Right-wing websites are all a flutter with claims that the United Church of Christ "has decided to banish God 'the Father' from its organizational documents." Of course, that isn't true and this is much to do with presidential politics and seemingly little to do with religion.
The Patriot Update had the "breaking news" today:
The United Church of Christ, the denomination whose Chicago pastor Jeremiah Wright blasted the United States and white people for years from the pulpit while Barack Obama sat in his pews, has decided to banish God “the Father” from its organizational documents.
A report from Eric Anderson on the denomination’s website confirmed that delegates to the UCC’s “GeneralSynod28″ agreed late Monday to a series of proposed amendments to the constitution and bylaws. The vote was 613 in favor of the changes, 171 against and 10 abstaining.
I cannot find that article anywhere on the UCC's website, however.
But the change was one of dozens of wording changes considered this week to the UCC Consitution by the General Synod of the United Church of Christ. You can read all the changes that were proposed here.
The Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ continues to read:
We believe in God, the Eternal Spirit, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father, and to his deeds we testify:
He calls the worlds into being, creates man in his own image and sets before him the ways of life and death.
He seeks in holy love to save all people from aimlessness and sin.
He judges men and nations by his righteous will declared through prophets and apostles.
In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Lord,he has come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the world to himself.
He bestows upon us his Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and races.
He calls us into his church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be his servants in the service of men, to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ's baptism and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory.
He promises to all who trust him forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace, courage in the struggle for justice and peace, his presence in trial and rejoicing, and eternal life in his kingdom which has no end.
Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto him.
Amen.
There is, however, a more inclusive version that may also be used.
The General Synod this week also adopted an agreement between the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the United Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church-USA, Reformed Church in America and Christian Reformed Church regarding the mutual recognition of baptism that calls for the tradition liturgy of "the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" to be used during baptisms.
In short, the websites reporting that the UCC have fully dropped "Our Father" as language for God are wrong and perhaps even lying as most of them mention President Obama in their stories and seem to be using this issue as an attempt to smear him for partisan political purposes.
Note how The Patriot Update and the radical right-wing website WND, an internet site known for their racist rethoric, feature pictures of President Obama with The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the president's former pastor who retired in 2008.
Having written all this, I'll note that I personally believe that inclusive language is best when describing God. God is God and attempts to make God human by placing gender and other human characteristics on God take away from God's divine nature. Human language is limiting. We simply don't have a good vocabulary for labeling our Creator.
