photo: The Marion Star

Giant Jesus grabs attention


MONROE (AP) -- Travelers on Interstate 75 often are startled to come upon a six-story-tall statue of Jesus by the roadside.

"I thought I had seen everything there was to see in America from the road, but I never saw anything like that," said Brad Leach, 60, an over-the-road trucker for 37 years. "I'm not a holy roller, but I think America needs more things like that."

The 62-foot-tall Messiah about 15 miles north of Cincinnati was completed in August. The torso-up sculpture has a 42-foot span between upraised hands, and a 40-foot cross at the base. It's made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, and plans are for it to be lit by spotlights at night.

"I didn't know it would get this much national attention," said Lawrence Bishop, co-founder of Solid Rock Church. "We weren't trying to impress people, we were just trying to help people."

The 4,000-member, nondenominational evangelical church was founded by the former horse trader and his wife, Darlene, who also has a ministry.

Bishop said his wife first proposed the Jesus figure as a beacon of hope and salvation. Together, they formed the plan for their "King of Kings" statue and spent about $250,000 to finance it.

"We're living in a day when a lot of people feel hopeless, but we believe that when people see him, they will understand he is the hope for the world," Darlene Bishop said.

The church has received hundreds of e-mails from motorists, some of whom say the statue rekindled their religious spirit. So many people have stopped at the Solid Rock campus that church officials had to scramble to build a walkway to accommodate visitors.

"Some people like it and some don't, but it does get people's attention," said Paul Stone, a Solid Rock member from Wilmington. "It makes you direct your thoughts to God whether you think the statue is neat or not."

The I-75 exit near the statue is marked by a Hustler of Hollywood sign for one of Larry Flynt's largest adult stores and a billboard for Bristol's Show Club & Revue adult club that features a lingerie-clad woman.

The statue "is a pleasant change of atmosphere from what was being projected," Bishop said.

Monroe resident Michele Philpot said she isn't a big fan of the statue but is pleased to see the ambiance of the interchange tip a bit more toward spirituality.

"It kind of evens things out against the Hustler store and Bristol's," she said.

Judy Grant, manager of Sara Jane's restaurant just off the Monroe interchange, worries that too many motorists will slow down to look.

"You see people hit their brakes along that part of I-75 every day. I think the church should have sized it down," Grant said.

Jimmy Flynt, brother of Larry and president of Hustler Enterprises, said there is plenty of room in the small city of Monroe for his adult-oriented store and Solid Rock Church's giant statue.

"Lawrence Bishop has his business going on here, and I have my business going on here, and that's the beauty of America," Flynt said.

the true Christian path in an unjust society leads to jail

Different strains of Christianity, not to mention different religions, have different answers. A case can be made that God has no interest in running governments, his followers of various stripes having spent meaningful stretches of time in exile and in prison. It's no small irony that a Protestant segment is gloating over the latest American election, when the original church's corruption into a secular power is what led to the Reformation.

That same suspect Catholic Church has joined the anti-papist conservatives in taking credit for the Bush triumph (over a Catholic, yet), noting the strong resonance of the "marriage" issue. This brings the church full circle, from persecuted minority to arbitrary guardian of the gates.

Many Catholics, of course, don't share the Vatican agenda; as many other Christians, including evangelicals, don't share Pat Robertson's. Some would say Jesus wanted John Kerry in the White House; many would simply say Jesus has been too busy at the soup kitchens down the street from the White House to notice who occupies it.

Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker said the true Christian path in an unjust society leads downward, to jail. History tells us there is enormous power in such powerlessness. Gandhi didn't get invited to croquet with the governor and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't pulling the traditional values vote for congressman from Alabama. They lost a lot before they won; and from a strict moral values standpoint, their losing was winning. Jesus, of course, was way ahead of them.

...from: When the state gets churched by Dan Carpenter, The Indianapolis Star, November 28, 2004

helping the homeless

by Doug Millison

I was surprised at the power of making simple human contact and acknowledging this homeless person as a person instead of ignoring him as a pest. Surprised at the way simple gifts of conversation and food could feed my own soul.

I was working in San Francisco, south of Market on 2nd Street. Walking to and from BART, everyday I passed the same guy begging on the sidewalk under the Bay Bridge on-ramp. One evening I realized he lived in the parking lot there, under the on-ramp. I watched him unpack his bedroll and hunker down to sleep on the parking lot.

At first, I wouldn't look at him as I passed, irritated by his begging. Later, feeling guilty, I'd pull some coins from my pocket, shove them into his hand, and move on as quickly as possible. I didn't want to be infected by whatever was ailing him.

My reaction surprised me. I support organizations that work for social justice. I volunteer at the homeless shelter program that our church offers a couple of times a year, getting up early to help cook and serve breakfast to families down on their luck. I like to think I do what I can to fight against the systemic evil that lets some people enjoy obscene wealth while others starve in the streets.

But, I realized I had little compassion for this filthy, crazy person I encountered everyday.

One day I got tired of feeling ashamed for giving him money and otherwise ignoring him. He looked so alone. I stopped and asked him why he was out there, begging. He told me a long, confused story. He was getting SSI payments, but he couldn't make them last to the end of the month. He had an application pending for a subsidized room and expected to get it within a few months -- he showed me his application. Once he had a place to live he was going to try to get a job. A mess, but hopeful.

After that, I stopped and chatted with him for a few minutes every day, on my way to work and again on my way home. I didn't give him money very often. Instead, I got into the habit of bringing him food -- pears and apples, when they were in season, going unpicked on the trees in the back yard next door to our house, or something from our fruit basket or refrigerator.

In the morning, he'd spot me coming down the sidewalk a block or two away and he'd beam a broad smile. I'd stop and we'd talk for a minute or two. A simple, human connection. Some days he was crazy, some days coherent.

I asked him one evening, as he was getting ready to sleep in the parking lot, "How can you stand the noise out here?" The traffic roared constantly above, on the bridge on-ramp.

I thought of other parts of the world where monks go begging through the streets. In addition to their own spiritual growth, through humility and suffering, their begging gives other people the opportunity to enhance karma by giving. A two-way street. I remembered Jesus' teachings about sharing what we have with the poor. Was this homeless guy an angel, here to give me that sort of opportunity, my own personal boddhisattva? The idea appealed to me.

