The Rev. Chuck Currie

@RevChuckCurrie On Twitter

Follow my Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/RevChuckCurrie and get updates from my blogs at http://chuckcurrie.blogs.com and http://community.ucc.org/ucc-news.  

Connected

On Twitter at http://twitter.com/RevChuckCurrie .

On Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/chuck.currie .

Linked at http://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckcurrie .

On MyUCC at http://community.ucc.org/ucc-news .

Church life at http://www.parkroseucc.org .  

And the one place you'll find links to at all: On the web at http://www.chuckcurrie.com .

Now On Twitter

You can now follow me on Twitter.

On FaceBook

I now have a Facebook account....to add to my MySpace Page, LinkedIn profile, blog(s), etc., etc.   

MySpace

I'm not sure why but I have a MySpace page. All the sudden super models want to be my "friend."

Walter Brueggemann: Blogger

Walter Brueggemann, author of about a thousand books on the Bible, is now blogging on Theolog, the blog of The Christian Century.  He'll be offering weekly thoughts on upcoming lectionary readings.

"According to the beliefs of your religion, what sorts of electronic materials should not be found on the Internet?"

This morning I was on the campus of UCC-related Pacific University to take part in a panel discussion on the internet.  Panelists - all from different religious backgrounds - were asked this question:

"According to the beliefs of your religion, what sorts of electronic materials should not be found on the Internet?"

Here's how I answered the question:

A generation ago the United Church of Christ successfully challenged the license renewal of several televisions in the South which refused to provide coverage of the civil rights movement.  Can you imagine?  Television stations owned and operated by whites hoped to starve the civil rights movement of publicity and thus ensure its defeat.  They failed, of course, thankfully in part to those Christians who heeded the call of God to seek justice.   

Today the United Church of Christ- through our Office of Communication - continues to be a "leading force in the struggle to ensure that women, persons of color and low-income persons have equal access to ownership, production, employment, and decision making in media."

I suppose as a Christian that I am expected to rail about all the obscenity in the media today - particularly the internet.  In fact, I'm disgusted by much of it.  Too often the internet is used by those seeking to exploit people for profit.  Violence and the exploitation of women have become increasingly mainstream and our society is worse off for it. 

Some religious leaders have in recent years blamed the internet for spreading sexual immorality.  In large part they are reacting to societal changes that have propelled the cause of civil rights for gays and lesbians - and for women.  Those in the United Church of Christ - whose history includes the first ordination of a woman and later of a gay man - largely applaud this development in our history - and reject the narrow interpretations of Scripture used to justify continued oppression of people based on gender and orientation.

It would be a mistake to over regulate the internet so that ideas and causes become suppressed.  Every effort should be made to protect children from the content of what is published on the web.  But the danger in restricting our freedom - our First Amendment rights - is that in doing so to protect people we might in fact oppress people.

For example, many fundamentalists - including the Southern Baptist Convention - have called for economic boycotts and federal intervention against media outlets that show gay and lesbian couples in positive situations - such as loving relationships.  This is little difference between these actions and those of the Southern television stations which tried to shut down and ignore the historic struggle for racial equality.

When the United Church of Christ attempted to air television commercials that depicted a church welcoming all people - even gays - the networks banned the message as being too controversial.  Our denomination turned to the internet to get the message out.   

As a minister, I see the internet as a powerful tool for spreading the Gospel message and remain convinced - as our Founding Fathers and Mothers were - that efforts to suppress the freedom to speak will impact my freedom to worship.

How would you have answered the question?

Read the comments on this post from Street Prophets

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Faith in Public Life – the new web site, blog and media bureau that launched last month – is already adding new features. Amy Sullivan will be guest blogging soon and the site now offers a “Daily Faith News Reel.” Five days a week they’ll send to your inbox the top news related to faith and politics in one easy to read e-mail. Good stuff.

"Faith in Public Life"

Press Release from Faith In Public Life

Washington, DC – After the Religious Right's decades-long dominance of the American values debate, Faith in Public Life officially launched today as a new Resource Center to strengthen the effectiveness, collaboration and reach of faith movements that share a call to pursue justice and the common good. A non-profit, non-partisan organization, Faith in Public Life (www.faithinpubliclife.org) provides strategic organizing and communications resources to diverse faith leaders and organizations.

From the abolition of slavery to the civil rights movement, faith leaders have led many of the greatest victories for justice in the course of American history. But despite a continued commitment to justice and the common good by myriad faith leaders, the religious right continues to dominate public discourse on matters of faith, often advancing a narrow and exclusive definition of what it means to be moral and faithful in America.

