Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie

"Living The Questions"

Tonight I'm getting ready for tomorrow.  What else would you do on a Saturday night?  In the morning we'll be saying goodbye to family that has been visiting the last few days and I'll be going to church.  Later in day I'm hosting a house party for a candidate running for local office and then teaching a class in the evening.

Living the Questions is the course I'm teaching.  We have about fifteen or so participants from Portland's First United Methodist Church and Portland's First Congregational United Church of Christ.  The class is billed as a "progressive alternative for Christian invitation, initiation, and spiritual formation."

So much of the Christian education material out there is less Christian education and more Religious Right indoctrination.  Critics would charge Living the Questions with being indoctrination for the religious left but I know for a fact that the members of our class are diverse in their theologies and politics.  I make a point of telling participants that no one expects you to walk away after each session agreeing with every idea or notion expressed during one of our sessions.   

What the course attempts to do is offer a theological world view free of the dogmatic theologies so prevalent in churches today and to allow questions and conversation about the Christian faith to flourish over a 13-week period.  Two United Methodist pastors developed the course and it draws from the works of religious scholars and church activists such as Stephen Patterson (my NT professor) Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, Nancy Ammerman, Minerva Carcaño, and Tex Sample.   

Sessions are spent discussing how the Bible was formed and who wrote it, what it means to think theologically, how do we respond to the Prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures as Christians, and how do we understand our faith in this new century. 

This is the second time I have taught this course.  During the fall last year I used this same material at St. John United Church of Christ in Manchester, Missouri (just outside St. Louis).  Participants in that session where much more theologically traditional then the group I'm working with now and some of the material brought forth in the class directly challenged their understandings of faith.  But we stuck through it and learned from one another. 

If you want a good in-depth series to offer members of your congregation a glimpse into the theological debates that consume seminary campuses within the mainline tradition this is the program to put forward.      

"Episcopal Newspaper Exposes Rightwing Agencies"

From Frederick Clarkson at Talk To Action:

The Washington Window, the newspaper of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington has joined a growing number of publications inside and outside mainline Christianity that have published exposes of the efforts of rightist agencies to destabilize the historic mainline Protestant churches in the U.S.

The two-part series by former Washington Post and New York Times reporter James Naughton examines, according to a press release, the network of conservative groups, "their donors and the strategy that has allowed them to destabilize the Episcopal Church.... The groups represent a small minority of church members, but relationships with wealthy American donors and powerful African bishops have made them key players in the fight for the future of the Anglican Communion "to warn deputies that they must repent of their liberal attitudes on homosexuality or face a possible schism."

The expose, which demonstrates the unambiguous motives of rightwing activists to foment a permanent schism in the Episcopal Church in the U.S. and in the world Anglican Communion, comes in the run-up to the American church's annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio in June.

Click here to read more.

Related Post:  All They Have Are Lies

Related Post:  Faithful and Welcoming In Name Only

How Will You Spend A Sunny Northwest Friday?

I’ll be in Vancouver, Washington (just over the Columbia River from Portland) for the annual meeting of the Central Pacific Conference of the United Church of Christ. Our mission for the weekend: discern where God is leading our congregations over the next year. We’ll talk about the boring but necessary (finances) and prophetic (a resolution calling for debt relief for “third-world” nations) and mixed-in with the weekend will be workshops (“God Is Still Speaking But Can Anyone Hear You?”) and worship. My only real responsibility during the next three days: to help serve communion during the Saturday evening worship service. Actually, I’m looking forward to serving as a delegate from Portland’s First Congregational UCC and getting know more people from across our conference. Note: I won’t have internet access until getting back home each night and that will mean delays in returning e-mails or approving comments.

Roman Catholics To Pope: Condoms Save Lives

Responsible religious leaders know that stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS has to be a top priority of the world community.  Efforts on the part of religious conservatives to halt funding and support for family planning and disease prevention efforts are not just ill-advised - they are immoral. 

Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, said this week:

As we mark the one year anniversary of Benedict XVI's papacy, the Vatican has floated a welcome trial balloon suggesting that it will revisit its ban on condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Last week, the Condoms4Life campaign welcomed the news that another prominent cardinal had come forward to make a stand in support of the culture of life.  Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini joined a growing chorus of voices within the church suggesting that for couples where one partner has HIV/AIDS, the use of condoms is "a lesser evil."  Now we hear that the pope himself has commissioned the Council on Health Care to study this issue in the interest in changing it long-contentious stand against the use of condoms, even to prevent the spread of disease.

Condoms4Life would celebrate a positive and life-affirming shift in the Vatican position on condoms.  There are certainly theological grounds under which the Vatican can approve the use of condoms, especially in the interest of stemming the spread of HIV/AIDS.  Give the high stakes of failing to take such action, we can only urge the Vatican to move swiftly and surely in the interest of the lives and well-being of Catholics and non-Catholics around the world whose physical health has been jeopardized by the existing ban.  Every day the position is unchanged, men, women and children are needlessly infected and die.

We ask that Benedict XVI show courage, compassion and vision and that he lift this ban against condoms as a step to promote a true culture of life.

The world needs leadership on this issue from all corners and the United States also needs legislation that supports responsible sex education.  This is one of those issues where appropriate and moral leadership can start saving lives.   

"WCC protests Israeli settlers' violence against Christian volunteers in Hebron"

Statement from the World Council of Churches

Expressing "alarm and concern" the World Council of Churches (WCC) has presented a formal protest to the Israeli ambassador in Switzerland over two recent incidents involving violence by Israeli settlers against Christian volunteers participating in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

In a letter sent on 25 April, 2006 to Israeli ambassador Mr Aviv Shir-On, the director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, Peter Weiderud, requested appropriate actions by the Israeli authorities and law enforcement agencies to stop "abusive, unlawful and violent behaviour by settlers toward Palestinians and internationals".

On 1 April, Silvana Hogg, a Swiss lawyer, was stoned by a young Israeli settler in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron, and needed seven stitches for a head wound as a result. On 20 April in the same neighbourhood, Karin Laier, a German social worker and Tore Ottesen, a Norwegian sociologist, were attacked by some 15 young settlers. Laier and Ottesen sustained bruises but were not seriously injured.

In both cases, the Christian volunteers were on duty escorting Palestinian pupils of the Cordoba Girls School to protect them from harassment by settlers. They are members of a team of four ecumenical accompaniers who have been placed in Hebron since February. The Cordoba Girls School is situated opposite the Beit Hadassah settlement. Its pupils and teachers are frequent targets of stone-throwing, kicking and spitting by the settlers.

The violent incidents, although "serious in and of themselves" are just "a small fraction of the settler and other occupation-related attacks against Palestinians in Hebron, in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem", says Weiderud in his letter to the Israeli ambassador in Switzerland.

Stressing that the root of the problem is "the practice of establishing, protecting and expanding settlements", Weiderud also requests "concrete steps that lead to the complete withdrawal of all settlers from Hebron and return of settler-occupied properties to their Palestinian owners".

Reaffirming its longstanding commitment to a peaceful resolution of the conflict, Weiderud recalls in his letter that the WCC "strongly condemns all forms of violence and attacks perpetrated by the State of Israel inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories and by Palestinian armed groups inside the State of Israel".

Coordinated by the WCC, the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel began in 2002 and has received 270 accompaniers from 14 countries. Its purpose is to support Palestinians and Israelis working for peace by monitoring and reporting violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, offering protection by accompanying local communities in daily activities, and standing in solidarity with the churches and advocating with them for a peaceful end to the occupation.

Full text of the letter to the Israeli ambassador in Switzerland:

www.oikoumene.org/index.php

Additional information on the latest incident:

www.eappi.org/eappiweb.nsf/list/hebron%20attack.html

Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel website:

www.eappi.org

The WCC and Palestine/Israel:

wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/regconcerns-palestine-israel.html

Related Post:  “Jewish Settlers Attack Christian Peace Monitors In Hebron”

Related Post:  Thomas: Killing of innocent in Tel Aviv 'can never be called legitimate'

Andrew Young Has It Wrong On Wal-Mart

Advocates for workers, the poor and our environment have all become critics of Wal-Mart.  There are many reasons to be concerned with the practices of this business and many reasons to be concerned with Andrew Young's decision to be a spokesperson for Wal-Mart.  First, the issues:

HEALTH CARE
Wal-Mart fails to provide health insurance to over half its employees. Who pays for it? We all do. Wal-Mart workers top Medicaid rolls in at least 16 states. Read more.

WOMEN
Wal-Mart is the subject of the largest class action lawsuit in history by current and former female employees who were paid and promoted at significantly lower rates than their male co-workers. Read more.

OUTSOURCING
If Wal-Mart were an independent nation, it would be China's eighth-largest trading partner. Is Wal-Mart trading away America's future to fatten its corporate bottom line? Read more.

LOCAL ECONOMIES
For every new Supercenter that Wal-Mart opens, two local supermarkets will close. How will this affect your town? Big box stores like Wal-Mart spend nearly four times less within local and state economies as local businesses do. Read more.

WORKERS
The average pay for a Wal-Mart sales associate is $1,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. Business as usual? Not necessarily. Retail rival Costco pays its workers 65% more on average than Wal-Mart, yet earns more profits per employee. Read more.

DISCRIMINATION
Two recent lawsuits by minority employees and customers have brought to light a disturbing pattern of racial discrimination by Wal-Mart. Read more.

ENVIRONMENT
Wal-Mart has a long history of breaking environmental laws that its high-priced green-washing campaign can't hide. Its record of environmental abuse was described by one top law enforcement official as "widespread, systematic, repeated" and has incurred millions in fines from state and federal agencies. Read more.

UNCHECKED GROWTH
Think Wal-Marts are everywhere you turn today? Just wait five years. Wal-Mart plans to nearly double its retail outlets in the U.S. by 2010 and has already demonstrated its willingness to play hardball with anyone who stands in its way. Read more.

Young is no ordinary pr flack.  He is a clergyperson in the United Church of Christ, the former Mayor of Atlanta, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, and worked as an aide to The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights struggle.  He recently signed on as a spokesperson for Wal-Mart.  His decision to do so has left many in the religious / civil rights community concerned and confused.  Many of his fellow clergy - including leaders from the United Church of Christ - issued a statement this week to express those concerns about Young's involvement:

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., often referred to war, poverty, and racism as the triple evils of our society. It is imperative that those of us who worked closely with Dr. King and who have followed in his footsteps tread carefully as we ponder our actions when interacting with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and taking into account its harmful effects on our communities.

