UCCtruths

First Congregational Church of Marshfield has delayed it's decision to leave the United Church of Christ. From The Patriot Ledger:

MARSHFIELD - Parishioners of First Congregational Church of Marshfield have
postponed a decision on whether to withdraw from the United Church of Christ
because of differences over such issues as gay marriage and global warming.

‘‘There was quick recognition that we were not ready to vote,’’ the Rev. Jim Howard, pastor, said after a two-hour meeting on Sunday attended by about 80 parishioners.

Members of the Green Harbor church began talking about breaking ties with the national church after a Nov. 4 sermon by a visiting clergyman that included strong words on hot-button political issues. The Rev. Jim Antal, president of the UCC’s Massachusetts Conference, was speaking during the church’s 375th anniversary celebration.

‘‘The main reason why that frustrated people so much was because (the Rev. Antal) was there to speak about the 375-year anniversary of our church,’’ parishioner Dave Kaiser said. ‘‘Instead, he chose to use our pulpit to speak about the positions of the UCC. We want the focus from our pulpit to be about spiritual issues.’’

In my last post on this, I mentioned that "a drive-by sermon from a Conference Minister seems pretty trivial". I do, however, disagree with Pastor Dan that the minister is somehow to blame:

Where the hell is Rev. Howard in all this? He sounds likes he's trying to be
a neutral arbiter, but there's not much middle ground in these things. If he's
fulfilling his duty to the denomination, he'd tell the congregation that he'd
walk if they left. He'd certainly tell them that they were being WATB's who
needed to get off the spiritual milk and onto some theological solid food. He'd
certainly not pose for a picture for the paper or give them enough patient
quotes to file a story. What gives?

Pastor Dan presumes that Rev. Howard's first responibilty is to the denomination rather than the spirtual well being of the church. The denomination (not just ours, but any denominaition) should never be the first priority - our first priority is fellowship in Christ. This sort of 'denomination first' junk leads to the 'herd mentality' where everyone plays follow the leader... which can sometimes lead to bad decisions where critical thinking gets thrown out the window in favor of "the denomination". The perfect example of this was when our denominational leaders were hell bent on passing a divestment from Israel resolution over the objections of the committee charged with studying the issue and the guy in charge of the denomination's investments. The delegates to General Synod (with rings firmly in their noses) voted in favor of the bad resolution because it was the official position of our leadership. Rev. Howard's priority should be on the spirtual well-being of the church, not cheerleading for the denomination.