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April 29, 2006
Green begins campaign
to save UCCIB
Cathy Green, the
new CEO and President of UCC Insurance Board, has sent a letter to
Conference Ministers outlining her plans to save the organization
with her own commitment to improve communication.
From Green's letter:
Over the past two
weeks, I have been evaluating the overall
situation here in Gaithersburg, getting
acquainted with staff, and meeting with various
partners to ensure that I understand key issues
and am able to set appropriate priorities. While
I'm not in a position to provide a complete plan
at this time, I can say that work is well
underway. Through this, there are two things on
which you can rely. First, my highest priority
will continue to be protecting the interests of
our churches and other participants. Second, I
will keep you regularly informed regarding our
plans and progress. Over the past months,
communication from the UCCIB has been
inconsistent, and that has made it more
difficult for you to sustain confidence in our
program and provide support. It's my intent to
provide updates to you at least on a biweekly
basis through the coming months. I will continue
that frequency at least until we complete our
next renewal and achieve a degree of stability.
I am also available to any of you by calling me
at our Gaithersburg office.
|
The rest of the letter
goes on to outline her priorities for the program.
With the recent decision by the Local
Church Ministries Board of Directors to not offer $12 million in
collateralization to back church premium payments, Green's job has
been made much more difficult. However,
this letter is a great
start and demonstrates that she really understands the challenge she
faces. Churches currently in the program will be well served by her
guidance and churches not a part of the program - and especially
those that just left in the program - should be open to returning if
she is successful.
_______________
April 25, 2006
Andrew
Young condemned by UCC leaders
From
the article:
Regardless of your
opinion on Wal-Mart, it's astonishing how quickly UCC leaders will
turn on our own heroes simply because they have a different opinion
on an issue. Unlike other denominations, the UCC does not have a
rigid hierarchy, tests of faith or require litmus tests for
membership. While UCC President John Thomas and Ron Stief are welcome to their own opinions
on Wal-Mart, they are way out of
line to organize public criticism of Young.
_______________
April 23, 2006
More Trouble for UCCIB
We were extremely hopeful at the
beginning of the month when Cathy Green was hired to lead the UCC
Insurance Board, however, the problems with UCCIB that existed
before she came on board may appear to be too great for her to
salvage - and the future of UCCIB is now in serious doubt.
According to UC News:
The Local Church
Ministries (LCM) Board of Directors on Saturday,
April 22, rejected a request from the United
Church of Christ Insurance Board to provide more
than $12 million in collateral the Insurance
Board needed to secure a line of credit and
ensure its ability to meet premium obligations.
|
The loan was needed to
guarantee that premium payments covering 4,600 churches would be
made... even though "more than 1,500 local churches" of those
churches have already left the UCCIB program. While Green was
confident those churches could be brought back into the program, LCM
wisely rejected the request.
UC News reports
that "depleting cash reserves – tied significantly to recent
hurricanes – as well as mounting costs associated with providing
clergy and church volunteer liability coverage" have been the
biggest problem for the insurance program, however,
UCCIB's lack of communication
dating back a year and a half ago is what caused a number of
churches to start looking at other insurance providers.
While there is probably
much more going on behind the scenes that we aren't aware of, it's
probably safe to say that only a miracle could save UCCIB at this
point.
_______________
April 21, 2006
UCC targets NBC in
twisted political campaign
Three weeks ago, Bob
Chase of the United Church of Christ of Christ's Office of
Communication, Inc.
tried to claim that Sunday morning network news programs "favor
the Relgious [sic] Right". This week, following a politically
balanced Easter Sunday panel on "Meet the Press",
Chase's
new complaint is that no 'mainline' church was represented on
the program.
We can presume from Chase's progression that if the President of the
National Council Churches appeared on "Meet the Press" next week,
Chase would hyperventilate over the President of the UCC being
snubbed by NBC. Sometimes, you just can't win.