We are a group of religious leaders who have endured one civil rights struggle after another faced by brothers and sisters home and abroad. We are united in our concern about a new organization, which we believe serves no other purpose other than to act as a front for Wal-Mart and its unethical business practices. Regrettably, this organization is now headed by one of our own, Reverend Andrew Young.

Wal-Mart's behavior in the community has confirmed our suspicions with regard to their exploitative practices. Consequently, Wal-Mart has begun to feel the pressure and we are aware of its history of breaking child labor laws and its failure to adopt a zero-tolerance policy on the exploitation of illegal child labor across the globe. To avert our attention from their illegal activities, they have chosen a respected African-American leader to support the mission of their organization and in doing so hinders our ability to pose/raise questions or critique the business practices that ultimately affect the African-American community and beyond.

Several of us have made statements about Young's position, including Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, who said, "It is unfortunate that Rev. Andrew Young is so out of touch with his own denomination's position on Wal-Mart that he has ended up on the wrong side of the issue. Dr. King would have disagreed with Mr. Young on this issue. King sided with the poor; he took a stand against the rich who oppressed the poor. The night before he was assassinated, King was standing in solidarity with the sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Young, however, is taking a stand that is diametrically opposed to everything Dr. King stood for. Young is taking a stand against the poor and is siding with the filthy rich who are oppressing the poor."

"I am disappointed that he has chosen to defend the wayward ways of Wal-Mart. I thought that he was seeking to help them change and become a positive force, not to justify their negatives with `voodoo' economic theories and excuse their exploitative practices which swell the ranks of the working poor here and abroad," says the Rev. Joseph Lowery, former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

We also know that there is hope for Wal-Mart workers and the communities which have been negatively impacted by Wal-Mart. We know from first hand experience in the struggle against apartheid internationally and in the fight for civil and economic rights here at home that Wal-Mart workers can and will someday rise above poverty, provide their families with health care, and work free of discrimination and exploitation. We stand in support of these 1.8 million Wal-Mart workers worldwide.

We call upon our colleagues, including Ambassador Young, to stand up against Wal-
Mart and the front groups they create to divide our community. We also call upon those who care about economic and civil rights to join us and stand up with millions of Americans who want Wal-Mart to make real, substantive changes to its harmful business practices rather than giving us public relations smokescreens.

Click here to see the long list of US religious leaders who signed the letter.  The Rev. John Thomas, general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, sent Young a private letter on this issue.

And make sure you visit Wal-Mart Watch to learn more about this issue.

"Clergy Call for End to Government Subsidized Religion"

Press Release from The Interfaith Alliance

Washington, April 26—Today, The Interfaith Alliance and a several national religious leaders called on President Bush to dismantle the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives, calling it an ill-conceived, unconstitutional experiment that creates government sponsored religion, and threatens the integrity of democracy and the sanctity of religion.

The leaders warned that if the initiative is not ended, it will continue to be a political football, no matter which party controls the White House.

“The whole faith-based initiative, to use a biblical term, was born of sin and conceived in iniquity,” said the Rev. Amos Brown, Senior Pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco. “It was established as a ploy and a tool to get the African-American community away from its prophetic witness.”

“The so-called faith-based initiative was a bad idea as a campaign promise in 1999 and it is even worse today after we have seen the bureaucratic and political realties growing out of this initiative,” explained the Rev. Welton Gaddy, President of The Interfaith Alliance.

“Our opposition to the faith-based initiative is not an opposition to religiom.” noted Imam Mahdi Bray, Executive Director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation. “Religion has always played an important role in America…Realistically, the faith-based initiative has really been the cash cow of the Christian Right.”

“I think most religious people would say that any faith that is truly authentic must be both free and voluntary,” added Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon, Senior Advisor at The Interfaith Alliance. “People should be able to get help from the government without having to sacrifice their civil or religious rights.” Rev. Gaddy announced, “The Interfaith calls on all 2006 congressional candidates and all 2008 presidential candidates to state their positions on government sponsorship of religion.”

Related Link:  The Bush Faith Based Initiative: Pay Back For The Religious Right

The Les AuCoin Blog

Former US Rep. Les AuCoin (D-OR) has a new blog.  Check it out.  I volunteered on everyone of his campaigns from 1982-1992 and would still do anything for this guy.  He represented a swing district and instead of walking down the middle of the road thinking about the next election he fought hard against the Reagan military build-up, he worked to help create a federal response to the homeless crisis, and became the first westerner in Congress to break ranks with the NRA and endorse gun control legislation.  Now he teaches and writes.  I still can't think of who to vote for in the democratic primary race for governor.  Maybe I'll write-in Les AuCoin. 

Gordon Smith: Working To Prevent Suicides

U.S. Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) and I have something in common.  Our lives have been touched by tragedy. 

A few years back the senator lost his son to suicide after Garrett Lee Smith lost a life-long battle with mental illness.  My father, Steve Currie, was lost to suicide in 1998 after enduring a torturous childhood and a lifelong battle with alcoholism.  His brother and sister - my aunt and uncle - died in similar circumstances. 

So I was glad to read this news out of Washington:

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, U.S. Senators Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden announced that the State of Oregon will receive a $400,000 Garrett Lee Smith Memorial grant to implement a youth suicide prevention and intervention plan.  The Award will be distributed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). 

"It's hard to imagine the pain of thousands of children who are now suffering in silence and that of their families who just want to help," said Smith.  "This grant is especially important to me because it will make a difference in the place where Garrett grew up and the community he loved."   

"Oregon families will see some measure of relief in their struggle with the painful illness of depression with these grant funds," said Wyden. "Oregonians from all walks of life will honor the memory of Garrett Smith as they get help dealing with this difficult and silent problem."

The Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, signed into law on October 21, 2004, created a program within SAMHSA to enhance suicide prevention efforts at the state and local level and on college campuses.  The bill authorized $82 million in funding over three years.

Senator Smith has worked hard over the years to honor his son with legislation aimed at preventing similar deaths.  Families all across the nation benefit from his bi-partisan efforts on this issue.  We owe him our thanks. 

i.ucc.org

Check out i.ucc.org - the new United Church of Christ online community.

"The Saint of 9/11"

I don't know about you but it rips my heart out to see the clip from that new movie about United Flight 93.  So many emotions for all of us are still raw from September 11th.  You have to wonder if there will ever be a time when the memories will fade.  I hope not.  On that day a group of radical fundamentalists betrayed their God - our God - with a terrible act of violence.  Muslims, Jews and Christians have all killed and been killed by those who think their actions are sanctioned by God.  What fools God must think we all are.  Even now our president - who seems to believe he is on a divine mission - wages war and justifies his actions by invoking God. 

Will you see this movie about the United flight?  I'm not sure I ever will.  People keep asking if it is too soon to make a movie out of the events of 9/11.  I'm not at all concerned about the timing of the film.  The people on that flight really were heroes.  All of them must have been terrified and known that their efforts would end in death.  They knew, however, that if no one took action and many more people would die.  Whenever I go to Washington, DC now and see the Capitol Building and the White House I remember what those citizens did for our nation - what they gave.  A movie that reminds us of their heroism should be welcomed by us all.  It just breaks my heart to think about watching it.

There is another 9/11 - related movie coming out:  The Saint of 9/11.  This is a documentary about one more hero from that day.  Father Mychal Judge was a Roman Catholic priest and a chaplain for the New York Fire Department.  He was killed after rushing into the World Trade Center with other fire fighters.  Judge was listed as the first casualty of 9/11 and is regarded by many as a saint.  Others, because of his unconventional style and because of his homosexuality, view(ed) him quite differently. 

A profile in New York Magazine from November 12, 2001 reads in part:

"There's a very old postcard of a giant Jesus looking in the window of the Empire State Building in those long, long robes," says McCourt, in a brogue as thick as potatoes. "And that was Mike Judge in New York. He was everywhere. Over the city. And ooohhh, how good it was to know he was there."

Judge was gregarious, mischievous, a luminous presence; he thrived on movement and kept a preposterous schedule, as if he'd found a wormhole beneath the friary on West 31st Street that allowed him to be in six places at once. On any given evening, he might be baptizing a fireman's child, ministering to an aids patient, or listening to Black 47, a Celtic rock band that had a regular gig at Connolly's on West 47th Street. Judge got 30 to 40 messages a day on his answering machine. Every six months, he'd wear another machine out.

"He was the busiest person alive," says Joe Falco, a firefighter with Engine 1-Ladder 24, the company across the street from Judge's home. "He'd come back at all hours of the morning, blowing his siren so we could park his car. No one knew how he did it. No one understood how he maintained his energy."

The firemen loved him. He had an encyclopedic memory for their family members' names, birthdays, and passions; he frequently gave them whimsical presents. Once, after visiting President Clinton in Washington, he handed out cocktail napkins emblazoned with the presidential seal. He'd managed to stuff dozens of them into his habit before leaving the White House....

Obviously, Mychal Judge was not what one might call a conventional priest. But he was, arguably, a typical New York Franciscan -- earthy, streetwise, thoroughly engaged with the characters and chaos of the city. If times required it, Judge would hold Mass in the most unlikely places, including firehouses and Pennsylvania Station. This drove certain literalists in the clergy crazy, but no matter -- Judge pressed on. (To one of his antagonists, a certain monsignor in the chancellery who frequently phoned to admonish him, Judge once said: "If I've ever done anything to embarrass or hurt the church I love so much, you can burn me at the stake in front of St. Patrick's.")

The other pillar of Judge's spiritual philosophy was Alcoholics Anonymous. Once, at the White House, he told Bill Clinton that he believed the founders of AA had done more for humanity than Mother Teresa. "He was a great comfort to those with troubles with the drink," says McCourt, who usually saw Judge twice a month at AA. "He'd always say, 'You're not a bad person -- you have a disease that makes you think you're a bad person, and it's going to fuck you up.' " McCourt pauses a moment. "He had no compunction about language. Not with me, anyway."

Back in the early eighties, Judge was one of the first members of the clergy to minister to young gay men with aids, doing their funeral Masses and consoling their partners and family members. He opened the doors of St. Francis of Assisi Church when Dignity, a gay Catholic organization, needed a home for its aids ministry, and he later ran an aids program at St. Francis. Last year, he marched in the first gay-inclusive St. Patrick's Day parade, which his friend Brendan Fay, a gay activist, organized in Queens.