He disappeared one day. I prayed for him. Weeks later, he was back. Big smile when he saw me. Yes, he had gotten his room. He was trying to get his act together to get a job. He still looked and sounded pretty crazy, but he was clean, off the street, he wasn't pushing his shopping cart around any more, and he had a safe place for his guitar.

I was surprised at the power of making simple human contact and acknowledging this homeless person as a person instead of ignoring him as a pest. Surprised at the way simple gifts of conversation and food could feed my own soul.

I believe we must change the system that lets our brothers and sisters suffer in the midst of plenty. In the meantime, I'd like to think that if I go crazy one of these days or otherwise find myself at the end of one of these impossible-sounding -- but too common -- chains of events, somebody might give me an apple, or a dollar, or at least a kind word, if I wind up out there, hungry, homeless, and hurting, on the street.

(This article orignally appeared in the October 5, 1999 issue of Parishscope).

the spirituality of reading

....reading is all about love. That little word - eros, agape, caritas. The trace in us of the Transcendent Other, who loves all creation, who calls us to ever greater self-transcending love for and communion with all. Our reading can display the whole world and universes of people to us for our cherishing. So that maybe when we have put down whatever book we are reading, we will have taken one more step toward finding our true selves, "God in you as you," as Dunne said; the God who is love. Reading helps us, helps me, to love, "to be in love in an unrestricted fashion" (italics mine), which is how Jesuit theologian Bernard Lonergan defined religious conversion and religious love. Reading helps me to be my true self, the self that sees the world, others, myself, God, with the faith that Lonergan calls "the eye of love." As Marcel Proust said, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

Even though reading may be the closest some of us get to the spirit of contemplation in the noisy, scattered lives we lead, is that all that can be said about the kinship between these two acts? I don’t think so. If, as Simone Weil said, the kind of attention given to study prepares us for prayer, might we make the same claim for reading? What if we began to dwell on and savor the words of our worship and prayer as we do when reading poetry? We might, as St. Ignatius counseled, bring not our reason, but our imagination - so important in reading - to our meditation on scripture, and thus come to believe a little more that "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor human heart conceived what God has prepared for those who love God" (1 Corinthians 2:9).

And if we think of prayer as a quest for intimacy with God - an exchange of selves - perhaps we will ask for and be granted deeper access to God’s interiority, to God’s thoughts, desires, and hopes for us and for the world, surely larger and more generous than our own. Finally, as we believe that God "reads" us, knows our innermost selves better than we know ourselves, our reading and prayer together may help us to hope that finally "[we] will know fully, even as [we] have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide...and the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:12-13).

...from: Reading With New Eyes: A spirituality of reading by Nancy M. Malone, OSU

how to have a happy holiday

So what can a person do when much-loved relatives who voted differently come from near or far to fill your house?

....It is possible that everyone will agree that they have had enough of political arguments, and that no family member would likely change their mind, regardless of what is said. An agreement could be reached to keep this year's holidays from becoming black and blue because of red and blue arguments.

....Realize holidays can be stressors for everyone, including yourself. Family get-togethers can be emotionally, physically, and psychologically draining. So try to get enough rest.

....Resolve not to overreact.

..... Quiet diplomacy is usually best, like changing the subject.

....Try to head the process off before it begins by responding in a nondefensive way. Don’t argue with the other person’s point of view. Your strategy is to intervene before people become emotionally invested and tempers build. One way to intervene is to say with a twinkle in your eye

....At any holiday celebration ask everyone to share a cherished memory of holidays past.

...read it all: Surviving a Red-Blue Holiday Bash by William Webber, at beliefnet.com

lifting up other voices

Scary Times, Even for a Preacher by Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times, 10 November 2004:

In my lifetime, there's been one constant in American culture. We've always needed a good target — someone to blame for all our fears and unmet dreams.

African Americans, hippies, communists, Mexican immigrants, homosexuals.

I missed a couple of groups, but you get the point. And the reason I bring this up is that I met with a retired preacher the other day, and he put it all in perspective.

The Rev. John H. Townsend, pastor emeritus of the First Baptist Church of Los Angeles, had dropped me a line after the election. He was grieving over what he called the current "corruption of Christian faith."

I drove to Townsend's house near Hancock Park to hear what he was talking about. Townsend, a slight and soft-spoken man with spectacles, greeted me at the door along with his wife, Carol, a retired schoolteacher.

The retired pastor began by explaining that when he joined First Baptist near the Bullocks Wilshire department store in 1962, the adjoining neighborhood wasn't yet known as Koreatown. Both the church and the neighborhood were still going through wrenching changes.

Before Townsend's arrival, the predominantly white congregation was bitterly split over the acceptance of African Americans into the parish. Some members walked away when First Baptist decided to open the doors to one and all.

Under Townsend, the church went United Nations, passing out headphones for Spanish-language interpretation of services. Then Townsend brought in a Korean minister, followed by a Filipino minister, and the church became a beacon in a time of racial division, celebrating cultural differences in God's name.

So it should come as no surprise that Townsend wasn't too happy with the role "Christianity" played in the recent presidential election. From where he sits, Christianity was used to divide and conquer.

"This is a scary time," he said. He wonders if the spreading stain of hypocrisy will drive some people away from faith, because under the guise of morality, bigotry was used to get the vote out for President Bush.

"I felt manipulated," Pastor Townsend said in reference to the "hubbub raised by the religious right" over homosexuality in particular. "There was this attitude of triumphalism."

Townsend said he was having a conversation with colleagues before the election when someone asked what they should say about the gay issue.

"The answer was that we should say what Jesus said about it. Nothing."

One corruption of the faith, Townsend says, is the selective use of biblical passages by the religious right. Interpreting literally, he pointed out, you can use the Bible to perpetrate all manner of horrors.

"In Psalms, there's a passage about when the enemy comes, you should bash the heads of children against the stones," he said, going on to cite several more examples.

"The Bible must be read contextually, and the real test for us today is: What would Jesus say or do? If he's our touchstone, and Jesus says love your neighbor, that seems more Christian to me than judge your neighbor."

On the very day I write this column, the Rev. Jerry Falwell has launched something called the Faith and Values Coalition to capture the momentum of the Nov. 2 election.

