Thesis One. The viewpoint and actions of General Synod and national staff have, in churches, little effect on church members. Members don't care about what takes place 'up there,' except as their minister's unhappiness with national brings it to their attention.

Thesis Two. For leaders who tout openness and inclusivity, national staff are singularly and incredibly unwelcoming of divergent ideas and practices and people and organizations that run counter to their views. The sharp divide between the stated piety of inclusiveness and exclusionary practices is infuriating.

Thesis Three. Membership and church loss is a local and not a national matter. Loss is sometimes the result of changing community demographics, sometimes it is the result of members souring on the church, and sometimes it is the result of poor ministerial leadership. 'The fault, dear ministers, is not in our stars (national), But in ourselves.' (Shakespeare)

Thesis Four. A church's growth is not tied to the church being conservative, traditional or liberal. In any large community, there are enough people who would make a sizeable congregation with any theological outlook. For example, liberal churches can grow. In this area of the country in the last 35 years Unitarian Universalists have gone from three churches and a fellowship to eight churches and two fellowships, whereas, during the same period, four of six newly-started UCC churches folded.

Thesis Five. The primary reason for membership growth, or lack thereof, is the personality, style and message of the minister: how shall they hear without a preacher? Will not people find themselves drawn to a Christian community where the minister is, as Turtullian put it, 'a human being fully alive.'

Thesis Six. We UCC clergy are singularly inept at evangelism, largely because we have no mindset for it. This came to my attention when a Southern Baptist minister told me that he was clearly sent forth from seminary 'to grow churches,' and I realized that we were told to go out 'to serve churches.' One is evangelistic and the other is institutional.

Thesis Seven. One symbol of our bondage to an institutional view of the ministry is the use of the word 'pastor.' Pastor brings up images of caring for the flock (parish) and avoiding stealing sheep. That honored word helps to keep our work institutionally and internally focused. The word needs to be retired or given a proper burial.

Thesis Eight. A tremendously powerful addition to ministry has been Clinical Pastoral Education. It focuses participants on self-discovery, group interaction and institutional work. That focus on working in an institution reinforces our non-evangelistic outlook and practice.

Thesis Nine. Clergy groups need to find ways to overcome our self-centered and institution-centered profession. John Wesley had it right when he said, "The world is my parish."

A former Methodist pastor who joined the United Church of Christ and rose to national leadership positions after leaving Wisconsin has been charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old boy in 1987 while pastor of a church in Rice Lake.

Angel R. Toro, 56, is scheduled to appear April 25 in Barron County Circuit Court in northwestern Wisconsin on four felony counts of third-degree sexual assault and two felony counts of child enticement.

Toro, who apparently left Wisconsin in 1989, was pastor of the First United Methodist Church from about 1987 until his departure, said Rice Lake police Detective Chris Fitzgerald.

The incidents are alleged to have occurred on two days in a church washroom and church office after Toro picked the boy up to do work at the church and bought beer for them to drink, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday.

Toro was granted ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ in October 1997 and became pastor of Chapel on the Hill in Seminole, near St. Petersburg, Fla., said the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, a national church spokesman.

Acclaimed for increasing attendance there from about 30 people to 500 people, Toro has served on the denomination's 90-member executive council, was on the team that implemented the "God is still speaking" national identity campaign and is a past president of the Local Church Ministries Board, one of the denomination's four national ministry boards.

Toro, who says he is innocent of the charges, had been on a leave of absence as pastor since late January. On March 19 he resigned his ministerial standing with the United Church of Christ and his position as pastor out of concern for the church, the Rev. Jean Simpson, regional conference minister for the Gulf Coast of Florida, said Wednesday. To be reinstated, he would need to undergo a fitness review.

Time limits extended

Toro was able to be charged because he left Wisconsin to live in another state, which stops the clock on the time limits within which a person can be charged.

Peter Isely, Midwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, issued a release praising prosecutors and saying that Toro will be the 15th clergyman brought back to Wisconsin to face child molestation charges since 2002.

If Toro fails to appear in court in April, an arrest warrant will be issued, Fitzgerald said.

Thomas is speaking out against a decision by Major League Baseball to pit the Cleveland’s baseball franchise – with its racially-charged “Indians” nickname and “Chief Wahoo” logo – against the St. Louis Cardinals in the annual exhibition game that honors the nation’s Civil Rights Movement.

“America’s pastime ought to reflect America’s noblest values,” Thomas told United Church News. “Logos and mascots that demean anyone fall far short of that vision.”