Cardinal O'Connor wasn't exactly a fan. "I heard that if Mike got any money from the right wing," says McCourt, "he'd give it to the gay organizations. I don't know if that's true, but that's his humor, for sure."

We lost all kinds of people on that day.  Democrats, Republicans, the rich, the poor, Christians, Jews, Muslims, gays, straights. 

All God's children.    

What should be the overarching lesson from that dark day in 2001? 

Don't let the fundamentalists - wherever they are - rule.  They always seek to divide and God calls us to reconcile. 

Movies are great and powerful tributes.  Standing up - as Father Judge did - for God's peace is even better.   

Photo credit: The St. of 9/11 -  Reuters   

Message To Coke: What The World Needs Now Is Respect For Human Rights

While traveling in India during 2003 one of the biggest concerns brought to our attention again and again was the shortage of water for farmers and concerns that Coca-Cola has been responsible for some of those shortages and for creating high levels of pollution around their factories. The maker of “Coke’ has restricted water rights to farmers, according to human rights campaigners and church officials, in partnership with a government desperate for cash and willing to do nearly anything for a soda maker in need of water. Crops have died because of the water shortage and a population with hunger issues has grown hungrier. This Earth Day Sunday you can make a difference. Read about the issue and then send a message to Coca-Cola telling them to respect human rights and the environment in India.

Build Up The Ecumenical Movement

We hear so much about how Christians are torn apart from one another over theological and social differences and that reconciliation seems impossible. Then you come across a hope filled story like this and you’re reminded that hope has not left us. Mary Stamp writes in the April-July issue of United Church News:

Friendships have helped Polly Hamlen rise above disagreements with Christians whose perspectives on ordination of women and same-sex marriage differ from hers.

During February's World Council of Churches ninth international assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Hamlen established new friendships and engaged in dialogue with some of the 4,000 participants.

Back in 1998, as part of a delegation from Spirit of the Lakes UCC in Minneapolis, Minn., Hamlen had attended the eighth assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe, to help lead a padare —workshop — on gays and lesbians. They went as a witness after Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe made blatant anti-gay comments before the assembly. That experience began her journey into an ecumenical commitment.

Now attending Hope Church (UCC/Disciples) in Jamaica Plain, Mass., she is on the UCC's Massachusetts Conference Commission for Ecumenism and is a member of the Jewish-Christian Dialogue of the Massachusetts Council of Churches.

At Harare, her encounters with Orthodox Christians raised her curiosity, especially their approach to women in ministry and homosexuality.

"I realized I knew little about Eastern Orthodox churches and other dialogue partners," Hamlen said. "I came away committed to learning more. I particularly wanted to understand why some in Russia, Africa or even the United States might oppose the ordination for women and the inclusion of gays and lesbians my church experience assumed."

Hamlen decided to continue pursuing that interest by spending 2002 to 2003 completing a master's degree in ecumenism at the WCC's Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, near Geneva, Switzerland, where she lived in community with two groups of about 35 people from 40 countries for three months with each. During that time, she established interpersonal relationships that transcend disagreements.

"Often we think people who disagree with us are not faithful or do not understand the Bible," Hamlen said, "but when we know someone as a human being, stereotypes drop and conversations begin."

An Orthodox priest she befriended at Bossey was open to listen to her perspectives and readily shared his concern that feminism is destroying Russian culture.

Because Bossey is a context for such sharing, Hamlen is convinced the UCC should send more people there for ecumenical conversations, to share the UCC's prophetic stances on a consistent basis.

Now living near Boston, Hamlen seeks ways for the church to be a force for reconciliation. "We need more than proclamations.

We need to hear stories and accompany people in their journeys," she said.

This is a terrific story. We need to do a better job at the local level of having ecumenical discussions and even joint mission projects so that we grow closer to Christ together.

If I had the money the place I’d be right now is the WCC's Ecumenical Institute at Bossey studying in their master of ecumenism degree program. Hamlen was fortunate to attend. Supporting programs like the Ecumenical Institute is another way we can help build up the ecumenical movement.

"Science, Religion, and the Teaching of Evolution in Public School Science Classes"

Extremists in the Religious Right are doing everything in their power these days to kick real science of out schools to be replaced with various forms of conservative theologies. Many if not most Christians reject such efforts outright and support the teaching of evolution, for example, and oppose the teaching of creationism or so-called intelligent design.

The National Council of Churches USA has published a short but informative brochure on the teaching of evolution in our public schools and I commend this as a resource for you to pass on to educators, parents and students in your congregations. It refutes the opponents of science on our classrooms and explains why and how science and religion can and should coexist.

“Jewish Settlers Attack Christian Peace Monitors In Hebron”

More disheartening news out of Palestine and Israel today:

A group of Jewish settlers have attacked five international workers, including members of two church-sponsored monitoring teams, who were escorting Palestinian girls from a school in the divided West Bank city of Hebron.

Shouting "We will kill you!," some 15 young Jewish settlers threw stones and kicked the foreign activists, who sustained minor injuries, mostly bruises, according to a spokesperson for the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

"They were escorting girls from a school which is directly opposite the Tel Rumeida Jewish settlement. The monitors take the schoolgirls to and from school each day," said EAPPI spokesperson Gemma Abbs. "They (the settlers) were waiting for them to come out of the school when the incident happened."

Abbs said about 15 young men disembarked from a bus at the settlement and immediately began stoning the fleeing monitors. "They threw stones at their backs as they tried to run away."

The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), an initiative of the World Council of Churches in agreement with the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, identified its two accompaniers as Karin Laier from Germany and Tore Ottesen from Norway.

Three other activists working with the International Solidarity Movement and Christian Peacemaker Teams also were among those attacked, witnesses said. Among them was a 79-year-old woman who was kicked by the mob, Gemma Abbs added.

Click here for the full story.

Is there an answer that will end the on-going violence and bloodshed? 

There are groups and individuals in Israel working for peace in opposition to the dominant political forces.  Groups like B'Tselem focus on human rights for both Jews and Palestinians.  Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center works to bring one Christian perspective to the crisis through the eyes of Palestinian Christians.  We must support those who seek peace through our gifts and prayers.  And always, we must condemn those on every side who use violence as a political tool. 

"UCC’s Officers Introduce Report Calling For National Setting Streamlining"

Reprinted from United Church News

by Will Matthews

The UCC's five-member Collegium of Officers painted a bleak financial picture of the church's national setting Thursday, April 20, even while highlighting increased giving and financial stability at the local settings of the denomination.

During the first evening of a three-day gathering of the boards of the UCC's four national Covenanted Ministries, the Collegium discussed publicly for the first time a report it drafted earlier this month calling for a streamlining of the church's Cleveland-based national offices.

The report was prompted by what denominational leaders say is a hardening of the national setting's financial woes.

The Collegium said Thursday that funding in 2005 for National Basic Support, the main source of funding for the work of the Covenanted Ministries, was just $10 million, $500,000 less than projections and down from $12.5 million in 1995, 1999 and 2000, and $13.1 million in 1985.

The $10-million national basic support budget for 2005 equals the church's 1967 budget for National Basic Support, according to Edith Guffey, the UCC's associate general minister and president.

"It would take $58 million in 2005 to equal the buying power of $10 million in 1967," Guffey said.

Collegium members also said Thursday that they project a 2006 shortfall of as much as $1 million.

In an effort to stabilize the national setting's financial position, the Collegium is proposing sweeping changes that, if enacted, could substantially alter the way the national church is governed. The Collegium is suggesting an examination of the "size, number and role" of the Covenanted Ministry boards and the Executive Council, the size and design of the Collegium of Officers, the assignment of national work and staffing settings, and the role of the general minister and president.

Specifically, the Collegium on Thursday recommended an immediate hiring freeze on most vacant positions and the development of new shared-staffing models across the four Covenanted Ministries, a significant reduction in funding for the final year of The Stillspeaking Initiative – meaning the production of no new television commercials – a "complete review" of the church's approach to fund raising and the development of specific mission priorities to guide the national setting's future work.

At the crux of the financial woes plaguing the national church is the fact that as giving at the local settings of the church have increased steadily over the past 20 years, the percentage of those dollars retained locally has increased as well.

More than $471 million was given at the local church setting in 1985 and, of that, more than $28 million, or 5.9 percent, was forwarded on to the UCC's Our Church's Wider Mission (OCWM) as basic support for conference and national work.

Giving in local churches was almost double that in 2004 – nearly $899 million. But only $31 million of that was forwarded to OCWM in 2004, a mere 3.5 percent.

Additionally, the percentage of total basic support dollars retained by the conferences has increased as well, from less than 49 percent in 1975 to almost 68 percent in 2005, according to denominational leaders.

"It is the shifting sand of OCWM that has set us back," Guffey said.

Church leaders attribute the diminishing funds being given by the local church to the national setting to both an increased commitment by congregations to local mission needs and to the national setting's own failure to adequately articulate the importance of the its work and vision.

"The case for mission support in local communities is clear and compelling and very visible," said the Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president. "We haven't made our case as visible and compelling and clear."

Guffey said that at least part of the solution needs to be a renewed commitment by national church leaders to "being out and among local churches and getting to places that we're not often invited to."

"Churches are doing more local mission than ever before," Guffey said. "They are seeing the needs of their community and they are responding, and that's great. But we have to do a better job of telling the story and showing the importance of mission beyond the local setting. A lot of people don't know the work and mission of the national setting. We have been working on that for a long time, but it is difficult."

Beginning today and continuing tomorrow, the four Covenanted Ministries' boards will discuss the Collegium's report and recommendations, and then decide how to direct the church to respond.

