ucc radio ad
Check out the new national radio ad being released by the United Church of Christ on Sirius Satellite Radio:
I think it’s funny … and inviting! What do you think?
ucc letter on science and faith
John Thomas, President and General Minister of the United Church of Christ, has this month released a pastoral letter written in consultation with the UCC Science and Technology Network entitled A New Voice Arising: A pastoral letter on faith engaging science and technology. The letter asks:
Can we dare to seek, to wonder, and if necessary to doubt until we believe anew, confident that in the end we will be filled with a fresh faith that engages the hunger in so many hearts and minds?
The letter wants us to believe, “Yes, we can! Yes, we can dare, as people of faith, to seek and wonder and doubt. Yes, we can dare believe that our seeking and wondering and doubting will lead us to a deeper and truer and more relevant faith. Yes, we can dare hope that our readiness, as people of faith, to take scientific exploration and technological innovation seriously will engage the minds and hearts of this generation of spiritual seekers.”
The letter is companion to a new website and a new internet advertising venture all intended to stimulate conversation about the intersection of faith and science, and to continue to portray the United Church of Christ as a church ready and eager and able to engage this generation on its own turf. Or to put it in a another way, the UCC is seeking again to live out the implications of its faith a God who is still speaking, a God whose voice speaks in fresh and compelling ways to our world as it is and as it is becoming, a voice that is ever new and ever relevant.
I think wise people have always known that science is not by nature anti-religious, and that religious faith is not by nature anti-science. It’s just that lots of folks have forgotten that. We have forgotten that the inquiring mind and the seeking heart are both essential elements of the human spirit, and that a keen mind makes faith deeper, and that a deep faith makes a mind keener. I am glad that the United Church of Christ is reminding us of that and I look forward to following the ongoing conversation.
shame on burger king!
From a UCC Justice and Peace Action Network newsletter:
You probably also know that after much work and a successful boycott, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) won an agreement with Taco Bell for improved pay, better working conditions, and greater dignity for tomato pickers. CIW also signed similar agreements with McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver’s, and A & W Restaurants.
There is great momentum within the fast food industry to improve conditions for farm workers but Burger King is refusing to join this movement.
Burger King’s actions are threatening to undo a hard-fought victory on behalf of exploited farm workers. I have just received this call to action from the Sojourner’s community:
Dear Timothy,
For Christmas, Burger King is trying to make the country’s poorest workers even poorer.
A few months ago, we asked you to send messages to Burger King, asking them to join McDonald’s and Taco Bell in increasing the sub-poverty wages of Florida tomato pickers.
Almost 20,000 of you responded, but Burger King’s behavior has only gotten worse. Not only have they failed to heed the faith community’s call to improve wages and working conditions for tomato pickers – they’re working to undermine the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ existing agreements with other fast-food chains!
As Eric Schlosser, author of Fast-Food Nation, explained in the New York Times:
The migrant farm workers who harvest tomatoes in South Florida have one of the nation’s most backbreaking jobs. For 10 to 12 hours a day, they pick tomatoes by hand, earning a piece-rate of about 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket. During a typical day each migrant picks, carries, and unloads two tons of tomatoes.
Yum! Brands (owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC) and McDonald’s had agreed to pay a penny more per pound to increase wages by 70 percent per bucket, but this holiday season workers aren’t receiving the increase. Why? Because Burger King has refused to pay the extra penny and its refusal has encouraged tomato growers to cancel the deals already struck with Taco Bell and McDonald’s. This month the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, representing 90 percent of the state’s growers, announced that it will not allow any of its members to collect the extra penny for farm workers.
A Burger King spokesman responded, “Florida growers have a right to run their businesses how they see fit” – apparently, even if that means putting profits ahead of justice and dignity for their workers.
Meanwhile, on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs – a major shareholder in Burger King, with two representatives on the board of directors – is preparing to pay holiday bonuses. Last year, Goldman Sach’s top 12 executives received more than $200 million in bonuses – more than twice the annual earnings of 10,000 Florida tomato pickers.
As we read of such injustices in this time of Advent, we reflect upon God’s justice and mercy, as described in the words of Mary:
[God] has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; [God] has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty (Luke 1:52-53).
Advent reminds us that God intends well-being for all, not just some. We hope you’ll join us in taking action.
Blessings,
I encourage you to join me in responding to Sojourner’s call and send a message to Burger King.
ucc petition to end the iraq war
Along with thousands of United Church of Christ members and supporters, I call for an end to the war in Iraq, an end to our reliance on violence as the first, rather than the last resort, an end to the arrogant unilateralism of preemptive war.
I call for the humility and courage to acknowledge failure and error, to accept the futility of our current path, and I cry out for the creativity to seek new paths of peacemaking in the Middle East, through regional engagement and true multinational policing.
I call for acknowledgement of our responsibility for the destruction caused by sanctions and war and a beginning to rebuild trust in the Middle East and around the world.