The idea of this "21st century Moral Majority," as Falwell called it, is to "maintain an evangelical revolution of voters who will continue to go to the polls to vote Christian."

One might question the wisdom of an evangelical uprising at a time when we're trying to convince the Arab world we're not anti-Muslim oil raiders. It also seems fair to ask what exactly it means to punch a ballot like a true Christian.

Is it Christian to vote for a man who is pro-life and yet calls himself the war president; who gives tax breaks to millionaires while 40 million people have no health insurance; and who has not exactly been the most faithful steward of a fragile planet that was ostensibly the work of the creator?

There's nothing wrong with vigorously debating Christian values, Townsend says.

"Absolutes escape us."

But President Bush has left no room for that discussion.

"This business of Bush's about reporting to a higher authority, well, I don't say he shouldn't feel that way. But why does he have to tell us? That's what I mean by triumphalism. How can I answer his claim if he's getting this from direct revelation? It pulls the plug on reasonable discourse.

"Isaiah said, 'Come, let us reason together, says the Lord.' "

So how exactly does one reverse the tide of an evangelical revolution and the cheapening of Christianity?

"By lifting up other voices," Townsend says. Last Sunday, he gave the sermon at Fairview Community Church in Costa Mesa and called for "a new hearing of the gospel."

"As has often been said," he told the congregation, "the ground is level at the foot of Jesus' cross. No one is superior there; no one is inferior."

Townsend ended his sermon with the same simple idea he shared with me at the end of our conversation — an idea that has guided him since he began his L.A. ministry more than 40 years ago. "Jesus laid it out when he said, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' "

Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times

"I am proud to be a liberal"

From "Why I Am Proud to Be a Liberal" by Henlee Barnette, at The Baptist Studies Bulletin:

Liberal-bashing has become a favorite pastime. Religious fundamentalists and extreme talk show hosts are at it continuously. They deconstruct and demonize those who do not agree with their ideology. Rush Limbaugh is the "top gun" in bashing Democrats. He calls them idiots, imbeciles, fools, liars and nuts. He calls women feminazis and babes.  Other talk show hosts, who are wannabes, echo the same sophistry.

I am proud to be a liberal and to be identified with the liberals.  Below I state why.

1. I am a liberal because they have compassionate character. All seven dictionaries in my house characterize a liberal as someone who is free from prejudice, favoring more civil liberty and generous. Moreover, liberals favor policies of reform and progress.

2. I am a liberal because our Constitution is liberal. "We the people" produced the Constitution "to promote," among other things, "the general welfare," and to secure the "Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." The Declaration of Independence declares that Americans are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" - and when the "Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." Over half of the Amendments to The Bill of Rights have to do with human rights, progressively achieved. These documents of democracy are progressive and call for reform in government when it fails to preserve and practice these values.

3. I am a liberal because I know what it is like to work under a conservative and an oppressive economic system. In the "good old days" (1925-1935) I worked in a cotton mill ten hours per day, five and one-half days per week. Beginning pay was eighteen cents per hour. There was no medical care, no retirement program, no minimum working hours, and no minimum wage. A worker could be fired for no reason at all. All members of the family had to work to survive. This was so-called "free enterprise." Progressive liberals changed the system and we now have legislation that provides a quality of life more in harmony with the principles of The Constitution, the Declaration, and the Bible. Practice of these principles saved us from revolution that plagues other nations.

Neo-cons denounce economic and social progress led by liberals: minimum wages and working hours, Medicare, Social Security, and welfare for the poor. (Conservatives oppose welfare for the poor, but not for the corporate welfare.) Ironically, they gladly accept these government services for their retired parents and grandparents and will for themselves when they become older. Too, they argue for less big government and fiscal responsibility. But that is changing with the Bush administration. Government control of all areas of our lives is occurring and we have the largest US debt in history.

4. I am a liberal because Jesus was one. (See my article "Jesus was a Liberal," Baptists Today, Nov 20, 1997.) His mission was one of liberation. He was anointed to preach the good news to the poor, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Isaiah 61:1-2; Luke 4:16-19).  Jesus came to liberate us from sin (Matt 1 :21). He is a liberal because He put human need above ecclesiastical law (Mark 3:1-6; Mark 2:23-28; Luke 6:1-5).

Jesus liberates little children (Mark 10:14). He liberated women by providing them with a place in His ministry (Luke 8:1-3; Mark 15:40-41). They financially supported His ministry (Luke 8:2-3), stood by Him at the Cross (Matt 27:55-56; John 19:25-27) and were first to witness His resurrection and to carry the joyful news to the deserting disciples (Matt 28: 1-10).

Jesus was a liberal because he was inclusive. He included Gentiles in the embrace of His grace and the orthodox sought to kill Him (Luke 4:16-30). Jesus was ecumenical. His disciples discovered someone casting out devils in Jesus' name but did not follow Him and they tried to stop him. Jesus rebuked their narrow view (Luke 9:49- 50). As Christians we are all one in Christ so "that the world may believe" (John 17:21). For these reasons and much more I am a Jesus liberal who puts love above law, righteousness above ritual, justice above injustice and mercy above meanness.

The promise and perils of talking about God in public

That's the title of the latest religionlink.org resource guide for journalists resource guide for journalists. Excerpt:

From the White House to the waffle house, people talk about God. The role of religious groups, issues and voters in the recent election shows the importance people place on God and God's will in this country. Yet while religions encourage believers to communicate with God through prayer and meditation, hearing back from God - and talking about it in public - is a touchy subject.

Some listen for the "still, small voice" that Elijah heard in the Bible. The Quakers seek God in silence. Some believers say they feel God's guidance through people and events in their lives. Others perceive God through faithfulness to the laws or rituals of their tradition. And some people claim to literally hear the voice of God.

Questions arise when people publicly explain their actions as being directed by God. Is it true? How do we judge? Such claims are confusing when different groups say God is guiding them to do opposing things. And it gets downright scary when people claim God is directing them to do things that harm or exploit others.

Most faith traditions have ways communities or leaders evaluate people's sense of God's direction in their lives. But how should society respond when private devotions lead to public actions that affect others?

Why it matters
At a time when many issues in America are tied to religion and treatment of "neighbor," large numbers of people and groups say they are seeking, through their public actions, to be faithful to what they believe is God's will.

