*Sightings* 3/20/08
The Perils of Publicity
-- Daniel Sack
They say in this age of celebrity that there's no such thing as bad
publicity. Thanks to the current presidential campaign, two American
religious groups will find out if that's true.
The now-suspended campaign of Mitt Romney thrust his religious tradition,
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, into an unexpected
spotlight. The Mormon church is one of America's fastest-growing but
least-known religious communities. Many Americans had heard rumors about
the church—about polygamy, special garments, and baptizing the dead—and
assumed that it was a secretive cult. Romney's campaign, however, led them
to take another look. The candidate himself talked little about his
church,
but other Mormons used the opportunity to shed light on their tradition,
depicting the church as normal, with unique beliefs but not cult-like.
They
most likely did not convince the most dedicated anti-Mormons, but did
introduce their church to a genuinely curious country.
The United Church of Christ now finds itself in an unaccustomed and more
complex situation. The snowballing campaign of Barack Obama, member of a
UCC congregation in Chicago, has thrust the denomination into the
rumor-driven blogosphere and gotten it into legal hot water.
With its roots in Boston Puritanism and early German immigrant
communities,
the UCC is well-rooted in the American Protestant mainline. It was the
established church in much of colonial New England; soon dwarfed by
faster-growing denominations, it retained the aura of establishment, often
the most socially prominent church in many communities. Its membership
included lawyers, judges, governors, and two presidents. As such its
every
gesture was reported in the press.
Like all of the mainline denominations, however, the United Church of
Christ
has seen its stature decline in recent decades. Its membership has
dropped
and its social prominence has faded as other churches have taken the
spotlight. Despite its long heritage and rich diversity, the UCC has
seemed
less newsworthy in comparison to televangelists and megachurches.
Again, like all of the mainline denominations, the UCC has worked hard in
recent years to reclaim its place on the stage. At its biennial General
Synods the denomination passes statements on ethical and social issues,
including everything from marriage to the Middle East. Those resolutions
generally get press coverage, however, only when they lead to conflict
within the church. In recent years the UCC has been more active in
shaping
its own message, with an advertising campaign showing it as a welcoming
alternative to exclusive denominations. One new initiative reaches out to
scientists. Several years ago, after Spongebob Squarepants was attacked
by
some evangelical groups for supposedly promoting homosexuality, the
denomination's president was pictured greeting the animated porifera. The
UCC markets itself as "people of God's extravagant welcome."
Its suddenly most prominent member represents that image. Ever since his
appearance on the national stage in 2004, the UCC has proudly claimed
Obama.
He belongs to Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, the
denomination's largest congregation; Trinity's recently-retired pastor,
Jeremiah Wright, has long been Obama's mentor. The new senator was a
keynote speaker at the denomination's fiftieth anniversary celebrations
last
summer. While Obama is not a cradle UCC member—he joined Trinity in his
mid-twenties—he exemplifies the UCC's self-image: young, intelligent,
progressive, and multi-cultural.
As with the Mormons, however, having a member run for president creates
both
opportunities and challenges. Reporters investigating Obama's membership
at
Trinity have discovered the congregation's strong Afrocentric identity
("Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian"), leading some in the
blogosphere to tag the church as racist and extremist. Others have
focused
on short excerpts from Wright's sermons which appear anti-American. Some
have connected Wright and Farrakhan to UCC resolutions about the
Middle Eastconflict, calling the entire denomination anti-semitic.
Recently the United Church of Christ has learned that it is under
investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS is concerned that
the denomination may have engaged in electioneering by inviting Obama to
address last summer's General Synod, thus endangering its tax-exempt
status.
The UCC insists that it was exercising its rights to free speech, adding
that Obama was not yet a declared candidate when they invited him.
The IRS investigation is just beginning, and there will be a lot more
written about the Obama-Wright-Farakhan connection. For the moment,
however, one conclusion stands out: In our intensely mediated world,
publicity is hard to control. Religious organizations may welcome the
attention generated by prominent members, but in a day of twenty-four news
cycles and anonymous blogging, that attention creates as many challenges
as
opportunities.
Daniel Sack is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and
administrator of the Border Crossing Project at the University of Chicago
Divinity School.
----------
The March issue of the Martin Marty Center's Religion and Culture Web
Forum
presents an essay by Jerome Copulsky, Assistant Professor and Director of
Judaic Studies at Goucher College: "The Last Prophet: Spinoza and the
Political Theology of Moses Hess." Commentary from Rabbi Shai Held
(Jewish
Theological Seminary of America), Leah Hochman (University of Florida),
Jeffrey Israel (University of Chicago) and Ben Sax (University of Chicago)
will be available on the forum's discussion board,where readers may also
post responses.
Access this month's forum at:
http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/webforum/index.shtml
Access the discussion board at:
https://cforum.uchicago.edu/viewforum.php?f=1
----------
*Sightings* comes from the Martin Marty
Center<http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/>at
the University of Chicago
Divinity School.
Attribution
Columns may be quoted or republished in full, with attribution to the
author
of the column, *Sightings*, and the Martin Marty Center at the University
of
Chicago Divinity School.
--
Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/
(20,000 articles 4000 humor)
Blogs - http://rowlandsblogs.blogspot.com/
Justice for Dawn Rowan - http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/
Funny Jokes and Pics - http://funnyjokesnpics.blogspot.com/
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