I call for repentance in our nation and for the recognition in our churches that security is found in submitting to Christ, not by dominating others.
I will join protest to prayer, support ministries of compassion for victims here and in the Middle East, cast off the fear that has made all of us accept the way of violence and return again to the way of Jesus. Thus may bloodshed end and cries be transformed to the harmonies of justice and the melodies of peace. For this I yearn, for this I pray, and toward this end I rededicate myself as a child of a loving God who gives “light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
To add your name to the petition, go to: Call for an End to the Bloodshed: Sign the Petition to End the Iraq War
let it shine
This week the United Church of Christ gathers in Hartford, Connecticut to convene its 26th General Synod and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the church founded by the merger of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the General Conference of Congregational Christian Churches on June 25, 1957.
As we celebrate our heritage and rededicate ourselves to fulfilling God’s mission, I pray we can rekindle something of the passion for unity that motivated the birth of this new church experiment: The United Church of Christ acknowledges as its sole Head, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior. It acknowledges as kindred in Christ all who share in this confession.
These words from the Preamble to the Constitution of the United Church of Christ represent the UCC at its best. The lines of authority are simple and clear: there is only one source of authority on the church — Jesus Christ! And the lines of connection are simple and clear: any — ANY — who share our dedication to following Jesus are already our brothers and our sisters, no more questions necessary!
Too often, I believe, our church falls prey to the same sort of prejudices and shortsightedness that plague much of Christ’s church. We recognize as kindred in Christ … all who think pretty much like we do! It seems sometimes we expend more energy bashing “right-wing Christians,” “evangelical Christians,” “other-side-of-the-aisle Christians” than bearing a common witness of grace and peace into a hurting world.
I am not suggesting the church forego healthy theological criticism and a faithful prophetic witness. I am not suggesting an uncritical acceptance of “church” in whatever forms it presents itself. But I am saying that the original genius of the United Church of Christ was its recognition that something is broken in the Church and that what is broken is Christ’s own vision of a church that is One.
The integrity of our witness will be demonstrated not only by what we say to the world, but by what we can show to the world, what we can show of our ability to get along even with each other! Does Christ make us one … or not? Do we require further conditions for fellowship and friendship than our common faith in Christ? Is Christ capable of breaking down the walls that divide us … or not?
ten steps
Worth checking out: Ten Steps to Restore the United States’ Moral Authority: A Common Sense Agenda for the 110th Congress
This document posted on the Human Rights Watch website provides a good summary of the ways the conduct of the war on terrorism has undermined the consistent application by the United States of basic principles of human rights and suggests a specific agenda for restoring our moral compass. Signatories include Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights, the Justice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ, and close to twenty other religious and human rights organizations.
ten reasons
From the April/May 2006 edition of United Church News: Rev. Michael Kinnamon, a Disciples of Christ minister and a leader in the contemporary ecumenical movement, lists his ten reasons why someone might consider joining the United Church of Christ. His reasons echo many of the things I value most about my adopted church!
- Because, in an era when communities so often define themselves by whom they exclude, this community joyfully claims an identity as those who welcome the excluded, even as Christ had welcomed us.
- Because, in an age of growing fundamentalism, this community joyfully seeks to be a “People of the Book” who, at the same time, feel no need to protect the Bible from the modern world.
- Because, in a society where beating the competition is regarded as the highest value, this community joyfully treasures the gifts that God has given to other parts of Christ’s one body, and to neighbors of other faiths.
- Because, instead of focusing only on personal blessedness in another world, this community joyfully focuses on the power of God to make this world other, a place of shalom for all God’s children.
- Because, in a culture dominated by images of self-fulfillment, this community joyfully celebrates that its members live no longer for themselves but for Christ and, thus, for their neighbors, each of whom bears sacred image of the Creator.
- Because, resisting the extremes of hierarchical power and do-your-own-thing individualism, this community joyfully attempts to live by covenant of mutual accountability, grounded in God’s covenant with us.
- Because, in an age of horrifying violence, this community hears the call of the Holy Spirit to be just peacemakers, even when this is a costly thing to be.
- Because, while it resists bumper-sticker religion, this community joyfully insists on thinking globally and acting locally.
- Because, at its best, this community is marked by bold humility, precisely because it joyfully confesses that God is God and we aren’t.
- Because, in a culture that is willing to speak of God so long as God is kept safely contained in past traditions, this community joyfully proclaims that the living God is still speaking, and that is very good news.
new ucc ad
The new UCC television ad is entitled “Ejector Seat.” It is scheduled to air nationally for three weeks, beginning April 3.
Watch the ad for yourself:
- http://www.stillspeaking.com/resources/ejector.wmv (Windows Media)
- http://www.stillspeaking.com/resources/ejector.mov (Quicktime)
Let us know here what you think! Add your comment!
From what I had heard ahead of time, the ad sounded rather silly. But seeing it now for myself, I liked it better than I thought I would. It will make people take notice … and think.