Questions for reporters
• How do people experience the voice of God?
• How do people of different faith backgrounds understand the idea of the voice of God?
• If someone believes God is speaking to them, how can they express that without arousing suspicion, fear and ridicule?
• What practices do faith communities engage in to test whether something is actually God's will or not?
• How do religious leaders suggest that members - and society at large - deal with people's sense of God's direction, when different people sense different and opposing things?
• How do people distinguish between random thoughts and direction from God?
• Can talking about the way they understand and experience the voice of God build bridges between people of different faiths?

why we need more media coverage of right-wing Christians

Kevin Drum makes a good point about the lack of serious media attention to right-wing Christians that might inform a real debate about "values" and religion in politics:

Whether or not the national press has a liberal bias in its actual reporting, it's indisputable that most of the reporters themselves are standard issue social liberals. Thus, while they may or may not approve of, say, radical environmentalists, they write about them anyway. Why? Because they're aware of them. They are, roughly speaking, part of their social circle. They are comprehensible. They make good copy.

For the most part, though, they don't write about radical Bible Belt Christians. Sure, there's an occasional piece when a judge smacks a two-ton monument of the Ten Commandments on his courthouse lawn, but that's about it. Why? I don't think it's so much a conscious decision, as Bob suggests, but rather that most reporters are barely aware they exist. Christian extremists are decidedly not part of their social circle, and writing about them is more akin to anthropology than reporting.

But there's a bit more to it than that. Lefty extremists actively crave attention. They organize marches in cities, they chain themselves to redwood trees, they toss buckets of blood on women in fur coats. They want the national press to write about them.

Bible Belt Christians, by contrast, don't. For the most part, they are an insular group, sending their newsletters to each others, attending each others' conferences, and mobilizing voters in their own churches.

The result of all this is that most Americans are well aware of lefty extremism, even though the actual number of lefty extremists is fairly small. And to a lot of people, they look pretty scary.

But most Americans aren't well aware of Christian extremism. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson occasionally show up on morning chat shows, and sometimes they slip up and say something scary, but not often. Thus, when something like this screed by Frank Pastore shows up in the LA Times, readers are shocked. What they don't realize is that within their own fire and brimstone circles, this kind of talk is commonplace among Bible Belt Christians. And there are way more of them than there are members of the Earth Liberation Front.

If more people knew about this — really knew about it — they'd find it scarier than a few isolated nutballs who drive nails into old growth trees. But they don't. And the reason they don't is because our media really does have a liberal bias. Unfortunately, it's not one that does liberals any favors.

Drum's post links to Christian Conservatives Must Not Compromise by Frank Pastore.

the gap

....people of faith do not understand God operating in the world in the same way. The vast majority of fundamentalist and evangelical Christians see themselves embroiled in an apocalyptic battle against evil. They are on God's side, and they are fighting Satan's emissaries in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Hollywood.

Progressive Christians do not shy from a spiritual battle against those forces that do great damage to human dignity and the environment. But they do not see history as inevitable, nor is God hell-bent on bringing about the end of the world. While specific acts can be called evil - for instance, the massacres in the Sudan - they do not aim to color a map of the world into two hues, the children of light and the children of darkness.

All to say, Christians in the U.S. today do not simply disagree on a hierarchy of values. They read the Bible quite differently and express their faith in Jesus in radically distinct ways. I award Thomas Friedman, columnist of The New York Times, with the pithy phrase of the week past: We are "two nations under God."

From: God-talk and moral values by David Batstone.

UCC pastoral letter to LGBT community

A pastoral letter to our lgbt brothers and sisters, friends and allies

The following is a pastoral letter to our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) brothers and sisters, friends and allies. It has been prepared jointly by Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, Interim National Coordinator of the United Church of Christ (UCC) Coalition for LGBT Concerns, and Rev. Mike Schuenemeyer, Executive and Minister for LGBT Ministries in Wider Church Ministries of the UCC. Please read and distribute to others.

November 3, 2004

Dear Friends,

Grace to you and peace on this day after the election.

There is much that needs to be said. But we write, primarily, to let you know that you are not alone.

The past several months leading to this day have been both momentous and tortuous. We have been buoyed by a Supreme Court decision that abolished "sodomy laws" in this nation, by the Massachusetts Court decision and subsequent legal marriages, by the boldness of municipal officials in San Francisco, Oregon, Mew Mexico, and New York who authorized marriage licenses in their communities, and there have been countless other acts of courage and witness for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and their families.

We've also endured an onslaught of political slander that has driven a wedge throughout our communities, debasing and devaluing our relationships in efforts to write discrimination into both federal and state constitutions. And today, we are faced with the reality that 12 states have enshrined bigotry and hate into their constitutions.

From Mike:

"For me it has been difficult to consistently shield myself from the personal dimensions of these attacks and I have found it to be, at times, a very painful process."

From Rebecca:

"I find myself moving between shock and anger. So much hatred, so much ignorance, so much fear."

We imagine that many of you are feeling some of these same emotions. There is much to grieve today.

From Mike:

"However, I want to share with you my vision. We knew going in to this election that regardless of the result, the holy work of justice and peace would still be before us. And through all the organizing and valiant efforts to make a difference we have succeeded to some degree, even though the outcome is not the one we desired.

"We must, I believe, claim our own victories through all of this. As a people of faith, we are called to keep the larger vision before us and know that where we have made new friends and created new partnerships in this mission, we have won important gains in our journey toward equality and justice. An issue worth fighting for is worth fighting and losing, and fighting and losing again and again, until we fight and win. So let us echo the confident words of the spiritual, 'We shall not give up the fight, we have only started.'"

From Rebecca:

"Today I am reminded of a powerful lesson Elsa Tamez, Latin American Biblical scholar, shared with me and others several years ago. She says, "Imagine if you will, the women and John, standing at the foot of the cross, witnessing first Jesus' dying and, finally, his death. There they stood—companions with him in life; co-creators of this movement of extravagant welcome, healing and justice; fellow dreamers of the kin-dom of God come near to earth—and now they were witnesses to his death.

"They were devastated. And all they could do was bear witness. All they could do was look upon his death. All they could do was wait.

"But Elsa went on to remind us that the verb in Spanish for 'wait' is ‘esperar.’ To wait is ‘esperar.’ To sit, to witness, to take in, to realize. But ‘esperar’ is much more than that. ‘Esperar’ is also to hope.