What's even more
interesting than Chase's shifting criticism of Sunday morning news
shows is the source of his rants. Chase's original complaint was
based entirely on a
Media Matters
report titled "If it's Sunday, it's conservative". The
report uses a very specific timeline - 1997 to 2005 - to demonstrate
that the Sunday morning news shows have a conservative bias.
However, Media Matters is far from being an independent source of
information.
Media Matters was founded in
2004 by David
Brock - a conservative-turned-liberal muckraking journalist and
author who is credited with the disparaging expose on Anita Hill,
discovering Paula Jones during his investigation of "Troopergate"
and participating in the
Richard
Mellon Scaife-funded "Arkansas Project" to damage Bill Clinton's
Presidency. After writing a biography on Hillary Clinton, Brock
changed teams and made his old conservative friends his new target
for criticism by writing two scathing books about conservatives.
Brock's latest project (and source for Chase's criticism of the
networks), Media
Matters, is funded by left wing extremist (and billionaire) George Soros.
Which brings us back us
back to Brock's Sunday morning news show conspiracy being pushed by
Chase (and
actively promoted on the internet by many left wing groups). The
report itself is highly suspect of bias. The timeframe for the
report relies on dates where the focus of news programming spans the
Clinton scandals during his last term as well as 9/11 and the war
with Iraq during Bush's first term.
Within the context of this very specific timeframe, the networks
seemingly admit that the combination of events and administrations
were reflected in the guests on the show:
If you take
everybody from the Bush administration and label
them Republicans or partisans, we’re a country
at war, and when we
can get someone from the administration [to be a
guest on the show], like the secretary of state,
then we get them. Republicans are in power. I
bet you’d find the same thing during Clinton’s
administration. Except during the Clinton
[/Lewinsky] scandal, it was hard to get people
from the [Clinton] administration to come on [to
be a guest on Face the Nation].
When you have an administration that is not in
the midst of a scandal, [Face the Nation will
host] more people from that administration,
because they’re the ones running the country.
|
It would be interesting,
and probably more accurate, if the report compared the guests on the
Sunday shows during Clinton's first term to guests during Bush's
first term.
In his criticism of the
networks, Chase is quick to note
that James Dobson, Franklin Graham, Al
Moehler, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are regulars on the Sunday
shows, but he doesn't contrast that with the number of appearances
by religious, progressive voices like Jim Wallis, Rev. Jesse Jackson
or Rev. Al Sharpton that are also regulars on the shows. Instead,
Chase disingenuously quips that the "ministries of the United
Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, among others, rarely receive a single
mention."
Is this political fight
really a priority right now for the UCC? While the UCC national
leadership wonders why there is so much cynicism in our
denomination, why membership is declining and why financial
resources are declining... maybe we should be focusing on getting
our own house in order first.
_______________
April 18, 2006
Big
changes in the national office
From UC News:
Collegium to
recommend sweeping plan
for streamlining
national offices,
reducing costs
Written by J. Bennett
Guess
Tuesday, 18 April 2006
At upcoming board
meetings of the UCC’s
four national Covenanted
Ministries, the UCC’s
five-member Collegium of
Officers will propose
sweeping changes,
including eventual staff
reconfigurations, in
order to streamline and
stabilize the church’s
national offices based
in Cleveland, according
to a preview copy of a
report issued to board
members and some staff
on April 13.
Meeting jointly this
week (April 20-22) in
Hartford, Conn., UCC
board members will hear
an in-depth analysis of
the church’s financial
realities. Members will
then be asked to
consider, at least in
its initial stages, a
plan to move the church
toward improved fiscal
health, a proposal that
includes a rethinking of
the UCC’s “top
management structure,”
including the Collegium
itself.
“Structures must always
be evaluated by their
effectiveness in serving
God’s mission,” reads
the Collegium’s report,
quoting from a 1997
restructure document.
“No matter how
venerable, how honored,
how familiar a structure
may be, it must always
be open to reformation,
reshaping and renewal in
order that it might
serve God’s mission more
effectively and
faithfully in a new
day.”
|
More on this later
today.
