UCC president: Controversy about Obama’s church could have positive results

 20 comment(s)  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

BY BOB REEVES / Lincoln Journal Star

Sen. Barack Obama’s candidacy for the presidency has produced negative and often inaccurate publicity about the United Church of Christ, the president of the 1.2-million member denomination said in Lincoln on Saturday.

The Rev. John H. Thomas acknowledged that controversy over allegedly anti-American comments by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has placed UCC leaders in the center of a media firestorm. Wright retired in February as pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where Obama is a member.

In addition, many of Obama’s opponents have criticized the UCC for its support of gay marriage and falsely characterized the denomination as “anti-Israel” because of its support of equal justice for Palestinians, Thomas said.

[+]Enlarge

The Rev. H. John Thomas (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

The Rev. H. John Thomas (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

“As long as Obama’s a candidate we’ll be a tool of the opposition,” he told people attending a Bible study Saturday morning at First-Plymouth Congregational Church.

But despite the negative impacts, he said in an interview, “we have the opportunity to make it a very positive experience.”

On Thursday, Thomas, the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council fo Churches, and the Rev. Otis Moss III, the new pastor of Trinity UCC in Chicago, called for a nationwide “sacred conversation” about race and racism. 

Thomas is asking all 10,000 ministers in the UCC to preach a sermon on racial issues on May 18, a day which is designated Trinity Sunday in the church calendar.

The goal, Thomas said Saturday, is to promote an honest and accurate discussion of racial differences, and to promote greater understanding among people of all ethnic groups.  The UCC headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, will provide local churches with resources to promote discussion, and it will promote such activities as partnerships and mutual visits between black and white congregations, he said.

Trinity Church, one of the largest UCC churches in the country, is predominantly black. Some of Wright’s comments, such as “God damn America,” were lifted out of context and played repeatedly on television and Web casts, Thomas said. 

In the context of a sermon, he said, such comments reflect the “rough and raw” language sometimes used by preachers to draw attention to such problems as racism and economic oppression.

“My reaction and that of many across the UCC was that it wasn’t the nicest language, but if you fished through lots of quotations you could find things” that would make anyone look bad, Thomas said.  “It was an attempt to wound a political candidate, and find a way to do it.

“Some people in the UCC wanted me to denounce Jeremiah, which I wouldn’t do.”

The UCC recently ran an advertisement in the New York Times explaining the work of the denomination and its commitment to social justice.

“We are a risk-taking church because ours is a risk-taking God — God is still speaking,” the ad says, in part.

Another ad will appear in USA Today emphasizing the need for a wide-ranging discussion of race in America. 

“It’s time to begin a sacred conservation about race,” Thomas said. “We’ve seen how ugly conversations about race can be.”

Asked by a person attending the Bible study where Jesus is in all of this, Thomas replied: “I think Jesus is calling us to be attentive to our central purpose, to announce the Good News, care for hurting people and seek justice for the vulnerable.”

Thomas preached at the 5:30 p.m. worship service Saturday at the church, 2000 D St., and will preach at services at 9 and 10:30 this morning.

Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breeves@journalstar.com.