The use of the “Indians” name in sports is widely offensive to American Indians and the team’s “Chief Wahoo” is regarded by many to be a racist caricature of Native Americans. Its use is often spoken in parallel to the “Little Black Sambo” caricature of African Americans, which dates to the early 1900s.

Labels are for jars, not people.

Labels are intended to describe who we are, what we have done, or some other characteristic. However, labels never tell the whole story. At best, they only speak of a small part of who we are. They can be based on fact or perception. I am white. Madison is African American. Those are facts. You can tell that from a distance without ever meeting us. Some people refer to me as "disabled." Am I disabled? Well those who are visiting today would no doubt say, "Yes, of course you are!" But those who have known me for years would probably argue with you by stating all my life accomplishments. Am I disabled? It is a matter of perception. I have a disability, but does that make me disabled? Some will think it does, but others won't.

SEMINOLE - The pastor of a United Church of Christ congregation has resigned, within a week before he was charged in Wisconsin with sodomizing a teenage boy while a pastor there in the late 1980s.

Toro has not been arrested. Rather, he is required to show up in court in Wisconsin sometime in mid-April to answer to the charges, said Chris Fitzgerald, the detective in the case. The Pinellas Sheriff’s Office said there are no pending local charges.

Wright's Chicago mega-church, Trinity United Church of Christ, imposes strict requirements on journalists who want to speak to the pastor. Reporters must sign two sets of legal papers on behalf of their news organizations before any interviews in order to be allowed inside the church.

The church has a list of what it calls "policies and procedures for use with outside media sources" or OMS for short. The paperwork states that the journalist will "fact-check the article" with the reverend's daughter, Jeri Wright, who is his media services director. The journalist also agrees to "give a full and fair idea of what to expect from the story." In addition, the journalist promises to give the church "any quotes derived from the interview process, prior to publication" and promises that all published quotes "are original quotes and will not be altered by the OMS in any way."

The second agreement, entitled "official waiver for use with outside media sources," states that "any infraction" of the church's OMS policies and procedures would lead to the reporter's "immediate removal" from the church and the confiscation of all interview notes and photos.

A church spokesperson told Newsweek the papers were designed to "protect our church and its pastoral staff and congregation."

The president of our denomination, the Reverend John Thomas, has offered to try to help you clarify in your confused head what Trinity Church is even though you spent the entire weekend with us setting me up to interview me for what turned out to be a smear of the Senator; and yet The New York Times continues to roll on making the truth what it wants to be the truth.

In fact, I just shared with, I was trying to remember who it is, somebody in public life was asking me about Barack, and I said listen, Barack might be forced by the media and/or by supporters to be very absent from this church and to put distance between our church and himself.

I know that much more reporting on Obama’s church is inevitable. As Wright said to Kim Lawton in what sounded like a tone of experienced resignation, “You think it’s ugly now. It’s going to get worse. It’s going to get much worse.”

Barack Obama made a conscious decision to become a Christian while attending Trinity United Church of Christ. For Christians and others who are inclined to vote for him anyway, that probably will be enough reason to allow Jeremiah Wright his political, social and theological hobby horses and not to assume that Obama predictably rides alongside him.

A lot of what I read on that site feels like posturing. James Hutchins knows the rules we live by here, and the reasons why it was set up that way. But he feels like he can get some mileage out of playing the persecuted victim or our conspiratorial attempts to silence him.

Roses & Raspberries

By: North County Times Opinion staff -

The 'Least of My People' award

A raspberry, albeit a conflicted one, to the folks gathering petitions outside of Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad last week to pressure the church into not welcoming a convicted child molester into its congregation.

Mark Pliska's admitted crimes are terrible; there is no doubting that. But the fact that he volunteered the information to the congregation should stand for something. The church's pastor, the Rev. Madison Shockley, said they were already struggling with how to proceed. They didn't need the petition drive outside their doors, organized by Vista's Jessica Muehlhausen, to arouse their conscience.

Muehlhausen's concerns are certainly understandable. Two of her children attend Pilgrim Children's Center next door to the church. She told our Gary Warth: "I think he should attend a church that doesn't have a children's center. If Pilgrim Church wants to save this man, they can do some kind of outreach at his home or off campus." She said it didn't matter that the preschool would be closed Sundays, when Pliska was attending services.

As a society, we have not figured out how to deal with convicted sex offenders who have paid their debt to society. The November passage of Jessica's Law, which would track sex offenders for life via electronic bracelets, won't apply to the men and women whose crimes were committed before Nov. 7.