"When we are called by God to be bearers of justice and healing and radical love, we WILL also be called to be witnesses to crucifixions. We WILL be called to be witnesses to losses and defeats and hatred. But those of us who are called to ‘esperar’ are called beyond crucifixion to resurrection. We are called beyond the realities of defeat to God's promised kin-dom."

And so together we write to thank you all. Thank you for your hard work, your love, your support, your stick-to-it-ness, your gifts of time, talent and energy, your prayers and your faith. "God IS turning the page!" as our sister, Yvette Flunder has said, and it is a joy to be on that page with you. We praise and thank God for you and are confident in the hope that does not disappoint. For if it is God's will, then there is nothing in heaven or earth that can stop it. Let us continue to be vigilant, creative in our efforts, just in all our actions and loving through all we do to make of our churches and our world the open and affirming, multi-racial, multi-cultural, just peace, accessible to all communities of mission God calls us to be.

Blessings and peace to you all,

Rev. Mike Schuenemeyer
Minister for LGBT Ministries
UCC Wider Church Ministries

Rev. Rebecca Voelkel
Interim National Coordinator
UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns

[LGBT Letter, 3 November 2004, at the United Church of Christ web site]

progressive politics & religion: some historical perspective

From Can Democrats Marry Progressive Politics with Religion? (They Have in the Past) by Ron Briley, at History News Network:

With the construction of the Erie Canal in the early nineteenth-century linking the Great Lakes with Hudson River and New York harbor, western New York boomed economically. This prosperity, however, proved to be short-lived for with the competition of new technology such as railroads, business was less dependent upon the canal, and the region suffered a devastating depression or “panic” as it was called in those days. Jobless workers who were terrified about how to feed their families assumed that the Biblical last days were near. Surely, God would be not let such an economic disaster befall his people. As western New York suffered economically in the 1820s and 1830s, the region was swept by a religious revival movement in which many workers sought solace believing that the “second coming” of Jesus was nigh. This religious fervor produced what some historians have labeled the “burned over district” as people of the region were exhausted by the emotionalism of preparing for the new millennium. Out of this ferment came the Second Great Awakening, Shakers, Millerites, and Mormonism. While the Shakers who advocated celibacy as a way to purify oneself for the millennium died out and William Millers’s calculations for the exact day of Jesus’ return proved to be erroneous, the Mormon faith continues to grow in converts. But the reaction to the economic plight of the region also produced more secular responses which mingled with the religious fervor. Utopian communities such as Oneida were formed to address the crushing economic burdens suffered by families and provide more communal solutions to the materialism of Jacksonian society. A working class alliance between laborers and farmers formed the backbone of the Democratic Party in New York State during the Jacksonian period.

This legacy of combining religion and progressive politics was also apparent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Populist Party, Social Gospel of progressive America, and grass-roots socialism which garnered popular political support in such prairie states as Kansas and Oklahoma. During the Great Depression, such populist radicals as folk singer Woody Guthrie combined images of Christianity and progressive working class politics. After all, Jesus was a working class carpenter.

However, this progressive strain in evangelical Christianity has been largely ignored in recent years. Democrats must address issues of war, health care, education, housing, and security in a populist fashion which is never condescending and respectful of more traditional values. In recent years, our increasingly conservative and corporate media have succeeded in selling fear to Americans with depictions of terrorism and crime. What progressive Democrats must do is convince working class Americans that the real danger is not the gay or lesbian couple living next door, but rather the increasing power of a corporate America which has no sense of values. While the Fox News channel embraces the politics of George W. Bush, the Fox Network of Rupport Murdoch produces reprehensible programming which is unsuitable for our children. Progressives must hold corporate America responsible for the lack of compassion and concern for values beyond the profit motive. And this must be done in a fashion which is respectful of families. Appearing with celebrities who spout four letter words we do not want our children to hear is not going to endear working and middle class families to the banner of progressive Democrats. The election of 2004 should not produce despair on the left. The working people of this country in places like Youngstown, Ohio deserve more than to be abandoned to the manipulations of Karl Rove and his corporate allies. From the Burned Over District to the social gospel to Woody Guthrie there is a progressive religious tradition which should and must be tapped beyond the fears and narrow faith-based initiatives of the current administration.

time to write off the ignorant masses?

Brian Rainey of Harvard Divinity School adds some welcome perspective regarding the polarizing notion that right-wing, gun-toting, gay-hating Christians put Bush over the hump last Tuesday, in his essay, The Devil Made Them Do It? Elections, Religion and the American People at Counterpunch today:

In particular, the role of the "religious right" has been the focus of much attention in the media. It seems clear that this bloc of right-wing, evangelical Christian voters turned out in large numbers, as 22 percent of voters cited "moral values" as the most important issue to them. In addition, weekly church goers overwhelmingly voted for Bush (61 percent to 39 percent). The display of power by the "religious right" has caused some people on the religious left to draw all kinds of off-the-wall conclusions. The solutions I've heard range from suggesting that the left be more concerned about "personal morality" to the idea that Americans were too duped by a fanatical religion to vote for their "class interests."

First, a reality check. While voter turnout was 4 percent higher than in 2000, 45 percent of Americans still did not vote showing that a large segment of the population is still not engaged by the political system. In addition, that Bush mobilized his Christian conservative base is clear, but we should not exaggerate the supposed "right-wing" consciousness of the country. Polls have consistently shown a general progressive consciousness in America. An AP-Ipsis Poll showed that as recent as March 2004, 62 percent of respondents said that they would prefer more spending on health care, education and economic development than balancing the budget. A late October CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll showed that 52 percent of Americans believe that the US made a mistake in sending troops into Iraq.

A May 2004 ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 54 percent of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in most cases and another CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found that 81 percent of respondents believe that abortion should be either sometimes or always legal [1]. Suggesting, as Vijay Prashad does, that these kinds of polls "might have been weighted for the coasts and not Kansas," [2] is an outlandish grasping at straws. It reflects an irrational (and elitist) refusal to accept that even people in the Midwest may, indeed, be more progressive than stereotypes of academia and the liberal establishment suggest. It shirks the responsibility that the left has of organizing that sentiment into something concrete and legitimates throwing up our hands at the hopelessness of the "ignorant masses."

