You can read the whole letter here. _______________
January 26, 2006 |
|
The year ahead begins with the notice by many churches that they will continue to or start withholding dollars, vital for ministry and mission in the Southern Conference. The total amount is not entirely clear at this point, but the amount will be significant. My question asks why this hurtful withholding effort continues. Two years have now passed and still autonomy but little covenant. My suspicion is that these churches want to predict a future for the Southern Conference, beyond what we together decide to do in our annual meetings and open forums. They want to draw the conference back to a simpler time or "a time when things were simpler and fair," but fair or simpler for whom? Withholding dollars indicates posturing for takeover, not protest. The direction the conference and association meetings have decided to take, decisions made in a fair democratic process, consistent with our polity, should be subverted, even ignored; so some rationalize. To withhold mission dollars suggests that the level of trust in the leadership of the conference and those elected by the people of the Southern Conference seems to mean little to them. Staff persons, their families and their livelihood seem of no importance to those who withhold dollars. What appears important, at any cost, is to make their point. To withhold is an act that suggests these withholding churches have answers that are absolute and good for every one to adhere too, without any compromise or room for continued conversation. |
Since Steve
doesn't seem to understand the problem, I'll spell it out for
him...
Steve, re-read your letter. This letter is all about YOU and
what YOU want. Nothing in it suggests anything YOU are going to
do in the coming year to make things better and to reach out to
the churches that are withholding OCWM funds. YOU seem to think
that covenant is a one way street where the local church owes
YOU something (and please, stop being disingenuous - no one is
trying "takeover" the conference by withholding money). While I
don't agree with their strategy, they are trying to make a
statement and YOU simply are more interested in dictating the
terms of covenant than actually listening. YOU claim there is
autonomy for the local church but YOU apparently forgot that
YOU threatened local churches last July if
they affiliated with the Evangelical Association. YOU know
that letters like that don't demonstrate a respect for the
autonomy of the local church and YOU know that your threats are
hardly enforceable in our polity. So please, for the benefit of
the Southern Conference, stop playing games and stop writing
letters like this until YOU can communicate that YOU have heard
these
voices, understand their concerns (even if YOU don't personally
agree) and commit to working with them.
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January 26, 2006
Praising the "Spin Doctor"
Just when we thought Justice and Witness Ministries might be turning a page in its history and moving on in a more constructive direction, the new Executive Director, M. Linda Jaramillo writes a puff piece praising JWM's former Executive Minister Bernice Powell Jackson titled "Celebrating Rev. Dr. Bernice Powell Jackson".
As has been stated many times before, Jackson's consistent misrepresentation of facts while she was the Executive Minister for JWM was the driving force behind the development UCCtruths.com. In this piece, Jaramillo certainly carries her torch.
For starters, Jackson isn't a "Dr." - she received an honorary doctorate from the UCC-affiliated Defiance College in 1994. While there's no law against using the title in this context, it's certainly representative of her legacy of half truths and why she earned the title "Spin Doctor". From my own farewell to Jackson in December, 2005:
|
Many of the issues she promoted, I supported as well. For instance, her concern about the lack of health care for working Americans and violence in video games are issues that everyone should support, but with honesty. Her distortions about health care coverage at Wal-Mart did little to help the very real issue of health care insurance. There is no doubt that some video games are full of violence but to sign on to a statement about specific video games that hadn't been released and then to misspell some of the names only demonstrated that she really didn't know what she was signing on to.
Particularly disturbing was her distortion of Charles Pickering's civil rights record during his judicial nomination. Instead of sifting through the political rhetoric that accompanies the nomination process, she jumped on to the political bandwagon by linking Pickering to racism even though his state's own civil rights activists (including Medgar Evers brother, Charles) claimed that he was a civil rights champion. Not only does this do a disservice to those fighting for civil rights, it dilutes the message of others who raise legitimate civil rights concerns. |
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January 19, 2006
Much ado about nothing?