But look what happened in this case: TV coverage of Muehlhausen's petition drive prompted Pliska to be evicted from his Escondido home. On Friday, he was fired from his job. Do we really think that homeless, unemployed convicted sex offenders are better for our communities than those who have tried to find shelter in a supportive church?

Because the United Church of Christ is structured as a democracy, it will be up to the Pilgrim congregation to decide whether Pliska is allowed to worship there.

It's a question yet to be answered. “This is one of those learn-as-you-go situations,” said the pastor.

Dorhauer doesn't like to be asked for facts or questioned at all about his conspiracy. His web site limits comments to only those that are supportive while people who ask questions are called "trolls" and asked to leave or are kicked off. For his upcoming seminar, he has limited those who can attend because it "is purposely designed for pastors and these authorized ministers only".

"First, tain't my website. I don't make the rules, but I damn sure follow them. The website was intentionally not designed to be a no hold's barred interactive forum, but simply a place where those who were doing research could share the information."

another troll deleted and banned

Every once in awhile, someone joins this site under false pretenses in order to respond to a post or a comment.  

In order to join and participate in this site, you have to check off a box indicating that you agree with the purposes of the site. If you do not share our purposes and join the site anyway, you are a liar and a fraud. Here in the blogosphere, we call such people trolls.  Most trolls are cowards who hide behind pseudonyms to get away with saying what they would not otherwise dare to say to someone to thier face.  Other trolls use their own names, but somehow think that the rules apply to everyone but them.
As the site co-owner, I just deleted the comment of a cowardly troll and banned the person from posting on the site.

People who do not agree with the purposes of this site are free to post elsewhere. It's a big blogosphere.

by Frederick Clarkson on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:13:30 PM EST

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) will deliver the fifth Valerie E. Russell Lecture on June 25 at General Synod. The lecture, presented by the UCC-related Christians for Justice Action, is part of CJA's biennial luncheon, where the "Burning Bush Awards" will be presented to largely unsung UCC justice advocates.

Frank, who has served Massachusetts' 4th Congressional District since 1981, is chair of the House Financial Services Committee. Before coming to Congress, he was a Massachusetts State Representative and an assistant to then-Mayor Kevin White of Boston. He has also taught at several Boston area universities.

CARLSBAD ---- Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad has long been known for being open and accepting, but that philosophy has been put to the test recently as members struggle to decide whether a convicted child molester should be allowed to attend services.

"One of our parents said, 'As hard a conversation it will be to tell my child that there's someone in my church who can harm him, it'll be equally hard to tell him why the church is sending that person away,'" said the Rev. Madison Shockley, the church pastor. "This is a highly charged, emotional and psychological issue."

Mark Pliska, a registered sex offender from Escondido, told the congregation about his two convictions on Jan. 28, his fourth visit to the church.

Shockley said he asked Pliska not to return until the congregation could consider what, if any, actions it should take. The church has run its preschool next door, Pilgrim Children's Center, for 30 years.

About 150 adults and 30 to 40 children attend services at Pilgrim Church each Sunday, Shockley said

Shockley said it is important to note that Pliska never tried to hide his 1983 and 1998 convictions, but revealed them to the congregation because he wanted to be accepted for who he is and to put his past behind him.

"He's been a person who, in my conversations with him, is determined to make a better life for himself," he said. "We have to consider not only what it means to receive him, but what it means to send him away."

Barring him from services would send a message to other registered offenders that it is better to stay underground, which Shockley said would create a greater threat than having them come forward.

"My point is, it's not a simple thing to just say, 'Go away,'" he said. "This is a very challenging struggle ---- the most challenging of my ministry."

Shockley said the petition will not be a factor in the church's decision on how to handle the situation, which he sees as a theological struggle for a church that believes in "the extravagant welcome of Jesus."

"Jesus welcomes everybody, so the reason we have a struggle is that we're trying to honor that principle," he said.

This is a tactic we have encountered many times from those active in the BWF. Letters are written to churches without the Conference knowing about it; and to church members without the pastor being aware of it. It is a serious breech of what most would recognize as covenantal, ethical, and professional boundaries - and bespeaks a level of underhandedness for which we have come to know the BWF.

All of this suggests that we are being watched and monitored very closely. It also suggests that we are hitting pretty close to the mark, and have become a serious threat to a couple of organizations that have been functioning under the radar for far too long.