The following exchange was forwarded to me by Betsy. I'm reproducing it here because of the interest and comments it has been generating in the e-mail list.
Dear Administrators of the UCC church programs,
I am writing as a member of the United Church of Christ. I am also the secretary at my local UCC church, although this letter is not representing my church. As a UCC church secretary, I believe I see advertising and information that I might not see if I were not in this position. Often the mailings I get from the UCC are upsetting to me.
I understand that the UCC places a major emphasis on being non-judgmental and on accepting everyone. I agree that is our instruction from the Bible. I support the UCC in sharing information about the needs and injustices of a variety of people.
I do not support the UCC's practice of taking a political stance on certain issues. I do not support the UCC's practice of requesting members to sign petitions or donate funds for specific political issues.
As a Christian, I believe that we are each to show Jesus through the living of our lives. However, I believe that it is NOT the place of any organized church to take a political stance. To do so can easily become rigid and divisive.
My local church is struggling with identity, loss of membership, and other issues - as are many churches today. I feel that in promoting these sometimes divisive and political issues (such as supporting illegal immigrants, supporting the President's health care plan, supporting and teaching about volatile options in death and dying, etc.) the UCC is creating negative influence on local church members.
I am not suggesting that the UCC stop caring for people. I am suggesting that the UCC share information on all sides of sensitive issues and offer support for everyone involved - not only those who fall in a category that the UCC considers needy. Obviously, there are people who feel strongly about both sides of every issue, or it would not be an issue. Please teach us about all sides, and encourage UCC members to seek God's guidance and take the action as they are led.
Please stop urging us to support the political issues that promote one side or another. Please stay out of politics and put more focus on teaching us about God's work in our own lives. As we grow in Christ we will be led to care for all the people of God. Trust the Holy Spirit to guide us, and please focus on teaching us how to learn about God, listen to God, and follow God's well.
Thank you for listening to my concerns. I would appreciate any comments and/or suggestions you might have for me.
[signature deleted]
Subject: RE: political issues
Below is my response to [name] email:
Dear [Name]--
Thank you for your thoughtful e-mail and for expressing your concerns about how the United Church of Christ responds to difficult political issues. I appreciate you taking the time to write us and the sincerity of spirit by which you expressed your concerns to me and many of my colleagues, and on behalf of them, I would like to try to respond.
I am reminded of a quote by Archbishop Desmund Tutu of South Africa, who said during the struggle against racial Apartheid in his country, “If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” I have always thought that to be a wise quote, because it describes well the situation that the UCC – and all faith groups – struggle with. We are pulled between the temptation of trying to stay “neutral” in order to be nice and appease the greatest number of people …. and the urgency to offer a response by speaking and acting on behalf of those who are hurting, which sometimes means taking sides.
Because of this tension, it sometimes appears that the church is wading into “political” issues, but I think it’s more accurate to describe these as moral concerns or justice issues … with political dimensions.
Allow me to use this example: It’s quite possible to genuinely express love to a person with cancer by praying for them, visiting them and offering kind words. That’s legitimate and important concern. But it’s also possible to genuinely express love for a person with cancer by raising money for a hospital’s new cancer ward or lobbying Congress for more funding for cancer research or urging drug companies to make cancer drugs more widely available and affordable. All of these ways, and many more, are ways of expressing love, too.
What then if the issue is not cancer, but is HIV/AIDS? What if the concern is loving someone in an overcrowded prison, or loving someone who works in a coal mine, or loving a person who works in the fishing industry in the Gulf Coast? How is it possible to “love the whole world” as God has called us to do? In short, that kind of “big love” is messy, and not as neat as we’d like it be. It sometimes leads us to offend, even when that’s not our intention.
The UCC General Synod, through democratically elected delegates, meets every other year and votes on resolutions that collectively set the policy basis by which the UCC’s national office responds to God’s “big love” concerns at home and around the world. These are often times “messy” issues that involve lots of difficult explanations and complicated histories. Our first temptation might be to ignore them, in order not to upset the majority, but who are we hurting by turning away or remaining silent or neutral? Many of those whom Jesus ministered to and with would not have won popularity contests, and sometimes we are placed in the same position when we seek to follow him today.
I have attended many General Synods, and I’ll admit that some of these issues seemed frivolous and divisive to me at first, until I had the opportunity to hear others’ stories and walk in their shoes.
One memorable, powerful experience for me personally was hearing the stories of people from the Marshall Islands that were being afflicted with horrific rates of cancer due to major radiation exposure from nuclear test bombing by the U.S. military leading up to WWII. Unless I had heard these stories personally, I might have assumed this was a “political” issue, but after hearing their stories, I began to see this differently – as a story of real people needing the love and support of the church, which is what they were asking for.
One important point I want to underscore is that UCC General Synod policies do not originate from Cleveland (to those you addressed your email), although sometimes it may seem that way. Instead these positions come from the concerns of our diverse members and churches across the church. For example, in 2005, when the UCC General Synod passed a resolution affirming same-gender marriage equality, that resolution came from two Conferences of the UCC — Central Atlantic and Southern California-Nevada. The staff in Cleveland had nothing to do with that resolution. (And … if you’d asked those who work here in Cleveland, I am sure some might have preferred to avoid such controversy! But that wasn’t our decision to make.)
To be sure, our personal experiences and individual faith journeys lead us to examine and live out the Christian faith in different ways. And these experiences lead each of us to examine what’s political and what’s pastoral through a much different lens.
Please be assured, however, that when we’re discussing how to present the church’s position or response, we always wrestle with how to be both pastoral and prophetic (loving and action-oriented). Sometimes these two aspects of faith work in tandem, at other times they feel as they are competing — and often times the situation depends on who is doing the listening: the elephant or the mouse!
Several years ago, I compiled a piece on our website called, “What does faith have to do with justice? Isn't religion really about my personal relationship with God?” http://i.ucc.org/
Unfortunately, people of good faith and good intention often disagree. But, hopefully, we continue to be in relationship with one another as Christians because that’s the way Jesus would have it be!
Thanks again for the kind spirit with which you offered these concerns. I hope and pray that my response to you will be received in the same way. Thanks so much for your ministry.
Respectfully,
Ben Guess
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The Rev. J. Bennett Guess
Director of Publishing, Identity and Communication
United Church of Christ
700 Prospect Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44115-1100
216-736-2173
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