Odd UCC Press Release suggests everything's OK
| Since July,
about 49 churches -- or less than one percent of the UCC's
5,725 churches -- have voted to disaffiliate, according to
the denomination's research office. Most, but not all, of
the departures appear related to disagreement with the
marriage- equality resolution. The withdrawals, however, also come amid a resurgence of interest in the UCC by new or existing churches, with 23 congregations affiliating with the UCC during 2005 and an additional 42 churches expressing a "firm interest" in joining. The year also ended with some hopeful financial indicators, including significant increases for some national offerings and special appeals. "The number of departing churches is far fewer than some had earlier projected," said General Minister and President John H. Thomas, who nonetheless described the last half of 2005 as a period marked by "extensive conversation," "education," and at times, "exhaustion." "We grieve the loss of any and every congregation that decides to leave," Thomas said, "not only because of the loss of members but also for the loss of shared history, ministry and fellowship." Based on 2004 financial data, the withdrawing churches -- with a combined membership of 10,535 -- contributed about $89,000 annually to support Our Church's Wider Mission (OCWM), the denomination's shared purse that funds ministries at the Association, Conference, national and international settings. Those receipts represent less than three-tenths of 1 percent of the $32 million contributed to OCWM each year. |
There will be more follow-up on this over the next few days... and feedback on the message board.
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January 18, 2006
More Google stats on UCCtruths.com
|
|
1/11 - 1/18/2006
Unique Browsers: 2,834
Pageviews (or 'Hits'): 10,221
Top 5 Search
Keywords
Since 9/1/2003
Unique Browsers: 488,298
Pageviews (or 'Hits'): 1,438,082
Message Board Comments 9,781
Current members: 310 |
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January 17, 2006
Religion crashes into politics, again and again
New charges accuse Ohio churches of crossing the line
A group of clergy in Ohio have signed complaint sent to the IRS asking for a review of the tax-exempt status of two evangelical churches because their alleged support of Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell who is also a candidate for Governor. From the Associated Press:
|
The complaint to the IRS alleges that the Rev. Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church in Columbus and the Rev. Russell Johnson of Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster improperly used their churches and affiliated entities for partisan politics.
The clergy, from Christian faiths and Judaism, said they were acting individually and not on behalf of their congregations. The two churches defended their actions, saying their efforts were not politically motivated.
"If a church wants to start a political organization and go out and work as a political action committee, it can do that," said Rabbi Harold Berman of Temple Tifereth Israel in Columbus. "But then, it is not eligible for the tax benefits that a church or synagogue has."
The two churches have all but announced their support for Blackwell's campaign, said Eric Williams, senior pastor of the North Congregational United Church of Christ in Columbus.
"For me, it's church and state, not church in state, and I really feel there are some churches in central Ohio crossing that line," Williams said
The complaint alleges that Blackwell was the only gubernatorial candidate showcased in church-sponsored events conducted by Parsley and Johnson. It also alleges that the evangelists' voter-registration campaign was conducted to support Blackwell and that biased voter education materials were distributed by the churches for Blackwell's candidacy. |
The United Church of Christ isn't above similar accusations. Back in September, 2004, Americans United for Separation of Church and State criticized the UCC-affiliated Riverside Church after a speech by former President Bill Clinton. One of the signers of the Ohio complaint, UCC pastor Eric Williams, who is mentioned in the article, is also the subject of scrutiny on mixing politics and religion. From the Columbus Dispatch:
|
One clergy
member who signed the complaint, the
Rev. Eric Williams,
pastor of North Congregational United Church of Christ,
wrote a column for The Dispatch in October 2004 urging the
defeat of state Issue 1, the constitutional amendment to ban
gay marriage that voters later approved. |
So the wall of separation between church and state is defined by the endorsement of a specific candidate? Setting aside the constitutional question about these activities, you have to wonder if this type of activity is good for religion. Although many in our denomination hold the Barmen Declaration in high regard, Barmen was much broader than candidate endorsements - a point missed by our denomination leaders who have the uncanny ability to rationalize the UCC's Our Faith, Our Vote web site which includes voter registration links to the highly partisan WorkingForChange.com. Like so many other things, opinions on separation of church and state within our denomination seemed to be defined by the politics instead of the principle.
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January 16, 2006
Which one are you?
New Google tool shows where UCCtruths.com browsers come from
New web tools from Google make it possible for webmasters to see where traffic is coming from geographically, what search engines they use to find the site and the keywords they use. While we've been using standard web analytic tools for awhile, Google's free tools include more information in a variety of formats. The snapshot above is traffic from today through 8pm EST. The small circles represent 1 - 25 unique browsers, the medium sized circle represents 25 - 50 unique browsers and the large circles represent greater than 50 unique browsers. While it's only been in use for a week, the 2,800 unique browsers puts us on a pace to be well over 10,000 unique browsers for the month! Hopefully Google will include web page integration of traffic reports so real-time traffic reports can be automatically presented on the homepage.
