Tell Me About the United Church of Christ

In My Humble Opinion
1

Having read a great deal about the recent fracas when CBS and NBC refused to air a United Church of Christ commercial because it made it clear that the church was welcoming of all people, including gays, I’m curious about this particular denomination.

Are there any UCC Dopers? I know that there are several denominations that use the “Church of Christ” name and that they’re very different from one another and have widely varied beliefs, so I’m trying to sort out the differences and learn more about this particular (apparently) open and accepting church.

Yes, I have checked out the UCC website, I’m looking for personal, anecdotal info.

2

I’m reposting my response from a journal entry:

A United Church of Christ church was a haven to me in my teenage years, after having to deal with a much more strict church while growing up. My parents went to this previous church, a Dutch Reformed (Calvinist) one, because that was the denomination they were raised as, and it was what they knew. A lot of their teachings, including the fire-and-brimstone preaching and the heavy emphasis on predestination, really messed with my young head. Instead of listening, I read the Bible through a number of times, seeking to escape the sermons. I think finally the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day sermons (women belong in the home, wives should be subservient to their husbands) finally got to my sister and I enough where we protested to our parents, and this time they listened. They were very liberal considering their upbringing, and agreed with our complaint.

We checked out a UCC church that I’d become familiar with through friends of mine. They’d invited me along on summer “field trips”, checking out things like the University of Chicago’s museum of Middle Eastern artifacts (to see the history of the region represented in the Bible), or the gorgeous Ba’hai temple in a Chicago suburb, both for the architecture and the religious knowledge. I was thrilled at the difference. My old church debated the concept of allowing women to become deacons in the church - it was quite controversial to them. This new denomination, I learned, not only had women pastors, but also gay and lesbian pastors - homosexuality was condemned as a sin in my old church, using the Sodom and Gomorrah story improperly as many Christian churches do. They also will perform commitment ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples. (IIRC, they do not condemn abortion, though I could be wrong on that.) A hymn that we sung one Sunday rather poetically taught that evolution and the Big Bang and all that happened, but that God essentially triggered the Big Bang. Mostly, it was a more warm and loving place, one that rather than condemning humanity for sinfulness, tried to provide gentle guidance through an imperfect world for imperfect people.

It is an extremely tolerant and open denomination. Like all organizations, this may vary between locations, of course. I’ve seen a number of friends weigh UCC vs. Unitarian Universalism, as both have reputations for openness. Typically their decision hinges on whether they still consider themselves Christian or not, as UCC is a Christian church while UU is more of a (from what I’ve seen, I’m not UU) philosophy group.

I’ve attended sermons at UCC churches only sporadically over recent years, but it was enough for my Catholicism-dissatisfied husband to speak favorably of the church and consider attending more frequently, even joining.

3

I saw a UCC inclusiveness commercial, though maybe not the same one, on histodicoverlerning :rolleyes: channel last night during a program about the apostles or possibly the one about the holy grail last night. There appeared to be a gay couple but you really had to keep an eye out for it so it may have been a different commercial.

Are you looking for a new church for yourself or do you want to keep the focus on UCC?

4

If it was the commercial that starts with another church employing bouncers, that’s the one in question. Like you said, it’s rather subtle.

5

No, this starts with a little girl doing the “this is the church” thing with her fingers. It continues with several othe people including one same sex pair saying “all the people.”

6

Unitarians believe all gods (and no gods) are really the same - aspects of the same is probably a better way of putting it. So you can have UU Buddhists and UU Christians and UU atheists and UU Pagans. But it isn’t a philosophy club. Like all religions it is a place to discover, explore and ritualize spiritualism - even if all UU don’t “worship” (many do). Universalist (the other U) refers to Universal Salvation…doesn’t matter what you believe, God doesn’t care if you’ve sung the right hymns or called Him by the right name, everyone gets “saved”.

UCC is a Christian church so you don’t have UCC Buddhists. Though, as I understand it, UCCs believe their salvation is through Jesus - others may have a different path. (i.e. Christians who don’t believe the heathen will burn).