Earth Day 2006

Saturday, April 22 is Earth Day.  This Sunday congregations across the nation will mark the occasion with special worship services and prayers.  We are the stewards of God's gift of creation.  The National Council of Churches USA reports:

Earth Day Sunday is being celebrated across the nation in more than two thousand congregations this weekend.  Nearly 2,500 worship resource materials, entitled Through the Eye of a Hurricane: Rebuilding Just Communities, were downloaded or mailed by the Eco-Justice Program of the National Council of Churches USA. [www.nccecojustice.org] "While the 2006 [Earth Day Sunday] resource describes the devastation of the Gulf Coast region in particular, the issues raised of environmental justice and racism, toxics, and consumer lifestyles poses a challenge to people of faith around the world," says the resource. "It is critical that we do all that we can to keep the victims and survivors of the hurricanes in the hearts and minds of Americans and others around the world," said Cassandra Carmichael, NCC Director of Eco-Justice Programs. Congregations were encouraged to use this resource to re-energize ongoing hurricane relief efforts by planning a special worship service, study groups, a day of action, a fund drive for hurricane survivors or any event that resonates with congregants and the church's mission.  Typically congregations have observed Earth Day on the Sunday closest to April 22.

Click here for more.

For examples on how congregations can get involved with this issue on a local level checkout the website of the Oregon Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns. 

Related Post:  "Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action"

Related Post: God's Mandate: Care for Creation

Stop Censorship: Tell Networks to Show New UCC Ad

Action Alert from the United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries

In December 2004, the major media networks CBS and NBC refused to air the United Church of Christ’s ad that delivers the message, “God doesn’t reject people, neither do we.”  When this happened in 2004, over 6,000 people took action at UCCTakeAction.org to tell the executives of the networks that they should air the ad.

Once again, a new UCC commercial, which invites all people into the church, has been rejected by the networks, their affiliate cable stations, and Viacom.  Every day, the networks air advertising laced with sexual innuendo, violence, materialism, and the politics of personal destruction, yet the message of openness and welcome stated in the new UCC ad is "too controversial" to be shown.  While some stations are still airing our ad, many communities, particularly those without access to cable, will never see this ad.  To watch the new UCC commercial click http://www.ucc.org/commercial.html and for more information, or to see the old ads, please visit http://www.stillspeaking.org

In response to the decision of the networks, the UCC is launching a petition drive to tell these networks to air the UCC ad!  This petition drive will be conducted online and is also available in PDF to print out and circulate among members of your congregation.  Please have your signatures in by Tuesday, May 9.  On the day after Mother’s Day, Monday, May 15, we will hand-deliver this petition to the executives of NBC, CBS and Viacom in New York City.  To sign this petition online click http://www.ucctakeaction.org/showuccad and to download the petition in PDF format click http://www.ucctakeaction.org/petitionpdf 

The strong response of JPANet advocates in 2004 generated widespread media coverage of the ad controversy and got the attention of network executives.  Your voice makes a difference!

A Celebration Of Life: The Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

The funeral for The Rev. William Sloane Coffin will be held on Thursday at 4 pm Eastern (1 pm Pacific) at Riverside Church in New York City.  Click here for a link to watch the webcast.

Related Link:  William Sloane Coffin Talks About Bush, Iraq and Leadership

Is Jerry Falwell Really Even A Christian?

The Rev. Bob Chase writes today on Accessible Airwaves:

When CNN went looking for Easter guests for its Sunday morning talk shows, do you think it ever considered a mainline Christian voice?

No, instead it asked the Rev. Jerry Falwell to join CNN Late Edition host Wolf Blitzer in a Resurrection-day conversation about the involvement of conservative Christian voters in the 2006 and 2008 elections.

Lasting nearly 10 minutes, the segment didn't speculate how mainline Christians might vote in upcoming elections. It only served to underscore the assumption that so-called "values voters" are evangelicals.

Wouldn't Easter have been an appropriate on-air occasion for this nation's 45 million mainline Christians and 100,000 mainline churches to have a turn at the TV microphone? Must Falwell's bully pulpit always be the media lectern where the monolithic "Christian" message of the Religious Right is proclaimed?

Where's the mainline, mainstream voice?

Falwell was a bigot when he fought for legal segregation in the South – and used his pulpit to do so – and is a bigot now for continuing to fight civil rights for women and gays and lesbians. I don’t question his commitment to the Republican cause (just ask John McCain about that) but I do question the sincerity of his faith.

When will the media start including mainline voices?

Missouri Republican Tells Voter What She Really Thinks

I knew from attending seminary in St. Louis that Republican politicians in Missouri were a pretty nasty bunch. But I had no idea they could be this nasty.

Related story:  Lawmaker Puzzled by Obscenity in Letter  

Save Darfur Rallies

On April 30th, there will be a national rally in Washington, DC to draw attention to the on-going crisis in Darfur. "The Sudanese Government, using Arab ‘Janjaweed’ militias, its air force, and organized starvation, is deliberately and systematically killing the black Sudanese of Darfur,” reports darfurgenocide.org. The Save Darfur Coalition states:

Nearly three years into the crisis, the western Sudanese region of Darfur is acknowledged to be a humanitarian and human rights tragedy of the first order. The humanitarian, security and political situation continue to deteriorate: atrocities continue, people are still dying in large numbers of malnutrition and disease, and a new famine is feared. According to reports by the World Food Program, the United Nations and the Coalition for International Justice, 3.5 million people are now hungry, 2.5 million have been displaced due to violence, and 400,000 people have died in Darfur thus far. The international community is failing to protect civilians or to influence the Sudanese government to do so.

Local rallies will also be held across the country. In Portland, a rally will be held that afternoon at Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Conservative evangelical Christians and mainline Christians have joined together to put pressure on the United States government and the rest of the world to do more in this crisis.

Related Post:  Is It Ok That They’re Dying Because They’re Just Black People?

Oregon May Primary Endorsements: Saltzman, Kotek, Wheeler, Hallman

For readers of this blog outside Oregon there is a primary election coming up here in May. I’ve already noted that my vote will go to Portland City Commissioner Erik Sten in his re-election race and that I’m hoping that voters in state senate district 17 will select Sam Chase as the democratic nominee (there is no Republican candidate running in the fall so the primary will determine the next senator).

But there are a few other races that I’m particularly interested in.

Like Sten, Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman is also up for re-election. He is facing a strong challenger in political newcomer Amanda Fritz.

I’ll be voting to return Saltzman to City Hall. There is one basic reason: his leadership in creating the Children’s Investment Fund. The fund, approved by the voters, provides $8.5 million each year for children’s programs. His work on this issue has earned him the endorsement of Stand for Children and many community leaders. Mayor Tom Potter is among those in his camp. I’ve known Dan since he served as a Multnomah County commissioner and have found him to be hands-on and involved. By virtue of being elected to the county commission he had a seat on the Multnomah County Community Action Commission (which was then the county’s lead anti-poverty board) when I served as the chair. Most elected officials sent staff to meetings. Dan attended those meetings himself. Portland would benefit from having him serve another term.

City and county officials need to obtain over 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff in November. This will be most important in Sten’s race because of the number of candidates.

Another children’s advocate running for office this year is Tina Kotek. Tina is running for the Oregon House of Representatives in district 44. She is the public policy director of Children First for Oregon (the position Liz held before we left Portland for St. Louis and my stint in seminary). Tina worked at the Oregon Food Bank before taking the position at Children First and has been a champion for poverty issues in Salem for years as an advocate. Her voice is needed in Salem. Tina’s opponent in the democratic primary is Jim Robison. I’ve known Jim since high school. District 44 is fortunate to have good hearted candidates standing for election.

Multnomah County will be facing several leadership changes because of term limits. Chair Diane Linn is also up for re-election. Her challenger is Ted Wheeler and Wheeler will get my vote. I first meet him when I was serving as the executive director of the Goose Hollow Family Shelter at First United Methodist Church and he was a volunteer serving as an overnight host. He has been volunteering at the shelter for years. Wheeler is a very successful businessman with strong management skills. Multnomah County needs that. Linn has been a terrible disappointment. Rather than deal with issues she ducks them and chaos seems to follow her wherever she goes. The issue of family homelessness is one of the areas county government is charged with addressing. The county has failed mightily in this area under Linn’s administration. Linn had my vote the last go around but I won’t be fooled twice. Wheeler is also a newcomer to politics and a breath of fresh air. I hope he gets the chance to serve.

Finally, the Oregon Supreme Court needs a new justice and I’ll be voting for Gene Hallman. Hallman is a progressive attorney from Eastern Oregon who has the backing of groups like Planned Parenthood and the Oregon Education Association. Hallman is incredibly well respected across the state. He’ll be a fair minded jurist. Progressives can trust his judgment. My wife has been active on his campaign since the beginning of the year. Hallman is running against a former Republican statewide office holder and a sitting judge. The race is non-partisan. Court races don’t often get much attention but they matter and I hope you’ll join me in voting for Hallman.

Thomas: Killing of innocent in Tel Aviv 'can never be called legitimate'

Reprinted from United Church News

An April 17 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv was condemned by UCC General Minister and President John H. Thomas, saying such frightening acts “can never contribute to a peaceful and just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Thomas’ statement comes just after a spokesperson for Hamas called the attack “a legitimate response” to Israeli aggression.

“The killing or wounding of innocent people, whether they are Israelis or Palestinians, can never be called legitimate,” Thomas said in a statement. “The only legitimate response to the conflict in the Middle East is a negotiated settlement in which both Israel and Palestine exist peacefully within safe, viable, and internationally recognized borders and in which Jerusalem is shared by both.”

The suicide bombing near the old central bus station in southern Tel Aviv killed at least nine people and wounded more than 60. The attack came in the midst of holiday celebrations of Jewish Passover and a week before Yom Hashoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day.

For Christians, Thomas said, the bombing “marked a heartbreaking and ominous beginning to the Easter season.”

“In the wake of this attack and the Israeli response in Gaza, we pray that responsible leaders on both sides, as well as leaders of our own nation, will recommit themselves to an urgent peace process for the sake of Jews, Christians and Muslims who share the land we call Holy,” Thomas said.

Read Thomas' full statement here.

United Church of Christ Of Forest Grove Seeks Help With Homeless Crisis

This appeal has been posted on the website of the United Church of Christ of Forest Grove, Oregon (in Washington County and across the street from UCC-related Pacific University):

The Outreach Commission has recently learned that the future of the four homeless shelters in Washington County is jeopardized by the failure of the Local Option Levy for Public Safety, not passed by voters in November 2004. This was to be an extension of the Safety Levy passed in 2002, which expires in July of this year. All four of these shelters realize funding from the Safety Levy and work closely together to provide a critical piece of the safety net for families with children. Each of them depends upon funding from the public safety levy to provide services so that families can become stable and self-sufficient.