Join the discussion on the UCCtruths.com
message board.
_______________
April 18, 2006
Jerusalem Post:
"Divestment campaign losing steam"
According to the
Jerusalem Post, the divestment campaign undertaken by some mainline
churches and
other groups is losing
some traction. From the
Jerusalem Post:
Pro-Palestinian
activists in Britain and
North America seem to be
losing ground in their
campaign to punish
Israel through a
campaign of divestment
by churches from
companies whose products
are used in the
territories.
Last week, the Anglican
archbishop of Canada
stated his church did
not back divestment,
while in Britain, the
Church of England's
investment advisers have
assured the Jewish
community that pressure
by pro-Palestinian
activists will not
change their stand
against disinvestment.
Speaking at the Beth
Tzedec Synagogue in
Toronto on April 5,
Archbishop Andrew
Hutchison said, "No
proposal for
disinvestment has come
before us in Canada, nor
is such a proposal on
the agenda for
consideration."
Contrary to published
reports, the Anglican
Communion had not backed
the call for divestment,
Hutchison said. "May I
say right away, on the
authority of the
archbishop of Canterbury
himself, the reports are
not correct," he told
the Jewish-Christian
gathering.
|
This is good news, but
proponents of peace must continue to oppose any effort by mainline
churches to implement a divestment or "Economic Leverage" strategy
that does not reflect the realities of the complicated conflict.
The Presbyterian Church
was the first mainline denomination to approve a divestment strategy
and in June, their General Assembly will consider resolutions
to repeal the
decision to divest and another
resolution will be presented to invest in Israel.
The UCC approved an
"Economic Leverage" (the politically correct language for
divestment) resolution at General Synod last July. UCC President
John Thomas personally worked to sneak divestment language back into
the resolution hours before it was approved - and over the
objections of the committee assigned to study the matter. While
there is still well over a year until the UCC's next General Synod,
resolutions repealing divestment are expected to be presented.
_______________
April 16, 2006
How other churches
advertise on television
|
The
United Methodist Church "Prayer" ad
> SEE THE AD
(Windows
High speed broadband) |
The
Episcopal Church "Complicated Times" ad
> SEE THE AD
(Windows
High speed broadband) |
The United Church of
Christ isn't the only denomination advertising on television during
the Lenten season - the Untied Methodist Church and the Episcopal
Church are both running television advertising. Unlike the UCC ad,
neither of the other ads make reference to other churches and
apparently haven't generated any controversy. The UMC ad was test
marketed and results measured.
From Public Information Office at United Methodist Communications:
The "Open hearts. Open
minds. Open doors."
campaign has been
working to raise
awareness of the United
Methodist Church since
2001. Test market
research last September
showed that half of the
people exposed to the
church's advertising
were "very" or
"somewhat" willing to
visit a United Methodist
congregation, according
to Barna Research Group,
a company based in
Ventura, Calif.
Research conducted after
the August-September
television advertising
in U.S. test markets
reported average
first-time attendance
increases of 9 percent
in September compared to
the same month a year
earlier.
|
Clearly
non-controversial ads can have a positive impact. However, John
Thomas stated in a recent email to conferences and churches of the
UCC that an alternative ad that was not controversial didn't have an
impact. From the email:
Some have urged that we stop airing “Ejector” and replace it with one of
our earlier commercials,
called variously
“Steeples” or “Little
Girl.” In this ad, a
girl plays “Here is the
church, here is the
steeple, open the door
and see all the people.”
The theme is Jesus
welcomes all the
people. We showed this
commercial for a brief
time during the Advent,
2004 run. It is a
lovely ad and our church
members have appreciated
it very much. What we
found, though, is that
it made almost no impact
on the audience. The
people we are trying to
reach who are not part
of the church didn’t
notice it, or found it
predictable and thus
dismissed it. Since the
aim of this effort is to
reach those outside
churches, particularly
those who feel alienated
from church, it seemed
pointless, indeed
unwise, to invest in TV
time for an ad that was
not at all compelling
for our primary
audience.
|
The contrast between the
UMC's independent, scientific research on their ad and John Thomas's
anecdotal analysis of the UCC ad are clear - and so are the results.