Yet millions of people of faith in the United States do not feel that the religious right represents them – nor do they feel they have a public voice of their own. Religious leaders established Faith in Public Life to ensure that voices for justice and the common good are heard, respected, and included in all issues of Faith in Public Life – and that those who use religion as a tool of division and exclusion do not dominate public discourse.

“Our existence represents an unprecedented demonstration of leaders from individual organizations coming together to create a resource center to serve the movement as a whole,” says Rev. Jennifer Butler, Executive Director of Faith in Public Life. “This is an exciting time in the revitalization of collective and faith voices working for justice and the common good.”

As a Resource Center, Faith in Public Life offers tools, strategic services, and informational resources to its partner groups, including an interactive website featuring a searchable database directory of more than 2,000 leading faith advocates for justice and the common good working in 21 states. Communications tools include Voicing Faith, a media bureau of faith leaders from across the country, representing Catholic, Evangelical, Mainline Protestant, Jewish and Muslim perspectives, as well as a comprehensive set of communications resources available to faith leaders. Faith in Public Life’s website also features a blog, a daily news reel, a movement calendar, case studies demonstrating best practices in the movement, faith movement facts, and issue resources.

Since becoming operational six short months ago, Faith in Public Life has supported dozens of groups, including We Believe Ohio, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Sojourners, Catholic Alliance for the Common Good, the Progressive Faith Blog Conference, and CrossWalk America.

Rev. Jennifer Butler, Faith in Public Life Executive Director, is available to discuss the resurgence of faith communities working for justice and the common good, and to discuss Faith in Public Life’s mission, capacities and recent successes. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Jennifer most recently served as the Presbyterian Church (USA) Representative to the United Nations (UN). During her nine years at the UN, Butler represented the denomination on a range of issues, including women’s rights, genocide in the Sudan, and the war in Iraq. Her book on the Christian Right and international policy will be published by the Pluto Press in December 2006.

Interviews with Jennifer, or other Faith in Public Life partner groups, can be arranged through Jessica Watson at 202.544.7921, or press@faithinpubliclife.org.

Faith in Public Life envisions a country in which diverse religious voices for justice and the common good consistently impact public policy; and those who use religion as a tool of division and exclusion do not dominate public discourse.

"Marcus Borg on scripture and congregational vitality"

An interview with Oregonian Marcus Borg, the well regarded Biblical scholar and author of Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, is now available on the United Church of Christ website.

Noted theologian Marcus Borg is Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University and author of "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time." During a visit to the UCC’s national offices in Cleveland, he sat down with staff to talk about various aspects of Christianity and the UCC in today’s society.

Click here to take a look.

New Good Faith Sites To Visit

New web sites / blogs to check out:

"Save Yourselves From This Corrupt Generation: God-Based News, Commentary, and Nonsense" is written by Josh Tinley, a United Methodist in Nasville and includes contributions from Cole Wakefield.

Straight into Gay America is written by Lars Clausen, a "heterosexual pastor ordained by the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)." Lars went on a 5 week unicycling trip where he covered 1,000 miles in support of gay rights. He also has a blog.

Spiritual Progressives: An Online Conference on Values and Building a Movement

An online conference exploring progressive faith started today. The Rockridge Institute is sponsoring the event:

The Rockridge Institute has partnered with a coalition of progressive religious organizations to host an online conference on the Rockridge Forums. This exciting event is bringing together progressives, Rockridge framing researchers, and religious leaders from across America to discuss the role of progressive religious values in public discourse.

When: Now through May 20th, 2005

Who's invited: Anyone with an interest in exploring progressive values and the progressive religious perspective

Where: The Rockridge Forums

How: If you're a member of the forums, you're all set! If not, sign up now!

The link address is: http://forum.rockridgeinstitute.org/?q=dialogue05

Check it out. The Rev. Brenda Peterson is one of those who alerted me to this event.

Related Link: Lakoff and Me

Most Inspiring Person of the Year

Beliefnet.net wants your help in coming up with the winner of their 2004 Most Inspiring Person of the Year Award. Click here to nominate your choice.

What Kind of Elitist Are You?

From Timbuktu to Tijuana, you know all about world
culture and politics. You've seen it all, and
what you haven't seen, you watched on one of
the "smart people channels." Your
friends tell you that you should run for
governor.
What people love: You've always got a great story
to tell.
What people hate: You make them feel like ignorant
plebians. Sometimes you slip and CALL them
plebians.


What Kind of Elitist Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

This is the kind of thing you do when you're up at 3:30am waiting for the twins to wake up for their next feeding (due any moment) and diaper change (which I'm sure they could have used an hour ago... oh wait, I did change their diapers an hours ago...). Thanks to The Heretic's Corner for this link.