Rainey's Prashad reference is to An Election of Misogyny and Homophobia: It's Time to Confront the Theocracy Head On by Vijay Prashad, published last week by Counterpunch.

what I hope we can learn to avoid

Holy War: Evangelical Marines Prepare to Battle Barbarians (Agence France Press via Common Dreams). Excerpt:

With US forces massing outside Fallujah, 35 marines swayed to Christian rock music and asked Jesus Christ to protect them in what could be the biggest battle since American troops invaded Iraq last year.

Men with buzzcuts and clad in their camouflage waved their hands in the air, M-16 assault rifles beside them, and chanted heavy metal-flavoured lyrics in praise of Christ late on Friday in a yellow-brick chapel.

They counted among thousands of troops surrounding the city of Fallujah, seeking solace as they awaited Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's decision on whether or not to invade Fallujah.

"You are the sovereign. You're name is holy. You are the pure spotless lamb," a female voice cried out on the loudspeakers as the marines clapped their hands and closed their eyes, reflecting on what lay ahead for them.

The US military, with many soldiers coming from the conservative American south and midwest, has deep Christian roots.

[...] Between the service's electric guitar religious tunes, marines stepped up on the chapel's small stage and recited a verse of scripture, meant to fortify them for war.

One spoke of their Old Testament hero, a shepherd who would become Israel's king, battling the Philistines 3 000 years ago.

"Thus David prevailed over the Philistines," the marine said, reading from scripture, and the marines shouted back "Hoorah, King David," using their signature grunt of approval.

The marines drew parallels from the verse with their present situation, where they perceive themselves as warriors fighting barbaric men opposed to all that is good in the world.

Not terribly different from the way that Republican and Democratic voters are talking about each other these days, unfortunately.

connect & communicate

The more post-election analysis I hear and read, and the more I think about my own experiences here on the "blue" coast and with family and friends in "red" states like Arizona, Texas and Colorado, the more I see the need for people on both sides to listen to and talk with each other. Half the voters in the US can't be "wrong" or "stupid" or whatever you want to call the people who voted for Bush (if you didn't) or against Bush (if you did). The need for connection and communication at a profound level won't be satisfied by the current news media however, judging from their performance in the run-up to the election. This is something that will have to happen at a grassroots level. I don't know which organizations and institutions will be best suited to facilitate such a project. But, I feel certain that until it does, increasing numbers of people on both sides of the political divide will feel frustrated.

One reason I'm starting Conservative Christian is to spotlight some of news and analysis coming from the liberal, social justice-oriented Christian movement, with the hope that this may in some small way help to break down negative and hurtful stereotypes and promote mutual understanding.

The Ten Commitments

Knowing that Rabbi Michael Lerner's Tikkun is a big tent that easily welcomes Christians, I point to Lerner's The Ten Commitments: Values for the Spiritual/Religious Left, published today. I can see that the God talk might be unacceptable to many people on the left-progressive side of the spectrum, and that some wouldn't accept even the most non-denominational nod to Spirit, hard-headed materialists that they are. Lerner's reformulation of the Ten Commandments works for me:

1. YHVH, God, the Power of Transformation and Healing, is the Ultimate Reality of the Universe and the Source of Transcendent Unity

Aware of the suffering caused by not acknowledging the ultimate Unity of All Being, I vow to recognize every human being as a manifestation of the Divine and to spend more time each day in awe and wonder at the grandeur of Creation.

Aware of the suffering that is caused when we unconsciously pass on to others the pain, cruelty, depression and despair that has been inflicted upon us, I vow to become conscious and then act upon all the possibilities for healing and transforming my own life and being involved in healing and transforming the larger world.

2. Idolatry

Aware of the suffering caused by taking existing social realities, economic security, ideologies, religious beliefs, national commitments, or the gratification of our current desires as the highest value, I vow to recognize only God as the ultimate, and to look at the universe and each part of my life as an evolving part of a larger Totality whose ultimate worth is measured by how close it brings us to God and to love of each other. To stay in touch with this reality, I vow to meditate each day for at least ten minutes and to contemplate the totality of the universe and my humble place in it.

3. Do not take God in Vain

Aware of the suffering caused by religious or spiritual fanaticism, I vow to be respectful of all religious traditions which preach love and respect for the Other, and to recognize that there are many possible paths to God. I vow to acknowledge that we as Jews are not better than others and our path is only one of the many ways that people have heard God's voice. I vow to remain aware of the distortions in our own traditions, and the ways that I myself necessarily bring my own limitations to every encounter with the Divine. So I will practice spiritual humility. Yet I will enthusiastically advocate for what I find compelling in the Jewish tradition and encourage others to explore that which has moved me.

4. Observe the Sabbath

Aware of the suffering produced by excessive focus on "making it" and obtaining material satisfactions, I vow to regularly observe Shabbat (one 25 hour period each week in which we stop all connection with work, money, buying, dominating the world, and focus exclusively on celebration and joy at the grandeur of the universe) as a day in which I focus on celebrating the world rather than trying to control it or maximize my own advantage within it. I will build Shabbat with a community and enjoy loving connection with others. I will use some Shabbat time to renew my commitment to social justice and healing. I will also set aside significant amounts of time for inner spiritual development, personal renewal, reflection, and pleasure.

5. Honor your mother and father

Aware of the suffering caused by aging, disease, and death, I vow to provide care and support for my parents.

Aware that every parent has faults and has inflicted pain on their children, I vow to forgive my parents and to allow myself to see them as human beings with the same kinds of limitations as every other human being on the planet. And I vow to remember the moments of kindness and nurturance, and to let them play a larger role in my memory as I develop a sense of compassion for them and for myself.

6. Do not murder

Aware of the suffering caused by wars, environmental irresponsibility, and eruptions of violence, I vow to recognize the sanctify of life and not to passively participate in social practices that are destructive of the lives of others. I will resist the perpetrators of violence and oppression of others, the poisoners of our environment, and those who demean others or encourage acts of violence. Aware that much violence is the irrational and often self-destructive response to the absence of love and caring, I vow to show more loving and caring energy to everyone around me, to take the time to know others more deeply, and to struggle for a world which provides everyone with recognition and spiritual nourishment.