While the UCC leadership seems more concerned about trying to
generate a controversy, the UMC is producing results.
It's also worth noting
how the UMC is working with their local churches. Instead of
segregating and dividing their churches based on their support for
the advertising campaign, the
UMC allotted a portion of their campaign budget to award
matching grants to local churches to run the ad.
From the content of the
ads to its implementation, there is an entirely different mentality
and approach to how the two different denominations reach each out
to potential new members. It was asked before and it's worth asking
again: Is our advertising campaign the best we can do?
_______________
April 15, 2006
John Thomas: Ad
criticism only coming from UCC'ers
|
True to form, UCC
President John Thomas recently sent an email out to conference
offices and churches in the UCC downplaying the criticism of the
television advertisement. From his email:
The fact that, to
the extent there is negative reaction, it is
coming from UCC members rather than unchurched
people or ecumenical partners is somewhat
perplexing and I hope we can explore the
implications of this over the next few months.
While I personally celebrate the fact that we do
seem to be effectively communicating to persons
who have not been part of the church community,
we certainly do not seek to alienate any of our
own members, particularly at a time when there
is considerable tension in our life together.
|
He can certainly try to minimize the
criticism of the ad, but the truth is that there are serious and
valid concerns within the denomination and pledges to support the ad
are very low. If the concerns of UCC members aren't enough, the
national television networks clearly have a problem with the ad.
|
|
Chicago Sun-Times
critic gives UCC television ad
a C- grade
From the
Chicago Sun Times:
What viewers will
see, as the spot's title suggests, is various people
seated in a church sanctuary, including a young
black woman with her baby, and a gay couple. One by
one, they are hurled out of the church pews and
through the roof of the church after a hand attached
to an unseen human hits a red button that sets off
giant coiled springs beneath the locations where the
unwanted parties are seated.
While all of this startling business is happening,
the camera also catches various other members of the
congregation casting most disapproving looks in the
direction of the presumably unwelcome churchgoers.
The point of the commercial is made crystal clear in
two lines of copy that appear at the end of the
spot: "God doesn't reject people. Neither do we."
Point taken. And, for sure, there is nothing
inherently wrong with the UCC suggesting it welcomes
everyone into its fold with open arms. What is more
than a little disturbing and insidious about the
work, though, is the way the spot also suggests
other denominations are all about the business of
brutal discrimination. It's an unfair,
unsubstantiated swipe at other denominations, which,
in the end, might not prove very helpful in the
marketing of the United Church of Christ.
Lew's view: C-
|
|
_______________
April 13, 2006
Pledges to support UCC
television ad way down
The idea was a simple one: The UCC national office needed to
generate support for it's identity campaign,
"Still Speaking," from local churches and in exchange for
that support, these churches would be designated as "Still Speaking"
churches. Presumably, by affiliation with the campaign, the
churches that opted-in to the initiative would benefit from
potential new church growth. These "Still Speaking" churches, which
represent about half of all UCC churches, are also asked to
financially support the campaign and television advertising.
According to a
fundraising email sent today to Conferences and churches from Ron
Buford, director of the UCC's Stillspeaking Initiative, the number
of pledges to financially support the ad campaign is very low. From
the email:
As
you all know, our new ad
is running, despite
setbacks in getting to
the TV market. News
coverage in local
markets and in
newspapers has been
phenomenal. Stories have
appeared in more than
100 newspapers and on
hundreds of blogs. For a
sampling, go to
www.stillspeaking.com/media/
In 2004-05, the bouncer
ad helped increase web
traffic to UCC by over
500%! Visits increased
from the usual 950,000 a
year to over 7.1 million
over the last 15 months.