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January 13, 2006
Southern Conference Meeting: What was the purpose?
No questions allowed for UCC President John Thomas
By Guest Columnist, Jami Roberts
On January 12, 2006,
approximately 120 pastors and laity from North Carolina and Eastern
Virginia met with President John Thomas at First Reformed UCC in
Burlington, North Carolina. The event was billed as a “Workshop” but
the actual purpose still remains in question.
Was the purpose to meet the president and listen to him to
poetically address those in attendance for over 70 minutes? Or was
the purpose of the meeting to hear a nice book review with some high
points from Bonhoeffer’s “Life Together”? Or was the purpose of the
meeting to gather various people to give testimonies of affirmation
to the President? Or was the purpose to prevent the expression of
concerns of crisis in the UCC by not allowing a time for questions
or comments? Or was the purpose of the meeting a way to instruct us
in the art of listening better?
If this was what you came looking for in the meeting, then the
meeting for you was a success. If this was not what you were looking
for, then the meeting for you was a failure.
This could have been an opportunity for John Thomas to listen to
individuals talk about the crisis in their churches. This could have
been the pivotal point in the life of some of our “dissenting” SOC
churches who were looking for John Thomas to directly or indirectly
affirm that they are still valued in the UCC. This could have been a
chance to give hope to those individuals and churches who are
questioning whether to stay in the UCC. This could have been a way
to reassure the “dissenting” churches that they are not only allowed
at the UCC table but can also speak. It could have been a time for
John Thomas to hear what was going on in our churches from the
mouths of those on the front lines. One of these should have been
the real purpose of the meeting. Now it is just another missed
opportunity for a much needed conversation.
_______________
ADL to UCC: "You can't have it both ways"
Anti-Defamation League troubled by Sabeel relationship
The Anti-Defamation League has sent a letter to UCC President John Thomas questioning the UCC's relationship to the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center and specifically the UCC's relationship to it's leader, Naim Ateek. From a press release issued today from the ADL:
| "While it is heartening that the United Church of Christ has come out strongly against those who advocate for Israel's destruction, it is troubling that church leaders continue to embrace the Sabeel Center while ignoring statements from its leader questioning Israel's right to exist," said Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, ADL Director of Interfaith Affairs. "You can't have it both ways." |
| The UCC leadership has a strong partnership with Sabeel: Ateek was a keynote speaker at the UCC's 2003 General Synod and in November of last year, both Thomas and Lydia Veliko (Ecumenical Officer for the UCC) praised Sabeel and Ateek's work. Both Thomas and Veliko rationalized Ateek's frequent use of deicide imagery which has been strongly criticized by a variety of groups. From Veliko's comments last month regarding a recent trip to Israel: |
|
| I found it in 2003, and find it now, excruciatingly hard to be a Christian in this land. Our visit to Naim Ateek, founder and director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, reminded me how fragile are the relationships among people of faith. Ateek is strongly criticized by both the Jewish community and conservative Christians for his work to raise the plight of Palestinians in international consciousness. In so doing he uses imagery of the cross, as is customary for liberation theologians and others. Centuries of charges of deicide against Jews, a tradition of which Christians must – and in many cases have – offered sincere apology with repentance, have made it necessary for modern Christians to be very careful about how we speak of the crucifixion, especially in a land as holy to Jews as to Christians. But as Christians we cannot be asked to relinquish our theology of suffering, known to us first and most powerfully in the death of Jesus, because it is in our knowledge of where God is in suffering that we understand both our own suffering and our guilt in that of others. This is a part of what it is to be Christian, and a part of the lens through which we see the world. |
Veliko's claim that Ateek is criticized "for his work to raise the plight of Palestinians" is completely false. As the ADL press release clearly notes, Ateek is criticized because of his questioning of Israel's right to exist:
| Sabeel's founder and leader, Rev. Naim Ateek, has on several occasions openly questioned Israel's right to exist, at one point telling an audience of Christian and Jewish interfaith leaders: "I have come to the point of the reality – but not the right – of Israel's existence." |
But as far as the leadership of the UCC is concerned, the facts and opinions of Jewish leaders do not matter and, unfortunately, the letter from the ADL won't change many opinions in Cleveland. Who is going to challenge Thomas and the UCC leadership on this anyway? The inept Conference Ministers of the UCC, although aware of the concerns raised about Sabeel, lack the courage and the conviction to challenge Thomas openly and would rather play along to get along. They too should share the burden of our leadership's irresponsible support of Sabeel.
