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History and Mainline Protestants: The United Church of Christ Comes of Age

Margaret Bendroth

in The Last Puritans: Mainline Protestants and the Power of the Past

This concluding chapter describes the emergence of the United Church of Christ (UCC). It argues that history did not survive in the UCC—as the antimerger critics had feared—however, the merger itself ... More

This concluding chapter describes the emergence of the United Church of Christ (UCC). It argues that history did not survive in the UCC—as the antimerger critics had feared—however, the merger itself was not to blame. As the previous chapter has shown, the disputes of the 1940s and 1950s brought history emphatically to the forefront; by 1957, the Congregational churches were more acutely aware of their historic tradition than ever. Moreover, Congregational identity of a sort lived on in the UCC many years after the merger, though often in a truncated and defensive fashion. Thus, in the twenty-first century, the UCC was not borne so much an abandonment of history, as it was from a fundamental confusion about its role and purpose—a problem broadly true of most mainline churches today.Less

United Methodism in Crisis: Prophetic Witness through the Board of Church and Society

in Public Pulpits: Methodists and Mainline Churches in the Moral Argument of Public Life

The United Methodist Building is the last nongovernmental edifice left facing directly onto the Capitol. Dedicated in 1924 by the Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals of the Methodist ... More

The United Methodist Building is the last nongovernmental edifice left facing directly onto the Capitol. Dedicated in 1924 by the Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals of the Methodist Episcopal Church (North), the building today houses the Washington offices of the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the National Council of Churches, and a score of other religious agencies and advocacy groups, earning it the nickname “the God Box.” The building's prime tenant and landlord is the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), established there to represent and give voice to “the religious conscience of America.” The board is directed by the United Methodist Church to project plans and programs that challenge its members to work for righteousness through their own local churches, through ecumenical channels, and through society at large. The GBCS is charged to carry out a remarkably broad array of missions of moral and social inquiry, advocacy, education, planning, and programming that extend nationwide from Capitol Hill to local church pews and back again.Less

 “When in Our Music God Is Glorified”: Singing and Singing about Singing in a Congregational Church

Judith Gray

in Music in American Religious Experience

Drawing upon the participatory worship and ethnography of its author, this chapter considers the frequent use of hymns that use singing as a text about the sacredness of singing in the hymnody of the ... More

Drawing upon the participatory worship and ethnography of its author, this chapter considers the frequent use of hymns that use singing as a text about the sacredness of singing in the hymnody of the United Church of Christ. In both text and context, the Pilgrim Hymnal of the Congregational Church and the choices of congregation members illustrate the ways in which personal choices about music express communal concepts and practices of faith and worship. Statistical comparison is employed to follow patterns of song choice of the course of five years (1989-93) in the First Congregational Church of Washington, DC, thus illustrating the rich texture of hymn singing during the life and liturgy of the church itself. The chapter concludes that hymns allow worshipers to express thoughts and sentiments they would otherwise not express.Less

Black Liberation Theology, Black Power, and the Black Arts Movement at Trinity United Church of Christ

Kymberly N. Pinder

in Painting the Gospel: Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago

This chapter examines the Black Mural Movement in the context of religious imagery by focusing on the evolution of Joseph W. Evans Jr.'s art. In 1986 Evans illustrated the motto of Chicago's Trinity ... More

This chapter examines the Black Mural Movement in the context of religious imagery by focusing on the evolution of Joseph W. Evans Jr.'s art. In 1986 Evans illustrated the motto of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC), “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian” with a painting of a Jesus with dark brown skin and tightly curled black hair, his arms outstretched around a smiling African American family. This image of a black Christ was Evans's vision of being black and Christian. In the 1970s Evans joined TUCC, where the pastor, Jeremiah Wright Jr., promoted Black Liberation Theology and recommended specific texts and sermons for the artist to study that transformed his conception of Christ. This chapter first considers black theology and pan-Africanism at TUCC before discussing the influence of the Black Arts Movement and the muralist William Walker on Chicago. It also assesses the impact, in terms of style and content, of the murals on Chicago's South Side on Evans's work and concludes with an overview of TUCC's stained glass program.Less

More Hindus and Others Come to Town

Paul D. Numrich

in The Faith Next Door: American Christians and Their New Religious Neighbors

This chapter updates the story in chapter 1 by exploring the increasing religious diversity of the blue-collar city featured there and revisiting the principal churches involved in the 1985 debate ... More

This chapter updates the story in chapter 1 by exploring the increasing religious diversity of the blue-collar city featured there and revisiting the principal churches involved in the 1985 debate over a new Hindu temple to see where they stand today. Two pastors are featured: a United Church of Christ pastor, who considers religious diversity an opportunity for dialogue and mutual understanding, and the pastor of a “seeker sensitive” church affiliated with the Willow Creek Association, who interprets religious diversity as a sign of both spiritual warfare and potential harvest for the Gospel. Both see opportunity in a multireligious America but define it in very different ways.Less

Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian

Andrew Billingsley

in Mighty Like a River: The Black Church and Social Reform

Visitors to the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago are likely to be struck by the appearance of a beautiful oil painting that hangs in the vestibule. The sign underneath the painting reads, ... More

Visitors to the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago are likely to be struck by the appearance of a beautiful oil painting that hangs in the vestibule. The sign underneath the painting reads, “We Are Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian”. The painting, the slogan, and their prominent placement in the church indicate that this church has boldly confronted one of the four major challenges confronting the church today, namely, how to be authentically black and authentically Christian at the same time. The ten elements of a black value system were adopted by the congregation with the admonition. Eight specific elements of a dynamic black worship program are discussed, namely bringing the message, making a joyful noise, experiencing the Holy Ghost, spirited prayer life, engaging Christian education, a faithful set of auxiliaries, especially usher boards, a sustained pattern of financial giving and expanding program of benevolence.Less

The “Spiritual Healing Project”: A Study of the Meaning of Spiritual Healing in the United Church of Christ

Bobbie Mckay and Lewis A. Musil

in Religion and Healing in America

This chapter discusses the results of a 1995 study on the meaning of spiritual healing in mainstream religious congregations. The United Church of Christ (UCC) was selected for this study because of ... More

This chapter discusses the results of a 1995 study on the meaning of spiritual healing in mainstream religious congregations. The United Church of Christ (UCC) was selected for this study because of its broad socioeconomic, ethnic, and geographic diversity. The UCC has been supportive of women clergy, has been open and affirming of participation of gays at all levels, and is a leading advocate of civil rights and social change. Currently, two optional healing services are available in the UCC: one for individuals, another for groups. Many UCC churches include lay intercessory prayer groups. Despite the rather sharp differences in plot or structure of the stories, several core themes echo across all the categories: surrender, acceptance, surprise, transformation, the experience of peace, the experience of God's healing presence and love, the use of prayer in the healing process, and an absence of emphasis on the role of suffering. These themes were often interwoven, creating a powerful portrait of the experience of spiritual healing.Less

Alliances and Adversity

Kenneth Robert Janken

in The Wilmington Ten: Violence, Injustice, and the Rise of Black Politics in the 1970s

Following the guilty verdict in the trial of the Wilmington Ten, a broad based movement developed in North Carolina, the larger United States, and the world to overturn the convictions on appeal and ... More

Following the guilty verdict in the trial of the Wilmington Ten, a broad based movement developed in North Carolina, the larger United States, and the world to overturn the convictions on appeal and set them free. The movement to free the Wilmington Ten in all its phases developed along multiple independent but intersecting paths. How interested parties along these paths, like the United Church of Christ, the Commission for Racial Justice, the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression organized themselves and cooperated and competed tells us much about the African American political landscape in the 1970s. From community-, school-, and church-based associations to political parties built on leftist and nationalist lines to the quickening of a stratum of black elected officials, the manners in which the campaigns to free the Wilmington Ten unfolded reveal the ways power was accrued and spent and lost. This chapter discloses the efforts of many organizations in the movement to bring the Wilmington Ten before an international audience to pressure the United States government to free the Ten. The chapter also discusses the Wilmington Ten’s continuing legal appeal, which continued to bring to light evidence of prosecutorial and government misconduct.Less

Faith in Public: Going to War in Iraq and Doing Good at Home

in Public Pulpits: Methodists and Mainline Churches in the Moral Argument of Public Life

What is the role of religion in American public life? Prophetic witness, voice of conscience, social activist and reformer, moral advocate and interlocutor? Or is it Good Samaritan, helping hand, ... More

What is the role of religion in American public life? Prophetic witness, voice of conscience, social activist and reformer, moral advocate and interlocutor? Or is it Good Samaritan, helping hand, loving heart and saving grace, community volunteer and charitable donor? This chapter tries to answer these questions to pin down the principles of religion in public, focusing on the practice of the mainline Protestant churches—Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and United Church of Christ—over the last generation. It looks at what these churches have done, together with their allies and adversaries, in seeking to serve as “the public church”. The practical efforts of particular religious communities to live out and embody their faith in public inform the public rhetoric of religion and influence the moral argument of public life, just as religious communities in turn draw on these evolving and contested ideals to inspire their action and justify their practices. Thus the religious rhetoric of President George W. Bush offers an apt point of entry into the ongoing argument about religion's public presence and purpose.Less

The Making of a Movement

Kenneth Robert Janken

in The Wilmington Ten: Violence, Injustice, and the Rise of Black Politics in the 1970s

The growth of the movement in Wilmington was stimulated by the presence of organizations dedicated to breaking through the suffocating restrictions of paternalism that the white elite of North ... More