Of those, more than
662,000 entered a city
or zip code to find a
church near them. This
equates to an average of
about 22 new
opportunities each month
for
your
congregation to grow.
Yet so
far, only 250 of almost
2500 Stillspeaking
congregations have
invested in shares to
keep our work going.
I need your help.
We have extended the
deadline until April 22
to receive your
financial commitment.
You have until the end
of 2006 to pay pledges.
We need your assistance
to be just as successful
with this ad as we were
with the "bouncer." Your
monetary support will
insure that our goals of
extending our TV effort
to Mother's Day and
continuing our work
together will be
achieved. Your gift will
also increase the
opportunity
your
congregation has to
become more visible in
your community and
increase opportunities
for your future growth!
Let's grow together. I
know we can do amazing
things.
The Executive Council of
the United Church of
Christ meets later this
month and will decide to
what degree we continue
this work. Your level of
support and the support
of your congregation
will certainly be a
factor.
|
250 out of 2500? Yes,
God is Still Speaking.
_______________
April 13, 2006
Famed UCC Pastor,
William Sloan Coffin, dead at 81
From the Associated Press:
The Rev. William Sloane
Coffin, a former Yale
University chaplain
known for his peace
activism during the
Vietnam War and his
continuing work for
social justice, died
Wednesday at his home in
rural Strafford. He was
81.
Coffin had been
suffering from
congestive heart failure
and had been under the
care of a hospice, said
his daughter, Amy
Coffin.
"He was out in the sun.
Everybody was talking
and then he was gone,"
Amy Coffin said.
"Physically he was
pretty debilitated but
spiritually he was not."
Coffin was immortalized
in the "Doonesbury"
comic strip when its
creator, Garry Trudeau,
blended his character
with that of a Trudeau
roommate who became a
priest, dubbing the
fictitious clergyman
"Rev. Sloan."
Coffin gained prominence
in the 1960s as an
outspoken advocate for
civil rights and against
the Vietnam war. He
joined a group of civil
rights activists known
as the "freedom riders"
and was arrested several
times at demonstrations
against segregation. He
became a leader of the
group Clergy and Laity
Concerned About Vietnam,
which engaged in civil
disobedience, including
offering sanctuary in
churches and synagogues
to draft resisters.
He often spoke of having
a lifelong "lover's
quarrel" with America.
"Bill's voice was part
of a chorus of
conscience for a nation
dealing with issues of
poverty, war,
disarmament, racism and
bigotry," said the Rev.
Frederick J. Streets,
current chaplain of Yale
University Divinity
School. "He
distinguished himself by
rising above and
emerging out of his own
background of privilege
to speak on behalf of
the poor."
|
_______________
April 11, 2006
Denominational
Attention Deficit Disorder
If you've tried
navigating the various UCC web sites lately and gotten dizzy, you
aren't alone. Besides UCC.org,
there is i.UCC.org,
UCCvitality.org,
StillSpeaking.com,
AccessibleAirwaves.org,
RejectionHurts.com,
OurFaithOurVote.org,
UCCtakeaction.org,
GlobalMinistries.org,
UCCcoalition.org and
AskTheQuestion.org.
There may be more we are missing. Clearly, each of these sites have
their own distinctive focus and audience, but is there a cohesive
message in all these disparate web sites?
In the midst of a $1.7
million dollar advertising campaign, you have to wonder what the
effect of the scattered sites really is on new visitors. Sure, the
television ad focuses on the Still Speaking site, but it's only a
couple of clicks before you end up in the endless maze of web sites.
And how about the effect
on current UCC members? One of the great things about the internet
is the virtual community that can be created to build momentum for
just about anything - but it still needs a focal point - a "town
square" of sorts. It requires good planning and focus... and from
the looks of things, we could use a dose of Ritalin.