Here in our church, we participate in and support Family Bridge, which is one of the four shelters. Good Neighbor Center, Hillsboro Family Shelter, and the Domestic Violence Resource Center are the other three.

These shelters play a key role in maintaining public safety. Each shelter's board of directors and staff are keenly aware that services will be drastically reduced (they already are) and maybe eliminated if the new levy does not pass this November. They have already cut back their operations to bridge the gap between July and November when there will be no funds from the county.

Even when the Safety Levy was fully funding these shelters, many people in need were being turned away. Four shelters, funded at these levels, are not adequate to address the problems associated with homelessness in our community. With the failure of the Safety Levy extension, things are now dire.

The Outreach Commission has identified the following needs to ensure that these services continue: Funding for the shelters to keep them in operation Help with educating citizens about the levy's importance Faith-based efforts to make shelter and affordable housing top priorities.

Members of the Outreach Sub-Committee looking for ways to respond include Nedra Hathaway, Joan Bolen, Russ Dondero, Steve Whistler, and they are led by Eric Canon. This group is planning a gathering of faith communities for Saturday, May 13 from 10:00-11:30 am at Marsh Hall, Pacific University. Representatives from the shelters will be present to lead a discussion about these challenges and to answer questions.

If you are interested we hope you will join us at Pacific on May 13, and invite others from our congregation to be there as well. Please let Eric Canon know of your plans to attend. You may reach him at [email protected] or at 503.357.3282. With God's help we hope to bring some light to a very dark situation in our community.

Click here for directions to Pacific (and click here for a campus map where you can find the location of Marsh Hall).

Easter 1976

Happy Easter to all!  I make this public vow today: never to dress my twin daughters in outfits such as the ones my twin sisters - Heather and Jennifer - were forced to wear in this Easter photo circa 1976 that Heather and I found today when going through old pictures.

My 1976 outfit: stylish. 

The Women Of Easter And The Church

This Easter it is worth remembering that women were the first to acknowledge the risen Jesus and took early leadership positions in what eventually became the Christian church. There have been women preachers and prophets ever since. But their voices have been largely silenced. History informs us that the first Protestant woman to be ordained to ministry (in what was to become the United Church of Christ) was Antoinette Brown in 1853. Yet it was not until the 1980s that women truly began to feel accepted by many of their peers and congregations as full partners – as ministers. Many traditions still deny women the role of minister in opposition to biblical and historical Christianity. NPR had a story on this morning about a group of Roman Catholic women visiting Rome to study the leadership roles played by women. A good Easter story. Now I’m off to church. The Rev. Dr. Patricia Ross is preaching.

Easter Morning

Easter Day
April 16, 2006
Mark 16:1-8

RESURRECTION MORNING

According to the Gospel of John, the dawn of the first Easter was anything but promising. Jesus had been humiliated, crucified, and buried three days earlier. It is hardly surprising that the men who were his disciples were nowhere to be seen. After all the wonder and excitement, it came to this– Jesus was dead! And they were terrified. Separated from their dreams they experienced the radical absence of hope, and the absence of hope, for them, signaled the absence of God, what St. John of the Cross called the “dark night of the soul,” and they had gone into hiding behind locked doors. Only the faithful Mary Magdalene stood by the tomb. Then Jesus came to them–first to Mary at the tomb and then to the locked room. Just how he did that we do not know, but Jesus moved through their closed doors and their secure walls. Shocked and full of doubt and fear, they could not trust their own eyes. Still Jesus persisted. He said, “Do not be afraid of what you see.” With these words, the peace of God drove out fear, doubt, and hopelessness and the disciples recognized him and rejoiced. So the beauty of the story of the first Easter morning is this: Faith is not certainty of belief. It is trust and the perseverance of hope, and God will not let the disciples or us remain in doubt and despair. God’s spirit just keeps coming to us again and again–sometimes in the concrete personal experiences that we share; sometimes in the sheer wonder of our world. “Do not be afraid of what you see,” said Jesus. “Do not fear what you see before you.” Beyond despair and fear, resurrection is the sign of the renewal of divinely given hope and courage. We know this, and like Thomas, the most doubtful of all the disciples, the outcome is our confession–confession of the overwhelming power of trust in God’s love ever seeking us to offer us new hope and new ways of believing.

Rev. Joseph C. Hough, Jr., President
Union Theological Seminary
New York, New York

(Reprinted from UCC's Worship Ways)

This Week On State Of Belief

Press Release from State of Belief

Washington, April 14 - On this Sunday's "State of Belief," The Interfaith Alliance Foundation's show on Air America Radio, Rev. Welton Gaddy talks about the passing of Rev. William Coffin, chats with Rev. Jim Forbes about the nations budget and listens members of his own congregation in Louisiana talk about what it means to be interfaith.

Welton along with the entire faith community mourns the passing of Rev. William Sloane Coffin, a visionary and activist in the faith community. Cofin was a lifelong warrior for peace and a witness for justice and equal rights for all. He served as Senior Minister at The Riverside Church and as Yale University Chaplain.

"He was as comfortable in a march as in a pulpit," Gaddy says, "as energized by protest as by advocacy, as fulfilled by his poetry as by his politics.  This man was as deeply sensitive personally as he was profoundly courageous publicly.  Though firmly a Christian, Bill Coffin embraced with appreciation the broadest expanse of religious traditions."

Rev. Forbes is the first African-American minister to serve at The Riverside Church in New York. The Riverside Church is an interdenominational, interracial, and international church built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1927 with more than 2,400 members.  Welton asks Rev. Forbes why the Administration is having problems with the budget and who is at risk because of government cutbacks.

"When the nation has difficulty," Forbes says, "they balance the budget on the backs of the poor. Something ought to be done about that."

Members of Welton's congregation at Northminster Church explain what it was like building a progressive church in a conservative community and how important it is to build bridges between the religious groups within the community.

William Sloane Coffin Had A Message For The Networks

Accessible Airways

World Religious Leaders React To The Death Of William Sloane Coffin

Statements are pouring in today mourning the death of The Rev. William Sloane Coffin.  A few of them are printed here.

The Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes Jr., Senior Minister, The Riverside Church

"When Bill Coffin first came to Riverside to serve as Senior Minister, he said 'This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine,' and he did...during these last few years of failing health, Bill Coffin was as vigilant in his fight against the war in Iraq as he was in his protest against the war in Vietnam decades earlier."

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director, The Shalom Center

"What can we say? He was brave, bright, committed, and joyful. I learned from him, while I was still a secular activist, what it could mean to be prophetically committed. When God's opening came to me, Bill's teaching was a great part of what I was able to bring."

United Church News: The United Church of Christ

The Rev. William Sloane Coffin, a United Church of Christ minister known globally for his peace and justice advocacy, died April 12 at his home in rural Strafford, Vermont. He was 81.

According to Associated Press, Coffin had been suffering from congestive heart failure and had been under hospice care.

"Bill was an exuberant prophet who had the unique capacity to love us toward our better selves," said the Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC General Minister and President. "His prophetic vision brought the imagination of the Biblical prophets and of Jesus to life in our time. He was urgent and clear, but never stern. His love for life in the world that is never blinded him to a yearning for life in the world that ought to be."

Ordained in 1956 as a Presbyterian, he later sought ordained ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ, a relationship he maintained until his death. Since retirement, he was a member of the United Church of Strafford. Long active in his support of the United Church of Christ's justice and peace agenda, Coffin keynoted a UCC convocation in 2003 on how to revitalize its "just peace church movement."

"Bill understood that a minister was always pastor and prophet, and his gift for language reminded us that, at our best, pastors and prophets are always poets," Thomas said.

From 1976 to 1987, Coffin was senior minister of one of the UCC's most prominent congregations, The Riverside Church in New York City. More than 20 years ago, Coffin led Riverside Church in becoming the UCC's first "open and affirming" church, a denominational movement that today includes nearly 600 congregations committed publicly to the full inclusion of gay and lesbian persons.

In 1983, only 10 days after the death of his 24-year-old son in a tragic car accident, Coffin delivered his sermon "Eulogy for Alex" at Riverside Church. It remains a heartfelt classic in homiletics.

"So I shall -- so let us all -- seek consolation in that love which never dies, and find peace in the dazzling grace that always is," Coffin preached.

During the 1960s and 70s, he served as university chaplain at Yale where he spoke out passionately in favor of Civil Rights and against the Vietnam War. In the 1980s, Coffin headed the anti-nuclear SANE/Freeze campaign, where he became a major voice in opposition to the U.S. nuclear weapons buildup.

Coffin's likeness and passion were later immortalized as the fictitious "Rev. Sloan" by cartoonist Garry Trudeau in his celebrated strip "Doonesbury."

Last year, when major networks first rejected the UCC's TV ad campaign as "too controversial," Coffin authored a stinging op-ed column. "The UCC properly implied that millions of American Christians are at odds with the Christian Right," Coffin wrote. "... In reality, there are no biblical literalists, only selective literalists. By abolishing slavery and ordaining women, millions of Protestants have gone far beyond biblical literalism."

Funeral arrangements are pending.

The Rev. Bob Edgar, General Secretary, National Council of Chruches

William Sloan Coffin Jr. was no ordinary man and he leaves no ordinary hole. He was full of mystifying contrasts that made him endlessly fascinating and difficult to describe. He was a CIA agent who became an international peace activist. He was a scion of old money, but he made his life with the ordinary. He was a legendary liberal but a life-long friend of George H.W. Bush. He could be righteously angry at injustice or war mongering, but masked it behind a Cheshire cat grin. He could be prophetically stern, but riotously funny. He could intone profound theological insights, but sweeten them with his working class New York accent. 

To my generation, Bill Coffin was a hero. When he was chaplain of Yale University in the sixties, he organized freedom rides in the South and by 1967 was leading students in civil disobedience against the Vietnam War. When one of his students - the future pastor, Jeb Stuart Magruder - became entangled in Watergate, Bill told him he had lost his moral compass. That is what Bill Coffin was for many of us: our moral compass. He once said, "God loves you the way you are, but he knows you can do better."

Bill never lost an opportunity to witness for peace. In 1979, during the Iran hostage crisis, he and National Council of Churches President M. William Howard led an NCC delegation to Iran to bring Christmas worship to the U.S. hostages. 

