UCC fights back

The United Church of Christ is leagues ahead of The Episcopal Church in its efforts to establish and protect a distinctive Christian indentity. Today’s full page advertisement in The New York Times, prompted by the controversy surrounding Sen. Barack Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is just the latest example of the UCC’s aggressive approach to refuting its detractors. Our passive Church has yet to grasp the danger in allowing its opponents to define it. We are also behind the UCC in our understanding of viral issue-oriented fundraising, as a nugget from this story makes clear:

An online campaign to raise $120,000 to purchase the ad began on March 27. In less than a week, UCC members, churches and Conferences had gathered enough money to pay for the ad.

Imagine what might have been accomplished had the folks calling the shots for the UCC been calling the shots in our Church after the consecration of Gene Robinson. It’s painful to consider how little we did with that phenomenal opportunity to reach out to people who appreciated what we had done.

(Meanwhile, Dan Burke of Religion News Service has a two-part (1, 2) interview with UCC leader the Rev. John Thomas)

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