The growth of the movement in Wilmington was stimulated by the presence of organizations dedicated to breaking through the suffocating restrictions of paternalism that the white elite of North Carolina and elsewhere deployed to manage the change in the racial order that they were knew they would not be able to stop. The chapter follows three organizations in North Carolina as they promoted their variants of black nationalism and Black Power and struggled to break the gradualist consensus on race liberation: the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice, the Wilmington Movement organized by the North Carolina chapter of Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student (later Youth) Organization for Black Unity. Bombastic Black Power rhetoric was part of the three organization’s plans, and the idea that emboldening blacks and scaring whites could shake things up and alter the balance of power. But they tested their theories of social change in practice, and it was through that process that the organizations made gains.Less

Outsourcing Censorship: How the National Council of Churches Silenced Fundamentalist Broadcasters

Paul Matzko

in The Radio Right: How a Band of Broadcasters Took on the Federal Government and Built the Modern Conservative Movement

After the election of 1964, the Democratic National Committee stopped its involvement in the censorship campaign, but the Fairness Doctrine rules remained a tool for any interest group smart enough ... More

After the election of 1964, the Democratic National Committee stopped its involvement in the censorship campaign, but the Fairness Doctrine rules remained a tool for any interest group smart enough to imagine the potential uses. The National Council of Churches, which had a long history of conflict with broadcaster and fundamentalist clergyman Carl McIntire, launched a wave of Fairness Doctrine complaints against stations airing the offending broadcasts. In particular, the National Council of Churches wanted the Federal Communications Commission to deny radio licenses to two stations: WXUR, which Carl McIntire had recently purchased, and WLBT, which had a history of defending segregation on the airwaves.Less

Introduction

Frederick J. Streets

in Preaching in the New Millennium: Celebrating the Tercentennial of Yale University

This book is a collection of sermons preached in the historic and beautiful Battell Chapel at Yale University during the spring and fall of 2001 in recognition of the university's three-hundredth ... More

This book is a collection of sermons preached in the historic and beautiful Battell Chapel at Yale University during the spring and fall of 2001 in recognition of the university's three-hundredth anniversary and beginning of its fourth century. Battell Chapel was built in 1878 and is a member of the United Church of Christ, a Protestant denomination. The development of the undergraduate curriculum in religion, the creation of the Church of Christ in Yale, the abolishment in 1926 of undergraduate mandatory chapel attendance, the creation of a department of religion twenty years later, the emergence of the Divinity School as a university-based professional school, and the establishment of a graduate department of religious studies as a part of the graduate school of arts and sciences are examples of how the drama of theological convictions, religious sentiments, and values has been played out as Yale experienced the tensions of its growth.Less

“It’s Complicated”: The Obama Administration’s Relationship with Black Faith Communities and Lessons for Future Presidents

Brian D. McKenzie

in After Obama: African American Politics in a Post-Obama Era

In line with the inclusionary dilemma theme of this volume, I examine the Obama administration’s public and private exchanges with Black religious communities. In many ways, Barack Obama’s political ... More

In line with the inclusionary dilemma theme of this volume, I examine the Obama administration’s public and private exchanges with Black religious communities. In many ways, Barack Obama’s political experiences highlighted elements of the inclusionary dilemma. On one hand, Black church social networks assisted Obama in establishing a political career in Illinois politics. But this association with Black institutions, particularly Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, would later become a political liability for Obama as he sought support from White voters in the 2008 general election. Thus, Obama’s challenge was to simultaneously appear as an advocate for African American political interests and effectively represent the nation as a whole. Since Black faith communities primarily work to advance Black interests, President Obama’s team may have limited their outreach and public backing of this constituency. At the same time, Obama called for policies with broad appeal among progressives. Using the inclusionary dilemma framework as an analytic lens, this chapter explores the administration’s actions and the political interests of Black Christians. I briefly reflect on the actions of the current US president, Donald Trump, as they relate to religion and politics in Black communities.Less

Epilogue

Warren Goldstein

in William Sloane Coffin Jr.: A Holy Impatience

This book concludes with Coffin's notion that the truths of music are “apprehended rather than comprehended.” If the precise definitions differ little, the former carries the idea of sensing and ... More

This book concludes with Coffin's notion that the truths of music are “apprehended rather than comprehended.” If the precise definitions differ little, the former carries the idea of sensing and feeling rather than rational understanding. Music always had special power in Coffin's life. It gave him a language for his emotions and influence over others. Music took him to Paris and gave him entree to Russian and to Manya's world. It served him as a lingua franca wherever he traveled. The author once observed Coffin giving a late evening speech to several hundred people at the United Church of Christ biennial General Synod. Before beginning, Coffin sat down at the piano on the stage, and he played and sang Russian folk songs, and through this thoroughly entranced the audience.Less