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UCCtruths

Every denomination needs one of these...

"Martyr" Thomas arrested

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Comparing himself to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, United Church of Christ President John Thomas was arrested outside the White House today along with Linda Jaramillo, executive minister for Justice and Witness Ministries, according to UC News:
Thomas reminded the crowd of martyred theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who said, "The church has been a silent partner in evil deeds." To which Thomas added, "We are breaking that silence today."

"This is a difficult time for people of faith who are opposed to the war," said Thomas, who named "an apparant lack of will to change course" as an immobilizing frustration for both the American and Iraqi people. The UCC's summer anti-war petition drive, he said, was about "claiming hope and action again."
Last week, I predicted this exact scenario:
Thomas wants to be arrested. It's his self fulfilling, although meaningless, martyrdom of arrest that he'll wear like a Boy Scout merit badge. After it's over, he'll convince himself that he's paid a significant price in the name of peace. He'll delude himself that it's "the cost of discipleship" while missing the obvious: Out of a denomination of 1.2 million members, he mustered up 40,000 of the flock to sign on to his pastoral message. There's a message in there, but it's not about peace.
I was wrong about one thing... apparently they tried to present 60,000 signatures.

Thomas' comparison to Bonhoeffer is absurd... and dangerous. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism, founding member of the Confessing Church and was involved in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He was arrested in March 1943, imprisoned, and eventually hanged just before the end of the World War II in Europe. What is anyone with a brain supposed to infer from the comparison? It's no wonder the White House wouldn't send a representative out to meet with him.
posted by UCCtruths, Wednesday, October 10, 2007

6 Comments:

Wow, Thomas is a real BS artist. He reminds me of the moral exhibitionists who get themselves arrested each year at Fort Benning, Georgia, protesting the former "School of the Americas."

Thanks for your website: I enjoy reading it, given that UCC and PC(USA) have many similarities, for good and bad.

Pastor John Erthein
commented by Blogger Presbyman, 11:52 AM  
So, let me get this straight: getting arrested for protesting an injustice is considered BS?

I just don't get it. Shouldn't we be more concerned about non-violent protesters being arrested rather than blaming them? I honestly don't know why Bush didn't just invite them in, speak for a couple of minutes with them and then send them on their merry way. What is this administration scared of?
commented by Blogger the prisoner, 2:14 PM  
They were not arrested for protesting, but for violating the "No Protest Zone" on the front walk. Seems to me they wanted to GET ARRESTED, not to talk to President Bush. The real audience was the media, nothing else. One would think there are other ways to present petitions that would actually go through.
I was wondering, how many of the "60,000 signatures" were actually UCC members, and how many were "supporters"? No way to sort that out, but the denominational support is slimmer than that. Leaders need to be out ahead of the troups, but occasionally they should check if the troups are on the same road! But that would not be "prophetic" would it?
commented by Blogger Steve, 9:12 AM  
I just think it's asinine for Thomas to draw any comparisons between his actions and Dietrich Bonhoffer's. Thomas is not a martyr, bur rather a moral exhibitionist who gets himself arrested.
commented by Blogger Presbyman, 12:18 PM  
Thomas' dillusion of self-importance reminds me of the minister in my former church in Bristol, CT. That is why I don't belong there anymore. How do they develop this behavior?
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 8:07 AM  
I think that so many UCC ministers these days, are so wraped up in there on Arrogance that they abide a spirit of John Thomas and Diotrephes instead of Abideing a spirit of love hope and compassion... They hide behind speech like we are only human we are not perfect as a means to justify bad behavior this has been my experience....
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 12:41 PM  

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