_______________
January 9, 2006
Churches leaving UCC gain national exposure
"Losses are not catastrophic" according to UCC
A number of newspapers in the last week have articles about churches leaving the United Church of Christ including the Washington Times and Associated Press coverage of Suffolk Christian Church. From the Washington Times:
|
At least 16 churches outside the Southern Conference have quit the UCC, said the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, the UCC's national spokesman.
|
According to FaithfulAndWelcoming.org, at least 61 churches have voted to leave the UCC since the July, 2005. The list has grown by 11 churches in the last two weeks.
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January 4, 2006
UCCIB on verge of collapse
UCC Insurance Board in serious trouble over liability coverage -again
In another stunning turn of events, the United Church of Christ Insurance Board appears to be collapsing under it's own incompetence. It now appears that UCCIB failed to communicate to Conference Ministers that the new liability coverage would not have full "tail coverage" which would result an enormous risk if claims are made about past incidents that are outside of the new coverage window. Conference Ministers are today scrambling to review this new information to make a determination on whether to proceed with UCCIB. The discovery of this lapse came from third parties and not from UCCIB which has added to the frustration of Conference Ministers. With the new information and the growing lack of confidence in UCCIB, it's hard to believe that the UCC Conferences would continue their relationship with UCCIB - which would effectively end UCCIB.
The United Church of Christ Insurance Board has had a number of problems in the last year. In October, Rev. Bennie Whiten, Jr. took over as acting President and CEO after Tim White resigned. Whiten's short tenure as acting President and CEO has be riddled with a series of miscommunications that left conferences and local churches unsure about the renewal of coverage. In December, under a deadline from conferences to come up with a program, UCCIB announced that it had retained a carrier and, according to UC News, would "continue to offer the same liability coverage".
UPDATES ON UCCIB
COVERAGE WILL BE POSTED AS MORE INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE
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New Year, Same Challenges
United Church of Christ struggles to keep churches, credibility
In an appropriate start to the new year, United Church of Christ President John Thomas will be spending time visiting churches struggling to remain in the denomination including churches in the Southern Conference - and it won't be easy. In July, Southern Conference leaders issued an ultimatum to churches (the letter was originally posted on the Southern Conference web site, but has since been removed):
| As a staff we want to be clear that the position of the Southern Conference is that any church that is affiliated with the Evangelical Association is no longer seeking to be in good standing or in covenant with the United Church of Christ or the Southern Conference. In fact, affiliation with the Evangelical Association means that that church has become a church that is diametrically opposed to the faith and order of the United Church of Christ. The pastor may be in conflict with the vows taken at ordination and the “Pastor’s Code of Ethics” in his or her relationship with the United Church of Christ. Each Association’s Church and Ministry Commission will take these matters under very serious consideration. |
Then in September, Thomas wrote a less-than-pastoral letter to church leaders in the conference (the letter was also originally posted on the Southern Conference web site, but has since been removed):
| In this light, however, it is important to say that the covenants we share include not only our responsibility to engage one another in respectful dialogue from a biblical and theological perspective on crucial contemporary moral issues, but also our commitments to pray for one another across the various settings of the church, to honor those elected to leadership in each setting, and to give financial support to the whole mission of the whole church. For this reason I want it to be clear that I support Steve Camp and the leadership of the Conference, and affirm the pastoral letter that provided clear boundaries around what is to be considered acceptable expressions of dissent. Withholding OCWM support, or aiding groups like the Evangelical Association which encourage disruption of our covenantal life, are not part of the legitimate and appropriate expression of diversity in our common life. (emphasis added) |
Neither the Southern Conference letter nor John Thomas' letter really explains the basis for the power to deem what is and is not acceptable behavior for churches in the conference. Nothing in the UCC constitution forbids a church from affiliating with another group, let alone dissenting. Which makes you wonder - do these letters really say more about the Southern Conference leadership and John Thomas than they say about the churches that are concerned about the UCC? The upcoming meetings on January 11th and 12th should be telling.