He was pastor of Riverside Church from 1977 to 1987. People who worshipped at Riverside in those years say his most memorable sermon may have been the Sunday after his son was killed in an automobile accident. He rejected the notion that his son's death, or any other tragedy, was God's will. "God," he said, "is crying, too." When Bill left Riverside, it was to become president of SANE/FREEZE (now Peace Action), the largest peace and justice organization in the United States.

Bill Coffin led a full and remarkable life, and he would not want us to think of his death as premature or tragic. But that doesn't make it any easier to think of a world without him. We can allow ourselves a few tears. And we remember, in our grief, Bill's assurance that God is crying, too.

Dr. Joseph C. Hough, Jr., President of Union Theological Seminary, New York

Today, April 12, 2006, William Sloane Coffin died, and the Union community will be saddened at the loss of this remarkable Christian leader. I have no words to express adequately my own sense of loss. Bill Coffin was one of my closest and most cherished friends. Nothing was ever better than an evening with Bill and Randy Coffin in their home, and Heidi and I have been fortunate to enjoy many of those evenings, especially in recent years. In those precious times, we shared friendship strong enough to speak honestly, love unreservedly, and with it all to fill our shared moments with laughter.

Bill was one of God's chosen prophets. He was a great patriot who loved his country too much to leave it alone. His early and strong leadership in the struggle against segregation and discrimination on the basis of race; his pivotal role in organizing opposition against the war in Vietnam; and his continuing personal investment and national leadership in the campaign to abolish nuclear weapons from an increasingly dangerous world place him among the most important Christian leaders in American history. He strode with giant footsteps across this nation in extraordinarily turbulent times, and his voice cried out for justice and peace, a justice and peace that in his mind flowed directly from his deep and abiding personal faith in the God made known to him in Jesus Christ.

That deep faith was the foundation for his preaching. He was among the most effective and memorable of all of American preachers. No one preached better! From his pulpits in Battell Chapel at Yale, the Riverside Church in New York, and hundreds of pulpits all over the nation came extraordinarily powerful sermons-- sermons that moved hearts, changed minds, and called us all to change the world. He preached with passion and an inimitable style. And in recent years, Bill wrote of his faith and hope reaching out thousands of Americans with the same power and conviction that always characterized his preaching. I especially loved Letters to a Young Doubter in which Bill's profoundly pastoral side reached out to all of us.

Bill is dead, but I shall rely on the precious gifts of memory to continue to live my history with him. Recollection, like anticipation, is as much a part of the fabric of our lives as the present moment. In some ways it is richer and allows for a generous and loving selectivity. And memories, unlike anticipation, do not disappoint us. That is why the unwelcome intrusion of death into life never is the final act. Death is but the transition from the creation of new personal history to a time of enjoyment of a cherished history that is now done. So that is how it is for me in this day of sorrow and loss.

Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, General Secretary, World Council of Churches

I write to express my sympathy at the loss of William Sloane Coffin, who will be profoundly missed by many of us throughout the world. 

The Rev. Dr William Sloane Coffin, Jr., who died yesterday in the United States, was one of the 20th century's great Christian pastors and activists for peace and justice. His life reflected an understanding of ministry that he once described in these words: "Every minister is given two roles, the prophetic and the priestly." And so he sought racial reconciliation through civil rights legislation, saw himself during the cold war years as "very anti-Soviet, but very pro-Russian", conducted a "lover's quarrel" with his own country's foreign and nuclear policies, opened the eyes of students, parishioners and readers to the demands of the gospel on every aspect of life. So, too, he taught that "the greatest danger each of us faces comes not from our enemies, but from our enmity". 

Dr Coffin was aware of the World Council of Churches from before its inception in 1948. His uncle Henry Sloane Coffin, then president of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, was one of the founding intellects behind the Council and a guiding influence in the establishment of its Ecumenical Institute for graduate study in Bossey, Switzerland. His theological mentors, Reinhold and H. Richard Niebuhr, led him to view God's calling in a framework that transcended national, cultural and denominational boundaries. William Sloane Coffin would continue these traditions in ecumenical circles through his years as chaplain of Yale University, pastor of Riverside Church in New York and leader of movements including the civil rights struggle, anti-war protest and the lobby for a nuclear freeze. His voice was one that we heard clearly, and heeded. 

He was arrested several times in the pursuit of social righteousness. On one of these occasions, while demonstrating for the desegregation of an amusement park in Baltimore on July 4, 1963, he was one of nine US religious leaders taken into custody. Arrested in company with Coffin that day was Eugene Carson Blake, another minister of the United Presbyterian Church in the USA. Less than three years later, Gene Blake would become the second general secretary of the World Council of Churches. They remained friends and confidants to the end of Blake's life. In fact, William Sloane Coffin has been greatly admired by every one of the WCC's general secretaries. 

On behalf of the ecumenical fellowship represented by the World Council of Churches, I offer thanks to God for the life, faith and courage of William Sloane Coffin. Many of us who knew him only slightly, or through his writings, or by report, join in prayer with those close friends and family members who are experiencing sorrow at his death. May the hope of the resurrection to eternal life, found at the heart of this Easter season, be with us and reassure us of God's abiding love.

Give Praise To God For The Ministry Of William Sloane Coffin!

Word is just breaking that The Rev. William Sloane Coffin has died. 

Coffin was one of America's greatest Christian leaders and an inspiration to many of us.  He was a champion of civil rights and the abolition of nuclear weapons.  Coffin served as Yale's chaplain and as the senior minister of Riverside Church in New York City.

He was a United Church of Christ minister.

I met Coffin when I was a student at Pacific University in the late 1980s and he was kind enough to do an interview with me for my blog in 2004.  We were also participants together in the Clergy Leadership Network during the 2004 elections.

There will be much more to say later.

Give praise tonight to God for the life and ministry of William Sloane Coffin!

Related Post:  The Public Witness and Ministry of William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

Reflecting On Nuclear Weapons During Holy Week

Iran is clearly on a path toward developing a nuclear bomb.  No one should question the seriousness of this development.  When the United States first unleashed atomic weapons on civilian targets it became almost inevitable that other and more dangerous nations would acquire such technologies.  Evil was unleashed in a way never seen before. 

There are credible media reports that in response to Iran's moves that the US will launch bombing campaigns - and even use small nuclear arms - to stop their program. 

The hope is apparently that such military action on the part of the US will cause the Iranian people to overthrow their government and align themselves with the West.  That would seem to be flawed thinking (anyone at the White House ever heard of a place called Iraq?). 

At this moment in time - Holy Week for Christians - it seems appropriate to reflect on the statement concerning the elimination of nuclear arms adopted this year by the Assembly of the World Council of Churches.

In the nuclear age, God who is slow to anger and abounding in mercy has granted humanity many days of grace.

Through the troubled years of the Cold War and into the present time, it has become clear that, in this as in other ways, God has saved us from ourselves. Although many were and are deceived, God is not mocked (Gal 6:7). If vengeance in daily life is for God (Rom 12:19), surely the vengeance of nuclear holocaust is not for human hands. Our place is to labour for life with God....

As more states acquire nuclear arms the risk of nuclear weapons falling into non-state hands increases--just when it is an international imperative to wisely overcome the violence of terrorism. Nuclear arms do not deter non-state agents and nuclear action against them would cause gross slaughter while shattering international law and morality...

On the question of morality, all people of faith are needed in our day to expose the fallacies of nuclear doctrine. These hold, for example, that weapons of mass destruction are agents of stability; that governments have nuclear arms so they will never use them; and that there is a role in the human affairs of this small planet for a bomb more powerful than all the weapons ever used. With our aging sisters and brothers who survived atomic bombs in Japan and tests in the Pacific and former Soviet Union, and as people emerging from a century of genocides and global wars, we are bound to confront these follies before it is too late.

Churches must prevail upon governments until they recognize the incontrovertible immorality of nuclear weapons.

Click here to read the full statement.

Related Link:  Catholic Group Calls For Abolition Of Nuclear Weapons

Good Friday In Portland, Oregon

At noon on Good Friday, April 14, downtown congregations will gather for an Ecumenical Good Friday Service at First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1126 SW Park. A number of clergy will lead the worship. Dr. Rodney Paige, retired Executive Director of Church World Service and Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon will preach. Parking is limited. Please carpool or take public transportation.  All are welcome!

Hosanna!

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. -  John 12:12-16 (NRSV)

The tradition on Palm/Passion Sunday as celebrated at Portland’s First Congregational United Church of Christ is to have a live donkey begin our worship together by leading a processional through the South Park Blocks that ends at the church’s front door. Worshipers wave palm branches and sing “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna” in this reenactment of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.

The Rev. Kim Pirazzini Wells of Lakewood United Church of Christ in St. Petersburg, Fl., wrote in a short piece used in many UCC bulletins this Sunday:

Most of us love a parade! We line the streets, chant and cheer. We wave banners and pennants. Vendors appear. Bands play. The excitement and energy is infectious. Familiar with this kind of experience, we can identify with the crowd at Jerusalem waving palms and cheering "Hosanna!" in the Palm Sunday story.

Yet that welcome is not for a typical popular hero but for a humble servant who has cast his lot with the poor, the sick, the outcast. He rides not on a majestic steed but on a borrowed donkey. It is a demonstration for one who conquers through non-violence, compassion, mercy, and love.

For our acclaim of such a Savior to be authentic, we must consider how we embrace Jesus' passion: His passion for love, justice, reconciliation, and peace. Are we consumed with passion for those who are suffering and those who are captive-to violence, poverty, and bigotry? Are we taking risks on behalf of those society has overlooked as Jesus did?

If we are encountering ridicule, if we are questioning comfortable power arrangements, if we are jeopardizing the stability of established institutions, then we may very well be sharing in Jesus' passion. If we are not paying such a price for our discipleship then our passion may very well be misplaced.

When our hearts are centered in the heart of Jesus, then our waving palms and changed "Hosannas" are a true celebration of the Gospel which is Good News for all people, not just some people. Our festivities are a witness to our faith in the victory of non-violence and reconciliation.

This Palm/Passion Sunday, may Christ Jesus enter our cities and towns. May he be present on our roads and streets as the church waves palms with a passion for compassion and peace.

There are those (think Mel Gibson's film) who would ignore Jesus' life and ministry and place the importance of his death high above the importance of his lessons.  Showing up each year at Easter to celebrate the resurrection and thanking God for the forgiveness of your sins really misses the point of what Jesus was / is about.  To follow Jesus means to be willing to risk everything in the pursuit of love and justice for all of God's creation.

