UCC General Synod - Thursday, June 25

“Tell me again – what are we doing here?”

That’s the question Linda and I ask ourselves as we get closer to Grand Rapids for the UCC’s General Synod.  We stayed the night near Toledo, Ohio, and will journey the final three hours today.  We’ll set up our booth this afternoon for Faithful and Welcoming Churches (FWC), and get ready for five days of interaction with a lot of people who think differently than we do about a lot of things. 

The UCC’s Keeping You E-Posted sent a link this week to an article on MLive.com, the online partner of the Grand Rapids Press.  “United Church of Christ bringing liberal voice of faith to DeVos Place.”  I can’t argue with that, I suppose.  But reading the article causes me to ask again as an ECOT (evangelical, conservative, orthodox, traditional), “Tell me again – what am I doing here?”

The answer to that question takes my mind back to the 2007 General Synod and a video appearance by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to introduce Barack Obama, a first-term U.S. senator from Illinois. 

Obama had not yet declared his candidacy for President, and few thought he had a real chance to win – at least in 2008.  This was to be Obama’s first major speech on faith issues.  Linda and I were in the hall to hear him, and I, for one, was impressed with his story of Christian profession under the ministry of Jeremiah Wright.  He came across as sincere and committed.  The UCC drooled over the possibility of having one of its own in the White House.

Two years later, Obama is President.  But he’s not UCC.  And the reason he’s not UCC is Jeremiah Wright.  It was not only what Wright had said in sermons prior to the presidential campaign.  It was what he continued to say that caused Obama to distance himself from his pastor, his church, and his denomination.  Wright embarrassed and offended not only Obama’s coalition of necessary supporters, but Obama himself and not a few members of the UCC.

But the whole story is germane to the question of why I am in the UCC and why Linda and I are headed to Grand Rapids.  When the Wright story exploded into the news, The Charlotte Observer published an op-ed piece I wrote, “Freedom’s Blind Spots,” in which I said,

Wright’s freedom to express himself and his congregation’s response are the logical result of America’s religious system….

With institutionalized religious freedom, we gather voluntarily in churches that share our spiritual strengths and insights, and that also share our blind spots and weaknesses. The larger and faster a church grows, the greater the danger of arrogance. When we find ourselves in a religious group that does not share our religious values, we are free to find another that does — which we do with regularity.

This process of free choice and free association builds our sense of religious self-esteem as we continue to assemble and associate exclusively with those who are as “right” as we are. We rarely stop to examine its consequences.

Religious choice also reinforces the walls that divide us outside the church. In spite of our public efforts at civility and cooperation, behind the closed doors of our meeting houses we name the sins of those “out there,” we ratify one another’s sense of victimization, we reinforce our collective fears, we justify our resentment and bitterness, and we overlook or even reinforce one another’s faults because we share them. When we leave that place of worship, we are more sure than ever we are better than those outside.

Other than a strong sense of calling (see yesterday’s blog), a key reason I and many other ECOTs choose to remain in the UCC is to resist the temptation to align and associate with only those who share our insights and blind spots.  I need to read, listen to, and associate with people who think I’m wrong.  To be sure, there are members of my congregation who on any given subject will be glad to accept that role.  But overall, a local church is a place where most people agree on most subjects – and I am blessed to serve a congregation where the feedback loop is overwhelmingly positive on what I believe and say.

It would not be healthy to live only with affirmation and agreement.  I like the fact that being in the UCC challenges me to rethink, defend, and, at times, reframe my faith.  It has never caused me to abandon the essentials (see Monday’s blog), but it constantly keeps me pondering and praying: what is the still-speaking God saying in my generation through his holy Word?

But I don’t just stay in the UCC for me.  I stay in for the UCC.  I hope this doesn’t sound arrogant, but I think the UCC needs me.  And it needs all the ECOTs it can persuade to stay or invite to join.  Otherwise the unchallenged embrace of progressive and liberal ideas will produce just as many embarrassing moments as the embrace of unchallenged conservative or traditional ideas.

So I move resolutely toward Grand Rapids.  Not because it will necessarily be fun or comfortable.  We go to counteract a flaw in America’s system of religious choice – voluntary association only with the mutually convinced.  We go to learn and to challenge.  We go to accept and resist.  We go to share insight and confront blind spots.