_______________
December 26, 2005
UCCtruths.com Top story of the year:
General Synod 25
|
General Synod 25 forever changed our denomination on so many levels. In an ironic way, the issues that received the most attention are probably the least significant in the overall life of the church while the issues that received the least attention broke precedent and will have an impact on the future of our church.
First, there was the "Equality in Marriage" resolution which received a great deal of attention inside and outside of the denomination. However, the resolution didn't really break new ground - churches in the UCC always had the power to marry gays (in states where it is legal) or have church ceremonies that celebrate a gay union. The 'EMR Resolutions' didn't change anything, it only provided a platform of publicity which is really what the crafters of the resolution were after - a platform for making a political statement. Well, that political statement has cost the church. FaithfulAndWelcoming.org puts the number of churches leaving the UCC since July at nearly 50 (the national office of the UCC, which is in a perpetual state of denial, will only say that "at least 20" churches have left). There is also talk that churches in Micronesia will break their affiliation with the UCC as well as the entire Puerto Rico conference over this political statement. While churches leaving the UCC is significant and a reasonable cause for concern, the reaction to the resolution itself is only a symptom of the problems of our denomination.
The marriage resolution wasn't the only thing that happened at General Synod 25 - there were the resolutions on the conflict in Israel. Originally, two resolutions on divestment were presented. An additional resolution on "selective investment" was also submitted just before General Synod began. The committee that was charged with studying these issues |
|
consolidated the divestment and investment resolutions and, after days of deliberations and study, proposed a single resolution that intentionally omitted any reference to divestment. That's when things got ugly.
The night before the vote on the new resolution, UCC President John Thomas (with Bennie Whiten, Jr., Peter Makari and Lydia Veliko) helped create a substitute resolution that inserted divestment language back into the resolution without consulting the committee that spent days studying the issue and without the advice of the Pensions Board of the UCC (who would be responsible for implementing any sort of divestment). The substitute resolution was presented to the plenary of the General Synod 30 minutes before the beginning of the session. With less than an hour of discussion, the General Synod approved the resolutions.
The consequences of the national office (and particularly John Thomas) action at General Synod 25 are enormous. As Mike Downs from UCC Pensions Board said in his letter to John Thomas, questions exist "with the precedent setting implications of voted actions, integrity of process and trust. What will the process be next week, next month or next Synod when an important matter with similar complexities must be considered for action?" Effectively, the deliberations of the committees at General Synod do not matter - if the national office doesn't agree with their findings, they will simply change the resolution. This is a violation of the spirit of General Synod and it's violation of the national office role in respecting the other covenanted bodies of the UCC. If the national office can exert this kind of influence arbitrarily, does General Synod really matter?
Finally, as the year began to wrap up, the UCC Insurance Board (UCCIB) began having problems. After changing CEO's and sending out mixed messages on whether or not churches would have liability insurance, UCCIB settled on coverage on December 13. The fallout is still being realized and UCCIB is probably the leading story going in to the New Year. As many as 7 conferences (including the Kansas-Oklahoma conference) have opted out of the new UCCIB program and new concerns are being raised about the viability of UCCIB with a shortage of conference participation.
2006 is already shaping up to be just as interesting as 2005. As more churches consider leaving the denomination, will the national office have the humility to learn from the past or will they continue making the same mistakes? Will the national office begin respecting covenant as much as it expects the local church and conference to respect covenant? Will the national office stop blaming others and start taking responsibility for some of the problems of the denomination? We know John Thomas will spend January visiting other church leaders concerned about the direction the denomination... will he take responsibility and offer proactive solutions or will we see more ultimatums about "covenantal responsibilities"?
It's our hope for the New Year that John Thomas will stop playing games and start exercising leadership by becoming less reactionary and listening better.
This will be the last post of the year. Next year (next week), this site will have a whole new look and design that will better facilitate users of the site and (hopefully) garner more participation from a variety of people. I want to thank everyone who has contributed their time to this site and in particular, I want to thank Dexter Van Zile, Richard Weinhagen and Don Niederfrank and the nearly 300 message board members.
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LINKS
Links that appear on this site are for informational purposes and should not be considered an endorsement
United Church of Christ
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UCC Coalition for GLBT Concerns
Biblical Witness Fellowship (BWF)
Southern Conference Renewal Network
Evangelical Association
Faithful and Welcoming
Philosophy Over Coffee
Kirkogitation
UCC Directory (including the Executive Council)