Hosanna!   

The Rev. Dr. Pat Ross, senior minister, FCUCC Portland

Katherine & Frances

The people of First Congregational United Church of Christ in Portland, OR.

Erik Sten, Jack Bog & The Truth About Homelessness In Portland

For the most part I avoid reading Jack Bogdanski’s blog. I find it whinny and uninformative. Not many people in Oregon share my opinion. Jack Bog is the go-to blog in Portland and a lot of people take his word as gospel truth. However, he recently made an attack against Portland City Commissioner Erik Sten that reinforces my opinion that speaking the truth is not very important to Professor Bogdanski.  He wrote following a recent City Council candidate debate:

Sten apparently paints himself as the champion of the downtrodden. But ask yourself, folks, after 10 years of Opie in City Hall, are Portland's homeless better off or worse off than before he got there? To me the situation appears as bad as ever. He's had his chance, made 10 years' worth of speeches, and he's gotten next to nothing done.

Sten is running for re-election this May and Bogdanski is supporting a candidate running against Sten who freely admits he has no knowledge about issues of homelessness or poverty – or any kind of plan to deal with the issues.

I’ve worked on issues related to homelessness in Portland before Erik Sten ever appeared in city government. But from his first day as an assistant to Portland City Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury - through his own terms on the City Council - he has been my greatest ally and one of the few who knows that for government to succeed it must produce results.

As the chair of the Multnomah County Community Action Commission, I oversaw the citizen process that developed the shelter reconfiguration plan . The result of this plan included the opening of new housing facilities for homeless single adult men and women, and for people suffering from chronic mental illness. Sten, as Kafoury’s chief of staff, helped move the plan through city government to a successful completion. As a city commissioner, he has fought for even more services and led the charge region wide to build affordable housing.

Burnside Advocates Group gave Sten the Beverly "Ma" Curtis Social Justice Award in 1995 for his efforts on homelesness. 

Bogdanski might think that the situation “appears as bad as ever.” But that is only because he does not know what he is talking about.

Before Kafoury and Sten began their work our city’s shelters were run down facilities and in some cases people lived in them for years before moving – if ever – into permanent housing.

This past year alone city backed programs moved over 600 people into permanent housing.

Ask the women living at Jean’s Place – a shelter for domestic violence victims built under Sten’s watch – what their lives would be like without Sten’s work.

Ask the men living at the Clark Center where they would be if not for Sten’s leadership.

Ask those people suffering with chronic mental illness what their quality of life would be like if Sten hadn’t helped to turn the Royal Palm into housing for them.

Ask the teenagers living in Outside In’s housing program what it would be like for them if Sten hadn’t been there to support their cause.

Ask all those who have moved off the street into permanent housing – families, women, children – if life would have been better for them without Sten fighting for their needs.

Is life perfect now for people who are homeless? Hardly. We still need more services. More than anything we need affordable housing. Our leaders in Salem and Washington, DC have failed to provide local urban centers with the help we need to address the homeless crisis that every city faces. Portland has been left alone to deal with the difficult challenges.

Sten has worked against all odds – and with limited resources – to produce great results. He has had to sometimes fight groups like the Portland Business Alliance and even Mayor Katz for the resources needed to make these programs successful.

Most politicians would never put the time and energy into working to help people who are homeless transition off the streets into a better life. Where is the political pay off for that?

Here is the amazing thing: Sten doesn’t care about that. He just wants to do the right thing.

All of Portland is better off because of his work.

Bogdanski might consider taking some time away from his keyboard and getting out into the city to see what is really going on.  He might discover that our community is a better place than he thinks.

Related Link:  Dave Lister, Jack Bog, and the Truth from Loaded Orygun

Scott Elliott In The House

When we lived in St. Louis during my three year stint at Eden Theological Seminary there were really only a few people on campus we could fully commiserate with: our fellow Oregonians Scott and Nancy Elliott (along with three of their four great kids). As the only Oregonians on campus we bonded over our shared love of Tillamook cheese and Oregon legend Marcus Borg and we all brooded away the hot and humid Missouri summer days. So it was a great joy for Liz and me to briefly see Scott today as he arrived in Oregon for his ordination exam. The only way the afternoon could have been better: if Nancy and their kids had been here as well. Nancy, along with Meredith Anderson (another close Eden friend), was a life saver for us when the twins were born. We’re disappointed that we won’t be able to attend Eden’s graduation ceremony this May but we hope all our Eden friends remember that our Portland home (which is quite cool in the summer) is always open and visitors are welcomed / encouraged!

The New York Times, The United Church Of Christ, & The Institute on Religion and Democracy

This morning The New York Times published an article about the United Church of Christ and a conservative critic of all mainline denominations: the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD).

What is IRD? Well, the group has very little to do with religion and a lot to do with politics.

It was set-up in the early 1980s by conservative political groups upset with mainline church critics who charged that US foreign policy was supporting violent dictatorships in places like El Salvador and South Africa. Mark Tooley, one of IRD’s top leaders, is a former CIA employee.

The aim of IRD was then and is now to sow division in mainline churches and church bodies such as the National Council of Churches by defaming church leaders and institutions.

IRD receives funding today from conservative politics activists such as Richard Mellon Scaife. Scaife provided nearly all the funding needed to wage an eight-year campaign against Bill and Hillary Clinton during their tenure in the White House.

IRD and their backers consider many Republicans too liberal and have even fought against conservative evangelical Christians concerned about the environment.

During the 2004 elections the IRD accused mainline churches of partisan political activity in support of democratic candidates. John Lomperis, one of IRD’s staffers, wrote several pieces on IRD’s web site making that charge. The charge, however, was totally false. Mainline churches only engaged in proper and legal voter registration drives and get out the vote efforts. Lomperis never disclosed that he was actively working on the Bush 2004 re-election campaign while make these false allegations.

Members of all mainline churches - such as the UCC - represent many different political beliefs.

IRD also coordinates a group called the Association for Church Renewal. Part of this association is a small IRD-aligned organization called the Biblical Witness Fellowship. BFW is assigned to target the UCC by attacking the denomination's leadership and members. IRD distributes their press material.

Is there a “vast right wing conspiracy” aimed at mainline churches and organized by IRD?

I’d call it more of a “vast right wing coordination.”

IRD and their allies hope to silence the prophetic voice of mainline churches that argue against economic policies that benefit the wealthy at the expense of the “least of these,” work to promote peace over war, seek to make sure everyone feels welcomed at God’s table, and maintain that the environment is a gift from God we must protect.

IRD is a political organization concerned with political activities. The United Church of Christ is a church concerned with preaching the Gospel.

Our denomination is fortunate to have leaders speaking out against such partisan groups misusing the Christian faith for nationalistic political goals.

But when the networks ban the UCC from airing television spots proclaiming the Gospel message of extravagant welcome then groups like IRD win and the Gospel message loses.

Send a message to the network executives telling them not to let that happen.

Follow Up: The UCC Off The Air In Many Places

Some follow-up on the decision yesterday by NBC’s cable affiliates and Viacom’s stations not to air the United Church of Christ’s new television commercial:

First, Accessible Airways has a new link up where you can send a message to Viacom asking that they change their tune and air the spot.

The Viacom decision means the commercial will not air on Spanish language stations.

Pastor Dan also has a good post on Street Prophets with his thoughts about the controversy.

Finally, Frederick Clarkson wrote today about how the Republican Party aligned-Institute on Religion and Democracy is trying to spin this story in right-wing publications.

Related Post: The Marriage Of David Horowitz And The Institute on Religion and Democracy

Toddlers For Erik Sten

Katherine (left) & Frances show their support for Portland City Commissioner Erik Sten.

General Electric’s NBC Cannot Silence God’s Message Of Extravagant Welcome

What a weird world we live in. ABC will run advertisements for the Religious Right political group Focus on the Family – whose founder has made defeating democrats a primary task of his organization – but the network and others (now including some NBC-owned cable stations) will not air a television spot promoting the United Church of Christ. ABC says they won’t air religious commercials but the hypocrisy is apparent whenever they have aired Focus on the Family spots. NBC won’t air the UCC spots because our denomination promotes a message that God doesn’t turn anyone away. For the peacock network – a media conglomerate owned by General Electric – the Gospel message of extravagant welcome is one that should be silenced. General Electric, which gives millions of dollars to conservative political campaigns, clearly has a stake in silencing any prophetic message that challenges society to follow Jesus’ ministry – a ministry that spoke of tolerance, love, justice, and God’s gift of grace. Those are not always corporate values. Will the effort on the part of the media corporations to silence the voice of the United Church of Christ work? No. God is still speaking. Even GE isn’t powerful enough to keep that voice quiet.

Breaking News: "Viacom, NBC-owned cable channels become next to reject UCC's ads"

(More on this later tonight)

Written by J. Bennett Guess    
Wednesday, 05 April 2006 

Several prominent cable networks, which last year gave a green light to the UCC's national advertising campaign, have now backed away from that decision and are refusing to air the church's newest TV commercial.

Nearly all of those cable networks now refusing the "ejector" ad are owned by either NBC Universal or Viacom (which operated CBS until this January) -- two companies that last year rejected the UCC's "bouncer" ad as "too controversial" for its major broadcast networks. The earlier denials provoked an uproar from church members and media advocates alike.

Now, network rejection has gone cable, with at least nine UCC-preferred networks now unwilling or unable to allow the 1.3-million-member church's paid advertisements because of parent-company policies.

Ron Buford, director of the UCC's Stillspeaking Initiative, described the networks' rejection as "heartbreaking."

"This is `sorry, cable trouble' all over again," said Buford, who is African American, harkening back to the 1950s when some television stations refused to run network news that positively portrayed the Civil Rights Movement.

"There could not be a more concrete example of what happens when our media is in the hands of a few corporate elites who simply don't agree with you. They can simply turn you off. Click, goodbye," said Buford, who insists that the UCC's commercials are neither "political" nor "advocacy," but a sincere attempt by the church to address the oft-ignored feelings of rejection and alienation that many people say they have experienced from organized religion.

Two NBC-owned networks -- USA and Telemundo -- cited the parent company's policy as the basis of their decisions.

