On the Travel Channel tonight, I finally saw the United Church of Christ commercial that NBC and CBS both refused to air. I think that it expresses an attitude that Christians - and organized Christianity - ought to adopt far more often then they do. Check it out.
An article I read on the controversy had some wise words: "Though it has more than 1.3 million members in about 6,000 congregations across the country, the UCC, headquartered in Cleveland, is widely unknown. Focus group testing revealed that only a small handful of participants said they knew something about the denomination. Random testing also uncovered strong negative feelings about churches in general, regardless of denomination. A large percentage of respondents said they held churches responsible for past hurts in their lives, and many traced their feelings of inadequacy to negative church experiences. Many congregations, they said, left them feeling unwelcome, financially inadequate and inappropriately dressed. The television ad is geared toward those people who, for whatever reason, have not felt welcomed or comfortable in a church."
In the interests of full disclosure, I'm a little biased. First Plymouth in Lincoln is part of the UCC, and it's also my mother's church, so I've been exposed to it more than most. Nevertheless, I have to admire their stances on certain important social issues.
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I don't think the church as intolerant as it is misguided. Well, to put it another way, the misguidance comes in the form of intolerance.
The church doesn't tolerate "sin." This is all well and good, except that it gets too focused on this concept and basically has missed the entire boat and the entire message that the New Testament brings. It's like they focused on this itty bitty little bit, took everything completely literally, and even focus on laws in a section where many of those laws have been thrown out.
It's ridiculous the level that its taken, because even if homosexuality is a sin, it matters not, because all sin, and no one is perfect. They'll try to argue that it's a lifestyle - but so many of us are chronic liars, theifs, or just general bastards and we can be in the church just fine.
What's even worse to me is how the church grabs onto these holy people and everyone surrounds themselves with "good christians" and then ministers to the "unsaved." I hate it when I hear "People need Jesus." It's this giant act of getting someone to say they believe something in order to make you and that other person feel better about what might happen to them when they die. It's always about getting them saved and rarely about befriending people and truly caring about them.
I hate to say it, but so many churches are the deadest places I've ever been to. There is something to be said for the beauty of the traditional service, but I can't imagine doing something like that every week. Most of Jesus's sermons were in groovy places like the top of a hill, chillin' with the disciples and telling stories.
I should probably post this on my own blog, but I'm now done with my rant. I don't know much else about the UCC, but they seem to be doing ok for themselves.
-Will
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