_______________
April 7, 2006
Lost in translation
Ron Buford and Ben Guess
are either deliberately ignorant or they need to find another line of
work. The
UCC
spin-masters issued yet another press release in an effort to
kick up a faux controversy over the UCC television ads. This time
the duo is targeting MTV-owned LOGO, "a TV channel catering to
the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community" because
MTV won't run the UCC's advertising on the station.
MTV's reason for not
airing the ad? According to the UCC's own
press release:
"Our guidelines state we
will not accept religious advertisements that may be deemed as
disparaging to another religion."
Ignoring the reason,
Buford claims in the release, "I guess the idea of gay TV doesn't
really mean it's your community's network. It's just something
that's targeted at you to sell product."
Does anyone else in the
national office actually read these press releases before they go
out? Buford's response is plainly dishonest and, again, ignores the
simple fact that these television ads are offensive. Guess and
Buford's juvenile response to the rejection is equally offensive.
The UCC's reaction to the networks refusal to run the ads,
regardless of the stated reasons, repeatedly yields one of three
responses playing on race, sexuality or politics - instead of
actually addressing the reasons the networks cite.
_______________
April 7, 2006
Thomas's paranoia hits
the New York Times
UCC President John
Thomas's paranoia about dissent within the UCC is now gaining
national coverage. The New York Times has an article today titled
"Liberal
Denomination Fires Salvos at Right". The article references
Thomas's Gettysburg speech and his conspiracy theory about the
Institute on Religion and Democracy, but it doesn't mention his
tantrum about the Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League -
neither of which are considered right-wing religious groups. From
the article:
In an
interview, Mr. Thomas
said he welcomed
spirited debate about
issues like sexuality.
But he said that in his
March speech he was
speaking out against
those within the church
and outside it who
sought to wreck the
denomination. He said in
his speech, for example,
that some dissenting
groups in the church had
encouraged members who
agreed with them to
withhold donations.
"We need
to be more active in
protecting our churches
from this kind of
behavior," Mr. Thomas
said. "We need to
differentiate between
loving critics and
critics who are looking
to divide and destroy."
|
Well, this loving critic
disagrees. Even though the New York Times may not understand the
internal politics of the UCC, the Gettysburg speech was an attack on
all dissent in the UCC. His wild and unsubstantiated allegations
about Jewish groups conspiring with the IRD to undermine the UCC
were simply lies.
Thomas wants to make
this a debate about sexuality but if you look around this site - you
won't find any criticism about sexuality. For many of us, it's about
Thomas's ability to communicate honestly - and this is a debate and
discussion he doesn't want to have.
_______________
April 5, 2006
United Church of
Christ television ad rejected, again
In another push to
generate publicity, the UCC has issued a press release to promote
the rejection of the new television ads.
According to the press release, a
number of cable television stations including MTV, USA Network,
Discovery Channel and Telemundo have joined broadcast networks in
refusing to run the ads.
The latest spin from the
UCC's national office, however, is taking a different tone . Instead
of claiming that the ads were rejected because of "the
inclusion of gays and lesbians," the latest press release attempts
to draw a parallel of the ad rejection to "the 1950s when some
television stations refused to run network news that positively
portrayed the Civil Rights Movement."
The comparison of the new UCC ad
(which plainly depicts other churches as discriminatory) to the
blatantly racist selectivity of news coverage 60 years ago is a sign
of desperation by the UCC national office. Compared to the
manufactured controversy around the "Bouncer" ads in 2004, the
coverage of this new controversy has barely raised a stir - an
article in the New York Times, a snippet from the AP, an article
from the Religion News Service and a handful of articles from local
newspapers.
Is it possible that the news outlets
(except for the Religion News Service) know a publicity stunt when
they see one?
_______________
April 4, 2006
UCCIB hires veteran
insurance exec as President
According to UC News, UCCIB has hired a veteran of the insurance
industry to serve as President and CEO. According to the article,
Cathy Green brings 18 years of industry experience with her as she
assumes the top position in the UCC's insurance program. Her
experience will hopefully bring some much needed confidence back
into the program that suffered from a number of problems last year.
_______________
|
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