"Unfortunately, NBC standards & practices has rejected this spot and it is not approved to air on USA Network," according to a USA network e-mail dated March 27, the same day the UCC's ad was unveiled at a press conference in Cleveland.

Similarly, on March 30, Telemundo responded: "Not Approved. Following NBC Universal policy, we are not accepting the referenced United Church of Christ commercial."

Nick@Night and TV Land, two Viacom-owned networks that twice aired the UCC's ads in December 2004 and March 2005, have now turned down the church's most-recent attempts to purchase air time.

"After screening the spot ... we must decline as our guidelines state we will not accept religious advertisements that take a position on controversial issues or may be deemed as disparaging to another religion," according to a company statement on March 31.

Several other networks, including MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Bravo and the lesbian/gay-oriented LOGO network are also among those owned by Viacom or NBC now deemed off limits to the UCC, since it has become clear to church officials that the cable outlets are lining up behind parent companies' decisions.

"I just wanted to let you know that currently [Viacom-owned] MTV Networks commercial standards & practices cannot accept this `Ejector' spot from United Church of Christ because of the political nature of its content," according to a sales associate's e-mail response on March 30.

Two semi-independent networks -- Discovery and Univision -- have also declined the ad.

Not all cable networks, however, are refusing the ad. ABC Family, a cable network owned by ABC/Disney, has accepted the ad even though its principal broadcast network has refused it, citing a blanket policy against religious advertising.

Others cable networks that have accepted the ad include A&E, AMC, BET, CNN, CNN Headline, Hallmark, History, TBS, TNT, E!, Lifetime, Si-TV, and Azteca America.

A spokesperson for Gotham Inc., the UCC's New York-based advertising firm, said his agency followed standard procedures for purchasing network air time and described the cable channels' decisions as "out of the ordinary."

"The UCC had every reason to expect these orders to be confirmed," Gotham's Bob Adler told United Church News. "The [rejecting] networks' sales reps were willing to negotiate in good faith and did so to the point where the program schedules were put `on hold' [pending final approval from the buyer], a step that shows serious intent by both parties to complete the deal."

Given past rejection from broadcasters, Gotham did seek early pre-approval of the new ad from the major networks. CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and WB summarily rejected it. However, given past acceptance by cable networks and the current tenor of ongoing sales negotiations, Gotham never considered it plausible that cable channels would turn down the UCC's ad.

"Our UCC forebears -- the Congregationalist Pilgrims, the frontier Christians, the German Evangelicals, the freed slaves -- they would rise in judgment if we didn't resist this," Buford said.

The "ejector seat" commercial begins with a shot of an African-American mother trying to calm a crying baby. Sitting in a church pew, the mother fidgets anxiously, as she endures disapproving looks from fellow worshippers. Eventually, someone in the wings pushes an "ejector" button to rid the church of her -- and her noisy baby. Into the air they go flying.

In similar fashion, a gay couple, an Arab-American, a person using a walker, among others, get "ejected." Finally, when a homeless person wanders in and takes a seat, nervous parishioners -- expecting she'll get the boot for sure -- scoot away from her.

The commercial ends with a mood shift, where shots of diverse, friendly people set the stage for the announcer's invitation: "The United Church of Christ -- no matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you're welcome here."

"Immigration Showdown This Week in Senate"

Action Alert from the United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries

This week the Senate is considering amendments to proposed immigration reform bills. The Senate will either pass a bill that addresses the real needs of this nation's 12 million undocumented immigrants or will follow the punitive enforcement-only approach proposed by Senator Frist. This approach includes criminalizing immigrants and service providers, militarizing the U.S./Mexico border, and closing off avenues to citizenship for hard-working, undocumented immigrants. The alternative, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s bill, establishes a path to citizenship for immigrants and authorizes a guest worker program that allows undocumented immigrants to work in this country without fear, while building up credit toward eventual citizenship. It does not include provisions criminalizing migrants or service providers. Send a message to your senators supporting the Senate Judiciary Committee’s more humane bill.

Related Post:  Senate Judiciary Committee Bill On Immigration Far Better Than House Bill

Related Post:  Religious Leaders Speak Out On Immigration

Tom DeLay, the Anti-Christian Values Republican Leader, Will Resign

TIME is reporting tonight that Tom Delay, the indicted former Republican House Majority Leader, will resign from Congress and end his re-election bid.

Glad to hear it.  The man is corrupt and has no business in public life.

Despite his clearly unethical behavior DeLay told TIME that his problems were all caused by the "left" and said that the "war on Christianity" was a major reason for his downfall.  From TIME:

DeLay, a Baptist born in the border city of Laredo, said he "spent a lot of time" praying about his decision and that his personal relationship with Jesus drives his day-to-day actions. "My faith is who I am," he said. When DeLay was booked on the Texas charges, he wore his Congressional I.D. pin and flashed a broad smile designed to thwart Democrats who had hoped to make wide use of an image of a glowering DeLay. "I said a little prayer before I actually did the fingerprint thing, and the picture," he said. "My prayer was basically: 'Let people see Christ through me. And let me smile.' Now, when they took the shot, from my side, I thought it was fakiest smile I'd ever given. But through the camera, it was glowing. I mean, it had the right impact. Poor old left couldn't use it at all."

Recently, he said, he has been hearing from many people who want his help on projects outside Congress. He said his decision was cemented by the thunderous response at a conference in Washington last Wednesday decrying the "War on Christianity."

DeLay is as delusional as he is corrupt.

He tells TIME that he will now concentrate as a private citizen to foster "a closer connection between religion and government."

The "War on Christianity" is, of course, a made-up fund raising tool to line the coffers of the Religious Right and their political allies.  There is no war on Christianity in America.  DeLay, like many of his ilk, confuses his own political agenda with the Gospel. 

If anyone has waged war against the Christian faith it is DeLay himself.

His record in Congress has been one of supporting economic policies that benefit the wealthy at the expense of the "least of these," advocating for the death penalty, and supporting military campaigns over efforts to foster peace.  Throughout his tenure in public service he has put his own financial advancement ahead of the common good and used corrupt means to acquire personal wealth.   

DeLay wants people to see Christ through him.  All I see is a sinner who has used evil as a tool to obtain and wield power for himself and those who oppose everything I understand the Gospel to be about.

Related Post: Send A Letter To Tom Delay's Pastor

Related Post:  Do Tom DeLay and John Cornyn Hate Democracy?

Related Post:  Linking Tom DeLay and Eric Robert Rudolph

Church of Scientology Keeps Up Attacks On Mental Health Treatment

My fundamental respect for diversity normally ends whenever the "Church" of Scientology is brought up.  First, it is not a church - at least not in my book.  Those involved with Scientology have over the years worked to develop a more mainstream image.  But I still maintain that their methods and views are dangerous.  No where is that more obvious than their work to discredit the work of both mental health professionals and the mental health-related medications that have brought relief to millions suffering from mental illness.

Check out this latest example of their work from The Arizona Republic:

A group affiliated with the Church of Scientology has forged close ties with several influential members of the Arizona Legislature as part of a nationwide battle against the mental-health industry.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights has courted key lawmakers with trips to glitzy Scientologist events in Hollywood. And, observers say, it has been the force behind more than two dozen bills in Arizona in recent years, including measures to restrict prescriptions of Ritalin and mood-altering drugs.

One of the measures pushed by the group is likely to be approved by the state Senate on Monday.

Senate Bill 1477, the psychotropic-drug bill that received preliminary approval this week, would add more state oversight of clinical trials involving tranquilizers and other drugs that affect the mind at state-funded institutions. Supporters say they do not believe people are always informed of the possible side effects of drugs like Prozac and Ritalin.

Opponents counter that the bill is unnecessary because of strict federal oversight of research programs and warn that it is part of a larger campaign by the religious sect to discredit the field of psychiatry.

"They don't believe there is such a thing as mental illness," said Sen. Robert Cannell, the Legislature's only medical doctor. "They have such an influence on the Legislature it is scary."

Air America's State of Belief program brought this issue in Arizona to my attention. 

Most people in the United States remember the bizarre rants from Scientologist Tom Cruise attacking women seeking medical treatment for post-partum depression.   

Shortly after 9/11 the Church of Scientology tried to seek out people in crisis by claiming to offer mental health services.  "The public needs to understand that the Scientologists are using this tragedy to recruit new members," Michael M. Faenza, President and CEO of National Mental Health Association, said at the time.  "They are not providing mental health assistance."

Their actions have been despicable over the years. 

After Cruise's high profile comments the American Psychiatric Association (APA), NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill), and the National Mental Health Association (NMHA) released a joint statement that read in part:

FACT: Over the past five years, the nation has more than doubled its investment in the study of the human brain and behavior, leading to a vastly expanded understanding of postpartum depression, bipolar disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Much of this research has been conducted by the National Institutes of Health and the nation's leading academic institutions.

FACT: Safe and effective treatments are available and may include talk therapy, medication or a combination of the two. Rigorous, published, peer-reviewed research clearly demonstrates that treatment works.

FACT: Medications can be an important and even life-saving part of a comprehensive and individualized treatment plan. As in other areas of medicine, medications are a safe and effective way to improve the quality of life for millions of Americans who have mental health concerns.

FACT: Mental health is a critical ingredient of overall health. It is unfortunate that in the face of this remarkable scientific and clinical progress that a small number of individuals and groups persist in questioning its legitimacy.

Keep on the look out for efforts in your local communities (not to mention in DC) that attack mental health treatment.  You can bet there is a good chance that Scientologists will be behind any such effort.  We know that in Arizona they are buying the politicians.  Let's do everything we can to expose and stop them before they damage more lives. 

Saturday In Portland

We packed in a pretty full family day this Saturday. The weather was pretty decent for spring in Oregon. There was only a trace of rain. We did yard work and Frances and Katherine got to spend a couple of hours playing with friends in the morning.  A trip to Powell's was next on the agenda.  Then we took a long walk through our Grant Park neighborhood this afternoon and later drove over to the Woodstock section of town for dinner at the Delta Café, Portland’s southern cuisine destination. This was the first time we’d been to the Delta since moving back to Portland in December. Check this place out if you're in town. After dinner we took a walk through the Foster-Powell neighborhood to see my old house and to drop-by and say hello to our friends Michelle and John and their cute-as-can-be daughter Madeline. Tomorrow it is off to church in the morning and then hopefully a lazy afternoon. Anything going on in the world I should be concerned about?