The United of Church of Christ (UCC), rather than running a positive ad campaign highlighting what it offers, instead has attempted to run a series of ads implying some or most non-UCC churches are racist, hate the poor, handicapped, and elderly, and are opposed to homosexuality. (I guess one out of five is close enough.)

In UCC's latest ad, a congregation of intolerant parisoners reject and literally eject (using ejector-seat pews) the elderly, handicapped, poor, homeless, a single mother, a pair of men groping each other in church, and anyone with less-than-pure-white skin. In previous ads, the UCC depicted non-UCC churches as policed by fascist-like bouncers who enforced similar criteria.

Media Reaction

Major networks refused to carry the ads. But the New York Times [$$$] certainly stepped up to the plate, depicting the UCC as victim, not aggressor:

After years of turning the other cheek, the United Church of Christ, among the most liberal of the mainline Protestant denominations, has recently staked out a more pugnacious stance toward the Christian right...

Yes, we all remember the many Baptist ads which slammed the UCC as haters of the poor, handicapped, minorities and homeless. About time UCC's tolerant, loving, liberals finally attacked fellow Christians (a second time), just like Jesus told them to... ;-)

While mainstream networks may have found the ads needlessly offensive, two gay-focused networks are willing to run the ads for free. I suppose the implication that anyone who believes homosexual relations are a sin must also hate the poor, elderly, handicapped, and minorities would resonate well in that demographic. (Never mind that some of the largest pockets of opposition to homosexuality come from the African-American and Latino communities.)

"First, remove the log from your own eye," said Jesus...

Yet evidence seems to indicate the UCC itself has trouble making those in its pews feel welcomed: Since the mid-sixties, the liberal denomination has driven away a full 40% of it's membership -- at a time when conservative churches have grown and expanded, and the overall US population has increased by about 50%. And, as I point out here, there is hard evidence that liberal churches which are much less racially diverse than conservative churches. So it appears that the UCC's ad is simply projecting its own faults onto its perceived enemies.

Echoing the tone of UCC ads, the UCC President John Thomas recently lashed out at conservatives, apparently blaming them for his church's declining membership. In particular, Thomas singled out tiny conservative "renewal" group "IRD" (Institute for Religion and Democracy) for blame for the UCC's (40-year) decline in membership, despite the fact that IRD has existed only 20 years and has a mere nine people on staff.

Said UCC President John Thomas, in a recent speech:

[P]erversely, the IRD, through related organizations in the Association, encourages grassroots dissenting movements within the denominations, using kind of classic, political organization methods, with wedge issues such as gay marriage, Middle East policy, or ordination of gays and lesbians. These movements do far more than simply try to nurture vigorous, meaningful theological debate within the life of mainline churches. In reality, they seek to disrupt, ultimately to control, and - failing that - to dismantle the mainline.

Yet Thomas himself had just admitted that all IRD did was disseminate reports on what the various denominations themselves were doing and saying about these issues -- the "wedge" is coming from their own actions, words, alliances, and political funding which IRD inconveniently reported.

Throughout his speech, Thomas depicted religious conservatives as taking the lead in mixing politics and religion, apparently implying he or the UCC would not do such things. But the truth is that the UCC has been deeply involved in politics for a long time, and conservative supporters of groups like IRD are often simply reacting to attempts by their leaders to replace the gospel with a hard-left political agenda and activism.

For example, here IRD reports on UCC's sponsorship and co-ordination of with the political action group "Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice" (RCRC).* Here, the RCRC itself notes it is being staffed by UCC "religious" leaders. Here the UCC tells politicians what policies to adopt regarding Israel, and asks local churches get involved, politically. Here we learn that former leftist UN ambassador Andrew Young is now a UCC "minister", and also learn that the UCC is endorsing a political measure to promote same-sex marriage. Here the UCC resolves to use its influence to promote various "environmentalist" policies. Here [pdf] the UCC urges members to study (and undoubtedly echo) its pronouncements on US public education and NCLB. Here we see UCC President John Thomas -- who just gave a speech lamenting the intermixing of politics and religion -- urging the US Congress not to reduce the Federal budget, and encouraging UCC members to echo his position on this Bill.

Clearly, when it comes to complaints about involving religion in politics, the UCC is a master in this area. In light of this evidence, Thomas's speech is revealed as an insincere, hypocritical deception; UCC leaders are simply projecting their own motives and actions onto to their chosen enemies -- whose crime is apparently reporting and resisting liberal political agendas for their church.

[* Although the RCRC presents itself as a religious/Christian group, in fact RCRC's main focus is politics, not religion. Its funding, as Random Observations reported in 2004, comes primarily not from religious groups, but from agnostic or atheistic leftist political donors like Warren Buffet -- who also funded "Project Death in America", promoting euthanasia -- a surprising illustration of the proverbial "wolf" (unbelievers) operating in "sheep's clothing" (pretending to teach and represent Christian views).]

UCC President makes Nazi-like claims of Jewish control

Most disturbingly, after misleading about his own political involvement, UCC President Thomas then complained that he was wrongly accused of anti-Semitism by the Jewish Anti-Defamation League (not by IRD). Amazingly, Thomas responded by implying IRD itself was a mere tool of the covert Jewish groups which, he claimed, actually control the US government:

[The] Simon Wiesenthal Center ... had earlier orchestrated a massive e-mail campaign directed at me and other United Church of Christ leaders during our General Synod in Atlanta, Georgia. A campaign that also included a full-page ad in the Atlanta Constitution accusing the United Church of Christ of anti-Semitism...

[The] Wiesenthal Center, a group called the David Project, and the Anti-Defamation League, have been eager allies for the IRD and related organizations in an ongoing strategy of disinformation and disruption.

The IRD agenda essentially matches that of AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby that largely controls the Washington agenda on the Middle East...

Egads! Where have we heard this all before? I'm not anti-Semitic! And all those attacking me are probably controlled by the Jews, who pull the hidden strings which run the world!

This from the President of a major liberal "Christian" denomination?