Rev. Wright's Church Needs Your Help [Updated x2]

As many of you know already, Trinity Church in Chicago, the church of Dr. Wright and Barak Obama, is affiliated with the United Church of Christ (UCC).

The UCC is one of the Protestant "Mainline" churches--a name which refers to their theology and their lineage, not their popularity.  Although I'm not religious, I was raised in a small UCC congregation and I still have deep familial ties to the wider church.  It's a group of folks, by and large, who subscribe to the "know them by their works" school of faith.

What does that mean?

Generally, it means they don't proselytize.  The don't do street corner conversions, they don't trade charity for proclamations of faith.  They don't collect scalps for Jesus by coupling their works with a religious prerequisite.  They do what they do, and, if asked, they'll tell you what motivates them.

They also aren't very good at sounding their own trumpet.  This is a bone of contention between me and my family members who belong to the church.  Because I know them, and I know the "mainline" churches, I know that the image of American Protestantism spread far and wide by the MSM is also far and wide of the mark.  It has seeped (some would say rushed as a torrent) into our government and into our public debate.  

This insistent flood of turbulent Christian ascendancy cross-bred with a particularly virulent strain of statism and American triumphalism is straining our civic fabric to the breaking point.  This point is finally starting to sink in to those mainline churches.  They are beginning, slowly, to realize that they have allowed themselves, and their religion, to be defined by people with a specific, destructive, agenda.

The coordinated smear campaign against Dr. Wright (and by extension against Barak Obama) has provided both the opportunity and the impetus for the UCC to speak out.  Many of you may recall the UCC commercials that were blacklisted by major media outlets a few years ago:  TPM's coverage (scroll down to mid-page); the Boston Globe.  The "Bouncer" ad.  The "Ejector" ad.

UCC churches (and many other institutions) have had to become much more careful about the way they do business, as the IRS itself has become an arm of the Bush administration's selective enforcement of free speech rights.  

Nevertheless, in the wake of Rev. Wright's evisceration in the national media, the UCC gathered enough money to speak out in the form of a full-page NYTimes ad buy.  The Text of the ad (warning: .pdf).  

The ad is a soft-pedal, no doubt.  But it is clear and it is clearly important, especially in the wake of national polls showing some folks still think Obama's a muslim.  (Of course, some folks still think Saddam was the mastermind behind 9/11, so go figure.)  The ad explains what the UCC is, and, as befits an organization that is run democratically, leaves room for the differing internal views about Rev. Wright's choice of language in his old sermons.  But it also goes a long way toward showing two things:

1. How Obama "could still call that man his pastor," as one woman put it.  That is, how BHO could conscientiously stay in the congregation even though he might have had a problem with some of the rhetoric.

2. What kind of a church could have a minister like Rev. Wright in it's fold.  

Of course, your answer might be, like mine, "a smart and just church."  But many people don't get it, since many people have never before been exposed to the UCC.

Anyway.  Ads in the NYTimes are expensive.  And the UCC would like to up the ante with an ad in USAToday (the nation's comic book).  And they could use your help.

If you think that informing the nation about BHO's church and the framework within which Dr. Wright preaches, please pitch in.  If you think the religious right has had too much time at the microphone, pitch in.  Help the UCC to raise its voice in the dialogue.

Give here.

FWIW, one of my close family members has this to say about Rev. Wright:

I have known Dr. Wright for as long as I have been in the pulpit. I first heard him preach when I was in a preaching course at Yale Divinity School.  His 'word' knocked me off the pew.  I had never heard the Bible cracked open like he was able to do, to expose the heart of Jesus that lead to his crucifixion.

I have been student of Dr. Wrights' ever since. He is a man who took a church of 80-something members on the south side of Chicago and turned it into one of the UCC's flagship churches. He did that not because he divides and polarizes but because he opens the windows and doors in the house of Christianity for people of faith to see clearly and hear loudly the gospel's urgent call for justice that brings peace and compassion that is more than charity.

...He is a powerful leader and, a man I am proud to say, a member of the clergy of the United Church of Christ.  I hope you will educate yourself about his 'whole' ministry, not just a few sound bites and spread the news that God is Still speaking in the UCC, through the courage of its pastors and people.

[update]:

A good diary on today's AP Article by jenontheshore.

Update 2:

In light of Trinity's apparent largesse, it would appear that I need to be even more explicit about the democratic nature of the UCC.  It is a highly decentralized organization that nevertheless asks the member congregations to subscribe to a shared liturgy and mission statement.  On those terms, it affords great latitude to its constituent congregations to do and say as they please.  For itself, however, the corporate structure of the church relies on donations from member congregations to support the overall ministry of the UCC.  Thus, while an individual congregation might have heavy cash, the organization as a whole more closely resembles a rickety shoe-string affair.  So when they decide they want to do something like an ad-buy, they can't just whip out the ATM card and do it.

That isn't to say that they can't raise the funds.  They did for the NYTimes piece and they probably will for the USA Today piece.  But theirs is a message that I think the country could stand to be exposed to, especially in light of the overwhelming dominance of the RR in the MSM...er, the Religious Right in the Main-Stream Media.  If you agree with that, here's your chance to help out.

If you don't, move along.  That's what the marketplace of ideas is all about.