Both (and most Quakers - who are almost always Christian) tend to have a very liberal and accepting world view. Hard to be a Conservative Republican in a UCC or UU congregation (though the “acceptance” means they will generally try their best to accept you - you’ll just be very different than most of the congretation…)

7

Sorry, that was a very abbreviated version of what I was going to say; I was typing in a hurry. From my discussions with UU friends, it seems the UU churches have a fair amount of variation between locations. Apparently the one in my town is decidedly humanist-oriented and is pretty much the “philosophy club” type of place, though accepting of course. A friend describes her UU church as attracting a lot of “Christianity-lite” and neo-pagan-of-the-month people. So if you don’t like a particular location, you might feel more comfortable at another.

Regarding Buddhism, it (also) has a wide variety of ways to practice it, and there have been good arguments made that at its center and as originally conceived, it was more of an agnostic (or non-religious) philosophy. Later followers tacked on a lot of the more religious aspects. In fact, I find it rather attractive and thus if I go back to UCC, I might well be a UCC Buddhist too. :wink: And yes, my experience (and best recollection of the doctrine) is that the UCC does not think those who don’t follow Jesus are condemned.

8

The “controversial” (?!?) UCC commercial does have two gay couples- two men holding hands who are stopped by the bouncers, and a female couple in the larger group at the end which represents UCC diversity.

Ironically, I saw the commercial on The ABC Family Channel during The Gilmore Girls, after The 700 Club (remember that The Family Channel was started by Pat Robertson who then sold it to Fox which then sold it to Disney-ABC).

9

There are at least two UCC commercials on the airwaves. The first is the one that we first heard about; the second (at least, to me; it’s the second one I saw) is the one with the little girl going the church/steeple thing.

10

I debated back and forth over whether I should post this, but what the hell. I am aware that there is more than one “Church of Christ”, but I’ve heard some pretty bad things about the one in my area that’s got a lot of members. A dear friend of mine’s now-ex-wife got mixed up with them, and at a point was told that she should either convert her husband or leave him. She left. (Not that that was the only thing wrong with the relationship, but still.) His description of their tactics all seems very creepy to me - bait and switch with “let’s see a movie, J” and when he got to the meeting point got an earnest “intervention” attempt, etc. If that isn’t a cult, I honestly don’t know what is. So like I said, I don’t know if it’s the same Church of Christ, and I do admire the inclusiveness on the TV commercial, and of course our local one could just be whacko, but I’ve heard more than one story from more than one person about profoundly creepy cultish practices from the CoC.

11

The Church of Christ and the UNITED Church of Christ are two very very different things, Zsophia, I can’t imagine UCCers pulling that sort of crap. The two churches are sort of polar opposites. The CofC is very very conservative, but the UCC is not. Not at all. Very liberal. And they’ve decided to speak up about it, which I am pleased about. Not all Christians are like the ones on the crazy preacher channels…

12

It’s a bit of a hijack, but the modern UU organization can’t really be understood in terms of its roots. Unitarianism and universalism are both Christian beliefs first and foremost, so they don’t really apply in a non-Christian organization*. There are seven principles which pretty much every UU agrees to, but that’s about it.

It’s not a philosophy group, as there are all the kinds of things you expect from a church–most notably services. It’s just not all Jesus all the time.

We now return to your thread on the UCC.

*Best way I could think of to phrase it. There are UU Christians, but they’re kind of rare, as many people turn to UUism when they’re running away from a bad experience at a Christian church.

13

Right, this is the one most of the networks did allow, which is very subtle and you really have to look closely to see the gay couples. The more ‘controversial’ “curch bouncers” one features exclusion not only of gay couples but of other people who “don’t fit”. Among many of the lame excuses of the major networks was that that one was an “advocacy ad” that portrayed other churches as doing something wrong (well, duuuuh…)
BTW, the UCC is a direct institutional descendant of the New England Puritans/Pligrims. My, how times change, eh?

14

I’m a UCC doper, actually. Feel free to fire away with the questions.

I joined UCC because I’m a Christian, was raised United Methodist, but didn’t particularly care for the pastor and atmosphere at the United Methodist church in my town. UCC as a denomination is indeed liberal. Our particular church, at least, is mostly very warm and welcoming. The national makes a point of welcoming gay and transgendered folks, and I’m pleased about that. We’re also cool with women pastors, another good point.

