I’m glad you pointed that out. Until you did I was wondering how The most fundamentalist church in my town could be connected with those commercials about accepting everyone.
Both. We are searching for a new church, as the “America is under attack from evil, queer, feminist, non-Christmas celebrating liberals who caused 9/11 and will cauuse us all doooooooooom” thing that our former church was bandying about on a far too frequent basis is extremely offensive. We are Christians, and are looking for a Christian church, but one that’s more interested in helping Christians to live a more Christian (i.e. Christ-like not fundy nutjob) life than railing against people who “aren’t our kind.”
Right now I’m focusing on the UCC. I’m concerned that it may be a little too loosey-goosey. We are planning to visit a UCC church this coming Sunday.
We (Mr. TeaElle and myself, with our kids who are still too young to understand much of anything except that they know that they like music) went to two Christmas Eve services, one at a United Methodist church and one at a United Presbyterian church and both not only seemed a little over the top with inclusive language and pastors with that “And now I’ll speak in a floaty, airy voice that makes me sound as though I’m sighing as I speak” method of delivering their messages. The thing that ripped it for me is that both were using hymnals which changed the traditional Christmas hymn “Good Christian Men Rejoice” to “Good Christian Souls Rejoice” which was just too durn much.
If that’s what we may have to look forward to at the UCC, it’s not going to float our collective boats.
As time progresses, I will, undoubtedly, ask for anecdotal experiences from members of other denominations, particularly Episcopalians, though the current church divide over Bishop Robinson’s ordination and the emphasis on liturgy and ritual aren’t necessarily my cup of tea. We’ll see.
I think I’d probably be happiest if I started my own church.
So let me get this straight, TeaElle. You’re looking for a church which is open, accepting and tollerant and which thinks exactly like you do down to issues of which lyrics are used in Christmas carols? 
If you find one like that, let me know, because it’s what I’m looking for, too! 
No, I’m looking for a church which is open and accepting without being so politically correct that centuries old songs and prayers have to be changed lest anyone get bent out of shape. There’s a difference, IMO, in extending Christ’s love to everyone who seeks it and playing semantics games to pander to extreme sexual politics positions.
Like I said, I’d probably be happiest creating my own church, but we’ll have to see what the atmosphere is like at the local UCC and other churches we’re considering.
Yeah, there were a couple of people confused about it in a Pit thread about the bouncer commercial.
In my experience with my grandma’s UCC congregation, which is fairly limited, they’re almost too “Rah rah! We’re LIBERAL!” for me – and I’m sort of UU and sort of vaguely pagan, so I’m not exactly religiously conservative myself. However, they are indeed very accepting, though I could do without all the gender-neutral hymns and whatnot.
I know their numbers have been going down for a while now, and they’ve gotten a lot of publicity out of the ad controversy, and I wish them well. I think it’s more than time for mainstream Christianity to say, “Hey, we’re here too!”
If there is more than one UCC in your area, visit them all (if you have the time). When I was church shopping, after I went to the UCCs and ELCAs (for much the same reason that I think you’re looking into the UCC) and found them to be very different, depending on the congregations.
I know what you mean. I’m ok with inclusive Bible translations and inclusive language in prayers. I don’t care what gender my pastor is. But it’s “Born to raise the sons of earth” thank-you-very-much.
The newest UCC hymnal uses very inclusive langauge. There was a big hubbub about it when they came out. The congregation I was with decided to get the new hymnals but to keep the old ones, too. They use the old (red) hymnals for the advent season and the new ones when they want to sing Jesus Loves Me in 18 different languages. And mostly pull from both the rest of the time.
I’m something of a traditionalist, so I don’t disagree too much. (Though personally, I’d rather change the hymns and keep the prayers than change the prayers and keep the hymns, if it’s one or the other. The UMC keeps “Father” in the Lord’s Prayer and the Eucharistic Prayer, so I’m happy!) I understand the reasons for wanting to change them though, and I do want to be as welcoming and inclusive as possible (without being silly). Besides, the fact is that any denomination without enough folks to the left of me to get the songs changed probably doesn’t have much of a left wing at all. If I don’t want to be the most liberal person in my church, I have to accept that some people will be more liberal than me (though they really have to work at it!), and have silly, PC positions. Right now, the UMC is listing way to far to the right for me to start objecting to anything that makes the church more liberal and welcoming, no matter how misguided I might think it is!