I hear from time to time the charge that "faithful progressives aren't doing anything while conservatives pervert their religion." That's patently untrue, and I for one am sick of hearing it. Below the fold, a roundup of some recent events that paints a very different picture of what liberal Christians, at least, have been up to.
In an
excellent post yesterday, Fred Clarkson picked apart an
American Spectator article attacking the "Ejector Seat" ads:
For a quarter century, the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), bankrolled by the founding funders and architects of the institutional right in Washington, DC, (such as the Heritage Foundation), has waged a war of attrition against the historic churches of mainstream Protestantism. This gang of social and foreign policy conservatives have planted bogus stories with the media, and deployed staff to foment dissent, and to organize conservative factions into dissident formations throughout the churches as if they were strategic targets in a global war. All this and much more.
...
The Spectator is best known for receiving financing from Richard Mellon Scaife to run smear articles against President Bill Clinton as part of what was called "the Arkansas Project." Uncoincidentally, Scaife was one of the founding funders of IRD and remains a major contributor.
The purpose of the IRD is to neutralize the theological, social and public policy views of the mainline churches and to dismember them through schism. Indeed, IRD has a program, partly underwritten by Scaife-controlled foundations, explicitly aimed at fomenting schisms.
Like I said, it's an excellent piece: read it especially for the background information. I wish that Fred had taken on Mark Tooley's dishonest arguments a little more directly, however. For example:
Last year's decision by the UCC to become the first major U.S. denomination formally to endorse same-sex "marriage" only contributed to the UCC's membership plunge. At least one hundred congregations have voted to leave the UCC just since 2005, as recorded by www.faithfulandaffirming.org. The ultimate number probably will be several times that.
According to the UCC, dozens of "gay-friendly" congregations are seeking to affiliate with the UCC. But they are not likely to compensate for the annual loss of tens of thousands of members. In 2004 alone, the UCC lost over 30,000.
As I've written before, the "Faithful and Welcoming" numbers are unsourced and at odds with those reported by the denomination. Tooley also conveniently overlooks the size of some of the congregations entering the UCC: just two of them shared 11,000 members between them.
And this is just B.S.:
Neither its steep decline nor its inability to reach beyond a narrow demographic has inclined the UCC toward modesty or self-reflection. Instead, the UCC has launched www.accessibleairwaves.org to complain about the lack of media attention for political pronouncements from the UCC and other declining, liberal led mainline Protestant denominations. The media prefers the Religious Right, the UCC frets.
Accessible Airwaves mentions those political statements in the context of Sunday-morning political shows. The point is not that the UCC's views should be heard, alone and out of context, but that those views are unfairly neglected in favor of the political pronouncements of more conservative guests. More important, AA has been clear that their goal is not to increase the political representation of the UCC, but to make space for all denominations to actually, you know, talk about church stuff. Part of the problem is exactly that Christianity has become politicized in the past few years. Personally, I'd love it if John Thomas and other leaders didn't have to make political statements: it'd mean the Kingdom had finally come. For now, however, churches exist in a political world, and we will have something to say on that world from time to time. Why should moderate denominations be forbidden, while conservative advocates are allowed to talk away unfettered?
Speaking of John Thomas, he's interviewed in this New York Times article, focusing in part on his speech at Gettysburg College last month:
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."
Apparently, the campaign is already having some kind of effect:
Financed in part by wealthy religious conservatives, the Institute for Religion and Democracy provides information to so-called renewal groups made up of conservative dissenters within the mainline churches. Mr. Rempe played down its efforts, saying it included an annual meeting "and some press releases and a couple of traded e-mails."
But experts on American Protestantism argue that the institute plays a far greater role in nurturing dissent and organizing a broader movement across denominational lines to battle leaders of the mainline churches.
Professor Balmer attended last year's annual meeting of the renewal groups organized by the institute's Association for Church Renewal
"A lot of the rhetoric was triumphalist," he said. "They thought they could use issues of homosexuality, gay clergy and same-sex unions to take over their denominations."
Others have joined the United Church of Christ in speaking out. Recently, the Rev. Michael Livingston, the new president of the National Council of Churches of Christ U.S.A., told a meeting of representatives of the group's member churches, "Mainline Protestant and Orthodox churches have been pounded into irrelevancy by the media machine of a false religion; a political philosophy masquerading as gospel; an economic principle wrapped in religious rhetoric and painted red, white and blue."
But not everybody's happy, as we've seen from the debates even around here. The Times includes a word of caution:
Although some mainline Christians feel energized by the new toughness, others worry that such an approach could threaten the very pluralism that the mainline churches have come to stand for and the gospel of love that so many preach.
