Special Report
Ejecting From the Church
The venerable United Church of Christ embarks on another silly ad campaign certain to thin its ranks still further.
(Page 2 of 2)
Of this demographic change, UCC leaders seem oblivious. In a speech last month at Gettsyburg College, UCC President John Thomas blasted conservative religious influence.
“There is the generalized sense in the culture that Christianity means a relatively conservative portrait of the Gospel,” Thomas complained. “What people see on television, they hear on the radio, is a conservative to more right-wing conservative view of politics and religion in general.” Thomas noted that many responded to the UCC’s endorsement of same-sex “marriage” with “amazement.” For too many, church means “no,” he observed. Apparently, the UCC wants to provide an alternative “Yes!”
Endlessly including, affirming, and declaring “Yes!” the declining UCC has been rewarded with only further membership loss and growing apathy. A church trying to catch up with the secular culture, instead of adhering to its historic doctrines, almost always enters a hamster wheel that leads nowhere.
Mark Tooley directs the United Methodist committee at the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C.
About the Author
Mark Tooley is president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C. and author of Methodism and Politics in the Twentieth Century. You can follow him on Twitter @markdtooley.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (11) | Leave a comment
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robroy| 8.1.09 @ 6:06AM
A recent survey of clergy revealed the UCC was the most liberal with respect to homosexuality with the Episcopalians coming in second. Guess what denomination was the fastest declining? The UCC. What was last year's fastest declining (and most likely next year's, too)? The Episcopalians.
Is this surprising? Compromise your foundation to pander to a small segment of the population, who by a recent Barna poll, aren't even interested in organized religion - that's going to end poorly.
The so-called "inclusive" churches are quickly becoming exclusively white, liberal and old. Here is a study about the UCC:
"As dire as the situation was in the mid-1970s, it was much worse by 2002. Attendees age 15 to 34 declined from 24 percent in the mid-1970s to only 10 percent in 2002 and attendees age 65 or older grew from 23 percent in the mid-1970s to 43 percent of all UCC attendees in 2002...the disparity between UCC attendees age 65+ and the U.S. population grew enormously, increasing from 9 percentage points to over 27 percentage points. "
Liz Brant| 11.9.10 @ 4:38PM
What a bitter, crabby article. My husband and I have just joined an open and affirming UCC congregation after years of feeling torn between a spiritual longing to worship in fellowship with others and a deep moral hypocrisy when sitting in a service with a congregation that clearly would not welcome our friends and family members as visitors. We are not white, by the way, wealthy or old although we do believe God loves everyone. Is that liberal?
michael| 12.29.10 @ 11:13PM
The conservative fantasy is that pre-modern and exclusionary attitudes constitute 'orthodoxy'. There is a vast market for such attitudes which is why churches that really follow the hospitality of Jesus, like UCC, are not doing so well, too bad.
Nixon is Lord| 1.6.11 @ 2:41AM
No, but you certainly are probably liberal-and probably among the few non-whites in your new church.
And you probably have a lot more education than most non-whites in the US.
So you're 1. probably liberal and 2. almost certainly part of a small minority in your new church.
Any real questions-or only more rhetorical ones?