issues of healthcare with any credibility?

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More Politics in the Pulpit

August 22, 2004 - It was bound to happen... Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and an ordained UCC minister, has effectively created squads of "big brothers" to spy on the political communication of conservative-leaning churches.

In response, groups are popping up to monitor Liberal-leaning churches. According to RatOutAChurch.org, left-leaning churches are now being spied on.

Is this insane or what?

This is the black hole that politics in the pulpit have put us in and both sides are guilty. Whether it's voter guides from the Christian Coalition or the UCC's disingenuous voter-registration drives that target politically beneficial demographic areas, this isn't how churches should witness their faith.

But be careful to question a church about politics... the first response you get will be a stern reminder of the role churches played in the civil rights movement, as if it that magically trumps any challenge to the churches role in politics. To some political churches, the ends do justify the means... even if it's contrary to the fundamentals of faith.

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Better late than never

August 15, 2004 - The National Council of Churches has finally taken a first step in proactive action on Sudan by forming the "Save Darfur Coalition". Among the action items suggested by the group:

·        encourage worldwide efforts to stop the displacement and end the crimes

      against humanity
·        demand massive worldwide governmental humanitarian support and

      access to match the need
·        help in the relief efforts by supporting organizations giving aid
·        promote efforts to rebuild villages and return the displaced
·        call for a UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate war crimes, crimes

      against humanity and genocide

We have been encouraging these actions since May and this new initiative is a signal that the National Council of Churches is ready to engage the international community on Sudan - a step it hasn't made until now. Now it's the UCC's turn to support this initiative.

Missing from the list of suggestion is the use of U.N. armed peace keepers as Human Rights Watch has suggested. This is critically important as we learn this morning that 180 men, women and children were slaughtered in a UN refugee camp in western Burundi by Burundian Hutu rebels. The victims were hacked with machetes and shot at with automatic weapons.

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Former CLN director quits DNC

August 10, 2004 - Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson, former director of the Clergy Leadership network, has resigned as director of religious outreach for the Democratic Party... after only a few weeks on the job. Peterson came under heavy criticism for her support of a lawsuit that tried to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.

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Free Lunch

August 9, 2004 - Apparently there is such a thing called a "free lunch". According to UC News, the United Church of Christ settled a "defamation lawsuit brought by a non-UCC pastor who had claimed that staff persons from two UCC Conferences in Pennsylvania had made false statements about him to local church search committees." The article continues, "the settlement of $400,000 will be covered by insurance and, therefore, will not involve members’ contributions to Our Church’s Wider Mission."

Huh?

It's reasonable to assume that a $400,000 claim would bring an increase in insurance premiums... and the money to pay for it doesn't grow on trees.

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UCC church investigated for mixing politics

August 9, 2004 - According to the Washington Times, Americans United for Separation of Church and State "is looking into" an incident that occurred during the Democratic National Convention:

During the Democratic National Convention, a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago endorsed Mr. Kerry in a live address to delegates via satellite as he stood in his sanctuary with other congregants. "We want to get that cowboy out of the White House," Jim Montgomery told the Democratic delegates, arguing that America's respect around the world has been "severely impaired by the Bush administration," its policies and "the lies, the deceit, the duplicities." Mr. Lynn said his group takes all reported violations seriously and is looking into that incident to determine whether it amounted to a church endorsement of Mr. Kerry, even though Mr. Montgomery is not Trinity's minister.

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Rationalization?

August 9, 2004 - A bit of reality from Time Magazine:

WHY IS MAINLINE PROTESTANTISM SHRINKING? Three explanations, proposed over decades, may each have some validity: Mainline churches did not require enough commitment, theologically or evangelistically, from congregants, whose enthusiasm waned accordingly; denominations that started out aggressively courting members turned to other tasks, such as social activism; and mainline birthrates lag behind the national average. Most mainline leaders claim their plight may hold hidden opportunities. The Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, a methodist minister and general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA (whose membership historically has had a strong Protestant presence), notes, "the [Hebrew] prophets never had a majority, and yet they had important things to say. Maybe this is a positive wake-up call for us to worry less about numbers and more about faithfulness and relevancy. It's moral authority, not a function of size." Although plausible, why does this sound a bit like rationalization? Because for centuries Protestantism's huge numbers had significant consequences: it bred most of America's founders and elite, and served as a template for its civil institutions and cultural assumptions.

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UCC minister defends terrorist fundraiser

August 4, 2004 - In a familiar pattern, another UCC minister is publicly defending a Muslim cleric who is accused of funneling money to a terrorist group. Rev. Art Cribbs of Christian Fellowship United Church of Christ in San Diego, California came to the aid of Mohammad El-Mezain, leader of the San Diego branch of the Holy Land Foundation which has been accused of funneling money to the terrorist group Hamas.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

The Rev. Art Cribbs of Christian Fellowship United Church of Christ in Emerald Hills delivered what sounded like a sermon before television cameras and a bouquet of microphones. "We have prayed together on these very steps, we have been in mosques, in churches and cathedrals!" Cribbs said. "He is a deeply loving, a deeply scholarly, a deeply generous person. "I do not believe these charges that have been brought against him, this human being, this father, this religious person, this imam. I do not believe!" Cribbs said to a cheering crowd. The government has presented a very different picture of El-Mezain. According to a 2001 FBI memo, El-Mezain, as leader of the San Diego branch of the Holy Land Foundation, appeared at three Islamic events in the mid-1990s, openly stating that he had raised tens of thousands of dollars for "Hamas terrorists."

This isn't the first time United Church of Christ ministers have defended accused terrorist supporters. Rev. Diane Dulin, pastor of First Congregational UCC in Hillsboro, Oregon rushed to the defense of Mike Hawash who later admitted to conspiracy to join the Taliban. Rev. Stephen Coates of Brunswick United Church of Christ proclaimed that Imam Fawaz Damra was innocent of charges he lied on his immigration forms about his relationship to anti-Jewish and anti-US terrorist groups. Damra was also found guilty.

Cribbs twisted logic was also revealed in a November 2001 article in UC News where he criticized the U.S. attack against the Taliban in Afghanistan because President Bush chose to "use the holy day of his faith to begin military action."

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