"I think this is a dangerous place to be," said Mr. Sharen of Yale. "You stand to lose the integrity of 'turn the other cheek.' "
A fair enough point, but I believe that even having that debate is healthy for the church as a whole. More to the point, I think Thomas and his leadership team at the UCC have discerned (correctly) that the future of the denomination is with people who want the church to stand up to right-wing bullies. That advocacy is a requirement if the UCC is to bring "cultural Christians" back into the church.
On a somewhat related note, the IRS is apparently twiddling its thumbs on a complaint lodged against the churches behind the "Patriot Pastor" campaign in Ohio. The groups that lodged the complaint are stepping up the pressure:
The group often notes that the agency is investigating All Saints Church, a large liberal Episcopal church in Pasadena, Calif., over a sermon in 2004 that imagined a debate among Jesus, President Bush and Senator John Kerry, then the Democratic presidential candidate, and asks why the agency has not begun a similar audit of the two Ohio churches, which are conservative.
All Saints has denied wrongdoing and said the tax agency had not responded to its lawyers' calls.
The Rev. Eric Williams of North Congregational United Church of Christ in Columbus has been coordinating the activities of the critical group and said it was sending a second letter to Mr. Everson because the troublesome activities were continuing. "The I.R.S. really needs to take a more proactive stance if it's truly concerned about the political activities of all churches," Mr. Williams said.
The accused churches aren't happy:
A spokesman for World Harvest Church, Giles Hudson, said the tax agency had not contacted his church.
"This latest complaint filed by a group of left-leaning clergy amounts to nothing more than a campaign of harassment, and with the primary election just three weeks away, the timing couldn't be more obvious," the church said in a statement.
No one returned messages seeking comment from Fairfield Christian.
However you want to evaluate this situation, the tail end of the article sums up everything that's wrong with Christianity today, in my humble opinion:
The critics' group says that the two churches' activities continue to support the gubernatorial candidacy of Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell almost exclusively, violating requirements that nonprofit organizations treat all candidates in a race even-handedly.
In 2004, Mr. Blackwell flew to three events on the World Harvest Church plane with its pastor, the Rev. Rodney L. Parsley, to protest same-sex marriages. Mr. Blackwell paid $1,000 for the flights, The Associated Press said, and Mr. Hudson noted that Mr. Blackwell took the trips before he was officially a candidate.
Why the hell does a single church need its own plane? And why - for the love of God, why - are they flying candidates around on it, officially declared or not? "Birds have nests and foxes have dens, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head," said Jesus. If I ever have my own plane, remind me of that quote.
To summarize: progressive Christians are pushing back against politicized conservatives attempting to take over our denominations. We're working to undo their dominance in the corporate media. We're challenging their abuse of tax exemptions for churches. We've been working to bring gays and lesbians, among other minorities, to full inclusion in the church. We've also made alliances with Planned Parenthood. All that's left is to start (or build up) an institute aimed at helping families, and pretty much all the bases are covered. Oh, and help get out the message that atheist/secularist does not equal demonic. We'll work on that.
But don't tell me progressive Christians are sitting back and rolling over. We are standing tall, speaking out, and moving on. We need the help of progressives of all stripes, and we offer ours wherever and whenever we can be of service.
And now, because you all have been very patient in reading this monstrosity of a post, a little bonus. Here's a list of well-known members of the UCC, found on Wikipedia while I did some research:
# U.S. Senator Judd Gregg (Republican Senator -- New Hampshire)
# U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka (Democratic Senator -- Hawaii)
# U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords (Independent Senator -- Vermont)
# U.S. Senator Max Baucus (Democratic Senator -- Montana)
# U.S. Senator Jon Corzine (Democratic Senator -- New Jersey)
# U.S. Senator Barack Obama (Democratic Senator -- Illinois)
# Former U.S. Senator Bob Graham (Democrat -- Florida)
# Civil rights leader and former member of Congress, UN ambassador, and mayor of Atlanta, GA, Andrew Young (Democrat -- Georgia). Young is also an ordained UCC pastor. [15]
# Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean
# Bill Gates
# Iowa Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson
# David Letterman
# H. Richard Niebuhr and Reinhold Niebuhr, theologians
# Paul Tillich, theologian
# Walter Brueggemann, contemporary theologian, poet, and UCC minister
# Phillip Schaff and John Nevin, theologians [16]
# Former Virginia Governor Mills Godwin
# Marilynne Robinson --Pulitzer prize-winning (2005) author of the novel Gilead
# Leonard Pitts-- Nationally syndicated Pulitzer prize-winning (2004) columnist
# Julian Bond -- Chair NAACP (2004-present) and the first African American nominated as Vice-President of the United States
Interesting, neh?