NY Times ad to run Wednesday, USA Today is next
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
According to an email from the national office late today, enough money has been raised by the United Church of Christ to run a full page ad on Wednesday in the New York Times and a follow-up ad in USA Today. from the email:
As of noon today, we had exceeded our goal of $120,000, and the donations are still pouring in, because people understand the need for a proactive message about the United Church of Christ.All of this would be great if we would first have an honest conversation within our denomination about how our own ministers treat race. Calling for a national discussion on race sure beats having a discussion within our denomination.
In fact, the support has been so widespread and positive that we're now asking that we continue the momentum and place a second complimentary ad in USA Today. The next ad - in coming days - would specifically invite the entire nation to join our UCC churches in a sacred conversation on the issue of race.
On Thursday, I will be traveling to Trinity UCC. There, at a press conference scheduled on the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's last sermon, I will join the Rev. Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity UCC, and the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches.
Together, we will call upon UCC pastors and our ecumenical colleagues to devote May 18 - which liturgically falls on Trinity Sunday - to preach on the important subject of race in the United States. Our hope is that May 18 will become a significant step toward honest dialogue, education and conversation.
7 Comments:
commented by 
Anonymous, 12:57 AM
Anonymous, 12:57 AM
The local church would be better served if they called on the public to visit a local UCC church........and see for themselves how different we are from that of our leadership in Cleveland.
Amen anonymous. Since each congregation is different, how can just a few ads do justice to the diversity? Will the "scared" discussions represent ALL of the congregations. Call to visit a local UCC church will best to that.
$120,000 for one ad - that is more than my church's entire budget for 2008.
Is that excluding OCWM? bahrah.
How is this a race issue? You have the largest UCC congregation with a stated theology about as far from most of the rest as possible with preachers spouting racist sermons.
If the leadership touts "diversity" it is saying that a UCC church can be anything (and nothing?). If Trinity gets a pass because they are mostly black how is that treating the congregation as adults?
This will continue to cause problems for the UCC. Eventually the majority has to be treated with respect as well as the minority.
If the leadership touts "diversity" it is saying that a UCC church can be anything (and nothing?). If Trinity gets a pass because they are mostly black how is that treating the congregation as adults?
This will continue to cause problems for the UCC. Eventually the majority has to be treated with respect as well as the minority.
UCC national leadership, which is obviously left-wing in political and social viewpoint, is, by advertising in a left-wing newspaper attempting to attract additional left-wing members. The UCC is to be the church of the liberal Democrats. That is the goal of the national UCC leadership, so that the far-left can be dominant in both numbers and power in the UCC.
But I have to wonder how a sacred conversation is different from a plain one. Does the conversation undergo some kind of transubstantiation? Is it sacred because the people conversing will be sacred -- as distinct from regular or ordinary? Perhaps conversation becomes sacred when the UCC president promulgates it ex cathedra.
Anyway, if the conversation is sacred, do we need to give it more reverence than just ordinary conversation? Will the results of a sacred conversation preclude further discussion? ... Especially if the further discussion is, um, plain? Or if it is undertaken by non-sacred people.
I'm really wondering here. Like I said, I'd be happy for just an honest conversation...among ordinary people.