7. Do not engage in sexual exploitation

Aware of the suffering caused when people break their commitments of sexual loyalty to each other, and the suffering caused by using other people for our own sexual purposes, I vow to keep my commitments and to be fully honest and open in my sexual dealings with others, avoiding deceit or manipulation to obtain my own ends. I will rejoice in my body and the bodies of others, will treat them as embodiments of Divine energy, and will seek to enhance my own pleasure and the pleasure of others around me, joyfully celebrating sex as an opportunity for encounter with the holy. I will do all I can to prevent sexual abuse in adults and children, the spreading of sexually transmitted diseases, and the misuse of sexuality to further domination or control of others. I will respect the diversity of non-expletive sexual expression and lifestyles and will not seek to impose sexual orthodoxies on others.

8. Do not steal

Aware of the suffering caused by an unjust distribution of the world's resources, exploitation, and theft, I vow to practice generosity, to share what I have, and to not keep anything that should belong to others while working for a wise use of the goods and services that are available. I will not horde what I have, and especially will not horde love. I will support a fairer redistribution of the wealth of the planet so that everyone has adequate material well-being, recognizing that contemporary global inequalities in wealth are often the resultant of colonialism, genocide, slavery, theft and the imposition of monetary and trade policies by the powerful on the powerless. In the meantime, I will do my best to support the homeless and others who are in need.

Aware that others sometimes contribute much energy to keeping this community functioning, I will give time and energy to the tasks of building the Tikkun community or some other community of people dedicated to healing and transforming the world, and, when possible, will donate generously of my financial resources and my talents and time.

9. Do not lie

Aware of the suffering caused by wrongful speech, I vow to cultivate a practice of holy speech in which my words are directed to increasing the love and caring in the world. I vow to avoid words that are misleading or manipulative, and avoid spreading stories that I do not know to be true, or which might cause unnecessary divisiveness or harm, and instead will use my speech to increase harmony, social justice, kindness, hopefulness, trust and solidarity. I will be generous in praise and support for others. To heighten my awareness of this commitment, I will dedicate one day a week to full and total holiness of words, refraining from any speech that day which does not hallow God's name or bring joy to others.

10. Do not covet

Aware of the suffering caused by excessive consumption of the world's resources, I vow to rejoice in what I have and to live a life of ethical consumption governed by a recognition that the world's resources are already strained and by a desire to promote ecological sustainability and material modesty. I vow to see the success of others as an inspiration rather than as detracting from my own sufficiency and to cultivate in myself and others the sense that I have enough and that I am enough and that there is enough for everyone.

Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun Magazine and co-chair with Cornel West and Susannah Heschel of The Tikkun Community. He is the author of 9 books including, most recently, Spirit Matters: Global Healing and the Wisdom of the Soul and of Healing Israel/Palestine. The Tikkun Community is an interfaith international organization welcoming to people of all ethnicities and faith positions (incuding orthodox atheists) and committed to building a progressive Politics of Meaning. Please read our Core Vision at www.Tikkun.org and Join to become a dues-paying member, help create a local chapter or study group, and help us transform our society by creating a new voice: a Spiritual/Religious Left. Join at www.Tikkun.org or by calling 510 644 1200.

What Bush's re-election means for religion and politics

From Born-again president: What Bush's re-election means for religion and politics:

The 2004 presidential election could be seen as the Religious Right versus the Religious - and secular - Left. Experts and religion historians say that never before has faith played such a central role in a presidential campaign. Bush was seen as the Preacher-in-Chief, employing religious language to support his policies, while Kerry was seen as the new champion of the old Social Gospel, using parables to talk about government's responsibility to take care of the poor. The candidates' different views of the role of religion reflect divisions among American believers, so Bush's political performance during the next four years will likely affect the way Americans view the role of faith in the public square. Add in the importance of expected Supreme Court nominations, and experts say Bush's win could profoundly impact the role of religion in public policy for decades, as well as the image and influence of religion in American society.

This Religion Link page includes an overview of issues (and links to resources) that journalists, and others, will be watching:

Moral values
Reconciliation
Faith as a campaign tool
Evangelicals and Christian conservatives
Catholics
War & peace
Gay marriage
Abortion
U.S. Supreme court
Religion and schools
Poverty
Faith-based programs
Bioethics
Capital punishment
Environment
Government appointees and employees
African-Americans and their churches
Muslims
The religious left
Jews
The 'Nones' - secularists, atheists and humanists

The Democrats Need a Spiritual Left

For years the Democrats have been telling themselves "it's the economy, stupid." Yet consistently for dozens of years millions of middle income Americans have voted against their own economic interests to support Republicans who have tapped a deeper set of needs.

Tens of millions of Americans feel betrayed by a society that seems to place materialism and selfishness above moral values. They know that "looking out for number one" has become the common sense of our society, but they want a life that is about something more --- a framework of meaning and purpose to their lives that would transcend the grasping and narcissism that surrounds them. Sure, they will admit that they have material needs, and that they worry about adequate health care, stability in employment, and enough money to give their kids a college education. But even more deeply they want their lives to have meaning --- and they respond to candidates who seem to care about values and some sense of transcendent purpose.

Many of these voters have found a "politics of meaning" in the political Right. In the Right wing churches and synagogues these voters are presented with a coherent worldview that speaks to their "meaning needs." Most of these churches and synagogues demonstrate a high level of caring for their members, even if the flip side is a willingness to demean those on the outside. Yet what members experience directly is a level of mutual caring that they rarely find in the rest of the society. And a sense of community that is offered them nowhere else, a community that has as its central theme that life has value because it is connected to some higher meaning than one's success in the marketplace.

It's easy to see how this hunger gets manipulated in ways that liberals find offensive and contradictory. The frantic attempts to preserve family by denying gays the right to get married, the talk about being conservatives while meanwhile supporting Bush policies that accelerate the destruction of the environment and do nothing to encourage respect for God's creation or an ethos of awe and wonder to replace the ethos of turning nature into a commodity, the intense focus on preserving the powerless fetus and a culture of life without a concomitant commitment to medical research (stem cell research/HIV-AIDS), gun control and healthcare reform., the claim to care about others and then deny them a living wage and an ecologically sustainable environment --- all this is rightly perceived by liberals as a level of inconsistency that makes them dismiss as hypocrites the voters who have been moving to the Right.