As a Christian with an Atheist husband, I can’t find many churches that would willingly accept me without asking me to convert my husband. For various reasons, that’s not a going concern for us. It’s also very important to me to worship in a church that accepts folks having different views, including the idea that there are many paths to salvation, Jesus being one (but not necessarily the only).

One of the interesting things about UCC is that the local church does not necessarily have to agree with the national. Ours doesn’t in certain respects; we’re more conservative than the national. If you’re thinking UCC, you might even want to attend a few different UCC churches. Some might be more liberal than others, and vice versa.

Mrs. Furthur

15

I was born and raised in the UCC. “Evangelical and Reformed” Congregational church, whatever that means. We had a lot of Germans at mine.
Considered to be one of the most liberal and socially tolerant of all Protestant churches. No fire and brimstone. I don’t remember any sermon discussing hell or damnation. No born again or Jeebus as your personal savior stuff. The church never gives me the creeps like other I’ve been to.

One of the few churched to support a woman’s right to choose.

Have had the same minister “Jay” at my church for nearly 30 years. I always considered him a hippy - and I mean that as a compliment. Active in social causes and in the community. When he’s not running marathons.

16

I think this is a very important point. I grew up in a UCC church and this was something that was always apparent to me. As a demoniation, they definitely support dialogue and discussion of issues. There’s a signficant spread in the views of individual congregations and that is encouraged by most districts / national. There are surely congregations that are uncomfortable with the current ad campaign but all of the UCC congregations I’ve interacted with will handle that discomfort by encouraging discussion within and among congregations. There are also, probably, some congregations that will consider parting from national over this issue. And there are probably a lot that fall somewhere in between.

I’ve drifted away from religion in general, but have very positive things to say about my experiences with a UCC church. The confirmation program at my church was a 2 year ordeal that, in retrospect, was exceptionally well done. For the first year, we’d focus on a different religion or christian denomination each month. We’d learn a bit about the history, attend a service or two, compare current beliefs / doctrine, etc. We covered Reform Judaism, Mennonite, Islam, Quaker, Moravian and probably another one or two. A month certainly isn’t enough time to become an expert on anything - but it did drive home the message that religion is pretty diverse and that’s a Good Thing. The second year was all focused on Christianity / UCC - we talked about the different sacraments and went through the Statement of Faith in gory gory detail. I remember on of our pastors saying that it might be a few years before any of us actually accepted / rejected the religion - but he wanted to make sure we had a clue what we were accepting or rejecting. That seems like a pretty reasonable perspective to me.

17

I belonged to a UCC church for more than a decade – I was even a trustee.

A couple of things to remember – while the doctrine is supposed to be similar, it’s pretty much left up to the individual churches what they do with it. So you’ll find some congregations that are old-line “Protestant” and some that are so far out there they leave the Unitarians in their tail lights.

And with any group that encourages a diversity of ideas, there’s going to be a lot of friction. I remember one minister telling the story of the police being called to break up a disturbance at a congregational meeting. In some cases it means the loudest voice wins.

Eventually I left because of all the fighting. It’s one thing for a congregation to argue over abortion or gay rights, but when they start fighting over traditional hymns vs. modern music, that’s carrying diversity too far.

18

United Church of Christ = Congregationalists, right?

19

My dad is a UCC minister and has been since before I was born. He’s a pretty crappy minister and all, so he never had a really big church, but with two divorces and one pretty quick remarriage it didn’t ruin his career. So it seems to be a pretty accepting and inclusive denomination. Yes, they are Congregationalists although some Congregationalists are not UCC. Dad has only taken one church that wasn’t (although he’s had some Methodist churches “on the side” when he’s had to have more than one church at a time). I VERY rarely go to church, but it seems nice and loosey goosey. The one near me is a little annoying in that they overdue the gender neutral language in prayer and song.

20

That or “Unitarians Considering Christ.” :smiley:

Seriously, the Congregationalists are one of, I think, four groups that merged to become the UCC sometime in the 20th century. I think the other major group was Reformed.

Also worth noting, one of the more conservative students at my seminary (also a really nice guy) is a UCC pastor. Tolerance obviously goes both ways in the denomination, which is a good thing, IMO.