UCCtruths

We got a nice link reference yesterday morning on GetReligion.org from Terry Mattingly:

So, who is the better Christian in the White House race?

The Times of London claims that it wants to know.

Seriously?

Things don’t look good for the old mainline Protestant — that would be Sen. John McCain — but the new era of Oprah-friendly liberal Protestantism is doing just fine. Sen. Barack Obama’s United Church of Christ brand of faith is a hit on the other side of the Atlantic, while the numbers in the pews here in the U.S. are nothing to write home about.

Not everyone liked the reference though... cranky Pastor Dan threw a tantrum:

Almost too many problems to mention here:

1. John McCain continually fudges his religious identity. Is he an "oldline
   Protestant" Episcopalian, or a Southern Baptist, or really not much of anything?



2. Despite Mattingly's slurs, the United Church of Christ is an overwhelmingly
   traditional, even orthodox, denomination. I know people would like to think of
   us as somehow "New Age-y". We're not. He knows that.



3. Yes, Oprah briefly attended Trinity UCC. She left. He knows that too.



4. Mattingly cites UCCTruths without noting that they're knee-jerk opponents of the national UCC, hence not an unbiased source. He also fails to mention that basically no denomination has "numbers to write home about" these days. He knows that, too. Or if he doesn't, he shouldn't have his job.



5. The poll in question has less to do with the candidates' actual religion than their public image as faithful people. Barack Obama has been in the national spotlight for four years shaping a religious narrative for himself. Sarah Palin has been known to most people for about two months, and to the extent that people know her faith tradition, they think it's batshit crazy. Can you blame them?

Wank, wank, wank. If Mattingly held himself to his own standards, he'd wonder why the media don't "get" religion.

Either Pastor Dan didn't get his bottle of milk yesterday morning or he lost his pacifier... in either case he clearly didn't read the actual post that Mattingly referenced to UCCtruths. The post by Pastor Ted Weis was about the 40 years of decline within the mainline church and which quoted Dr. David Greenhaw, President of Eden Theological Seminary. The mainline has been in decline and it has nothing to do with UCCtruths being "knee-jerk opponents of the national UCC".

I guess if we aren't all drinking the same punch, we can't be on Pastor Dan's 'A' list. Boo hoo.