Yet liberals, trapped in a long-standing disdain for religion and tone-deaf to the spiritual needs that underlie the move to the Right, have been unable to engage these voters in a serious dialogue. Rightly angry at the way that some religious communities have been mired in authoritarianism, racism, sexism and homophobia, the liberal world has developed such a knee-jerk hostility to religion that it has both marginalized those many people on the Left who actually do have spiritual yearnings and simultaneously refused to acknowledge that many who move to the Right have legitimate complaints about the ethos of selfishness in American life.

Imagine if John Kerry had been able to counter George Bush by insisting that a serious religious person would never turn his back on the suffering of the poor, that the bible's injunction to love one's neighbor required us to provide health care for all, and that the New Testament's command to "turn the other cheek" should give us a predisposition against responding to violence with violence.

Imagine a Democratic Party that could talk about the strength that comes from love and generosity and applied that to foreign policy and homeland security.

Imagine a Democratic Party that could talk of a New Bottom Line, so that American institutions get judged efficient, rational and productive not only to the extent that they maximize money and power, but also to the extent that they maximize people's capacities to be loving and caring, ethically and ecologically sensitive, and capable of responding to the universe with awe and wonder.

Imagine a Democratic Party that could call for schools to teach gratitude, generosity, caring for others, and celebration of the wonders that daily surround us! Such a Democratic Party, continuing to embrace its agenda for economic fairness and multi-cultural inclusiveness, would have won in 2004 and can win in the future. (Please don't tell me that this is happening outside the Democratic Party in the Greens or in other leftie groups --- because except for a few tiny exceptions it is not! I remember how hard I tried to get Ralph Nader to think and talk in these terms in 2000, and how little response I got substantively from the Green Party when I suggested reformulating their excessively politically correct policy orientation in ways that would speak to this spiritual consciousness. The hostility of the Left to spirituality is so deep, in fact, that when they hear us in Tikkun talking this way they often can't even hear what we are saying ---- so they systematically mis-hear it and say that we are calling for the Left to take up the politics of the Right, which is exactly the opposite of our point --- speaking to spiritual needs actually leads to a more radical critique of the dynamics of corporate capitalism and corporate globalization, not to a mimicking of right-wing policies).

If the Democrats were to foster a religions/spiritual Left, they would no longer pick candidates who support preemptive wars or who appease corporate power. They would reject the cynical realism that led them to pretend to be born-again militarists, a deception that fooled no one and only revealed their contempt for the intelligence of most Americans. Instead of assuming that most Americans are either stupid or reactionary, a religious Left would understand that many Americans who are on the Right actually share the same concern for a world based on love and generosity that underlies Left politics, even though lefties often hide their value attachments.

Yet to move in this direction, many Democrats would have to give up their attachment to a core belief: that those who voted for Bush are fundamentally stupid or evil. Its time they got over that elitist self-righteousness and developed strategies that could affirm their common humanity with those who voted for the Right. Teaching themselves to see the good in the rest of the American public would be a critical first step in liberals and progressives learning how to teach the rest of American society how to see that same goodness in the rest of the people on this planet. It is this spiritual lesson --- that our own well-being depends on the well-being of everyone else on the planet and on the well-being of the earth --- a lesson rooted deeply in the spiritual wisdom of virtually every religion on the planet, that could be the center of a revived Democratic Party.

Yet to take that seriously, the Democrats are going to have to get over the false and demeaning perception that the Americans who voted for Bush could never be moved to care about the well being of anyone but themselves. That transformation in the Democrats would make them into serious contenders.

The last time Democrats had real social power was when they linked their legislative agenda with a spiritual politics articulated by Martin Luther King. We cannot wait for the reappearance of that kind of charasmatic leader to begin the process of rebuilding a spiritual/religious Left.

Rabbi Michael Lerner is national co-chair (with Cornel West and Susannah Heschel) of The Tikkun Community, an interfaith organization that seeks to build on the political vision articulated above and more fully explained in their Core Vision which you can read at Tikkun.org; editor of TIKKUN, a bimonthly Jewish Critique of Politics, Culture and Society, author of Spirit Spirit Matters: Global Healing and the Wisdom of the Soul, and rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue in San Francisco.

The Democrats Need a Spiritual Left by Rabbi Michael Lerner

United Church of Christ declares boycott victory

From UCC-supported boycott ends victoriously in North Carolina:

The UCC is being credited in part for securing a significant victory for impoverished farm workers in North Carolina.

On Sept. 16, a five-year boycott of the Mt. Olive Pickle Company ended with a union-contract signing held at Community UCC in Raleigh, N.C., a staunch supporter of the farm worker campaign.

The three-way agreement ensures a 10 percent wage increase over three years for cucumber pickers whose farms sell to Mt. Olive, and, in response, the company will increase what it pays to growers by 10 percent. A new grievance procedure will protect farm workers who question injustices or abusive conditions, ensuring that workers can speak for themselves without fear of retaliation, says Edith Rasell, the UCC’s minister for labor relations and community economic development.

The agreement ends the practice of grower-initiated "blacklists"—a barrier that kept some workers from obtaining official guest worker visas. "This has been a longstanding problem because growers blacklisted workers who objected to abusive conditions," Rasell says.

Growers will be required to share more and better information about pesticides, and a three percent bonus will be paid by Mt. Olive to any farmer who offers workers compensation insurance coverage.

The agreement also includes a victory for religious freedom, because a "freedom to worship" clause guarantees workers at least one half-day off per week.

The agreement eventually could cover 8,000 to 10,000 workers in over 1,000 farms, making it the largest collective bargaining agreement in North Carolina history, says Baldemar Velasquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, the union that led the boycott.

Instituted in March 1999, the boycott was endorsed by the UCC General Synod only four months later, making the UCC the first national denomination to offer its support. Moreover, the UCC is widely credited for leveraging additional religious support.

At the UCC’s urging, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the National Council of Churches endorsed the boycott in 2003 and the United Methodist Church signed on earlier this year.

"The UCC was a very key player because they were the first national denomination to endorse the boycott," Velasquez told United Church News. "To us that was very key to have that spiritual authority endorsing the issue. It’s not any one thing, but [the religious community’s support] was a major source of irritation to them."