If the Point Was Butts in Pews, Looks Like This Church Missed It

Another mainline Protestant church becomes more "inclusive" by excluding the faithful Christian:

The liberal-controlled United Church of Christ (UCC) has unveiled its latest television ad, which features an intolerant and presumably conservative church ejecting an "African-American mother," "a gay couple, an Arab-American, [and] a person using a walker," according a UCC news release news release.

This ejection is quite literal. Each person rockets up from an ejector seat after attempting to sit in a church pew. The ad contrasts the inclusive UCC with the ejecting church: "The United Church of Christ -- no matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you're welcome here."

UCC President Rev. John Thomas promised about the ad: "No one will look at a church pew again in the same way!" According to Thomas, the ad showcases the "extravagant" hospitality of the Christian gospel.

The 1.2 million member denomination is spending $1.5 million on the commercial, to be broadcast just in time for Holy Week and Easter.

But almost all major networks -- CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and WB -- have rejected the ads, believing they are "issue advocacy" and too controversial. Similarly, most networks rejected the UCC's last ad spot over a year ago, which featured a bouncer turning away racial minorities and gays from another hypothetical intolerant, i.e. conservative church.

Who these dreadful exclusionary churches are, the UCC ad campaign of course never specifies. Presumably they include the vast majority of U.S. churches that, unlike the UCC, do affirm traditional Christian doctrinal and sexual standards.

Helpfully, the UCC has launched www.rejectionhurts.com, for those who have felt "rejection" from these churches to record their anguish. The UCC website refuses to allow stories from UCC members who have felt "rejection" from their own denomination. So a caucus group of conservative UCC members has started up their own "Fellowship of the Ejected" campaign, which can be found at www.biblicalwitness.org.

The spiritual descendant of New England's old Puritans, the UCC can claim an historical and social pedigree equal to the Episcopal Church. Both denominations are well-heeled, well educated and disproportionately comprised of social and political elites. Both are also liberal-controlled and suffering steep membership decline.

Despite all of its welcoming and affirming, the UCC has lost one million members over the last 40 years, or over 40 percent of its original membership. Like the Episcopal Church, the UCC remains overwhelmingly a denomination of the white, upper-middle class. Minorities and working-class whites have not been ejected by the UCC but are not attracted to its brand of New England-style liberal Protestantism.

Last year's decision by the UCC to become the first major U.S. denomination formally to endorse same-sex "marriage" only contributed to the UCC's membership plunge. At least one hundred congregations have voted to leave the UCC just since 2005, as recorded by www.faithfulandaffirming.org. The ultimate number probably will be several times that.

According to the UCC, dozens of "gay-friendly" congregations are seeking to affiliate with the UCC. But they are not likely to compensate for the annual loss of tens of thousands of members. In 2004 alone, the UCC lost over 30,000.

I'm sure Jesus would be supportive of spending $1.5 million on an ad campaign instead of on the poor and oppressed.

Good luck bringing all the secular lefties into the Church---they only tend to darken the doors during election campaigns, and prefer to reserve their donations for Democrat politicians and socialist lobbying groups. It doesn't leave much left over for mother Church.

This Faustian bargaining on the part of these churches in the end will wind up driving the next wave of revivals as the disgusted faithful flee the politically-correct denominations.

When Church and State compete for the souls of liberals, who do you think will command their loyalty? One cannot serve God and Mammon both, and the 20th century amply demonstrated which the Left serves.