Oh good, more stupid political shit.
Many of my friends know that I was brought up in a very liberal church denomination called the United Church of Christ. My dad's a (now retired) minister of the UCC, my mom is also an ordained minister of Christian education. Though I no longer believe in what I would call the spiritual or faith aspect, I have a tremendous appreciation for the values they instilled in me... it was never a question of "our" religion being the only way to believe, I always felt the most important aspect was how you treated people and tried to live your life.
The UCC tends to very open and accepting, up to and including welcoming gays and lesbians not only in the church but also in the ministry, and they have been for decades.
All of this is a little set up and perspective for those that may not know me well, and to give context to this email which my dad forwarded to me tonight:
February 26, 2008
To: Clergy in the Wisconsin Conference
Re: News of IRS investigation of the UCC
Dear Colleagues:
Grace, mercy and peace be with you all in the name of the one whose gift is peace, Jesus Christ.
Greetings from Albuquerque and the annual consultation of the Conference Ministers of the UCC. It's a bit warmer here, but not so warm that you should have any feelings of jealousy.
I am writing this quick note to you to alert you to news that is currently on the UCC website and will likely be in some newspapers tomorrow.
On Monday of this week the Internal Revenue Service notified the United Church of Christ that the IRS had reason to believe that the UCC was in violation of its tax exempt status, because of the church's invitation to Senator Barack Obama to address last June's General Synod. The church has 15 days to respond to the series of violations that the IRS alleges.
As you may recall, before inviting Senator Obama, the church went through an extensive and careful negotiation with his staff to make clear that the invitation was to him as a member of the UCC who was a public figure and who was being asked to reflect on his faith and on the intersection of faith and public life. There was no campaigning in the convention center, and Senator Obama's speech, at least to my ears, kept to the theme of faith and public life. You can read his speech on the UCC website and judge for yourself.
The Senator was invited, because he was a prominent figure who was a UCC member. There were a number of other prominent persons who also spoke, because they were UCC church members.
I wanted to write to you tonight, so that you were not caught off-guard by this news, which has been released by the UCC, rather than let others offer the initial interpretation. The church is confident of its position and had extensive legal counsel in even inviting the Senator. The church is securing appropriate legal counsel and will cooperate fully with the investigation and will answer each of the allegations. These responses must be made in the next 15 days.
I will let you know more when I have some additional information. For now, you may look for the UCC statement on the website: www.ucc.org.
You may have people getting very anxious in your congregation. Please respond with patience and a non-anxious presence. The church is cooperating and is confident of its position. I will provide you with 'talking points' when I have them. You may want to go back to the points I sent to you around Synod time last summer, if you still have them, because they will tell you of the care of the church in this matter.
Be patient. It may be some time before there is resolution, and we will just have to wait for this process to run its course. When I have more information I will forward it to you, but, for now, I just wanted you to hear this news early from me (though some of you will undoubtedly have read it on the web).
Wishing you many blessings and every good measure of hope.
David S. Moyer
Conference Minister
Wisconsin Conference UCC
What. The. Fuck.
Does anyone else read this and have a dreadful sense that the cold, clammy hand of Karl Rove was at work here? Yeah, yeah, he "retired"... but it seems unlikely that would stop him from working on this kind of underhanded shit. If anything, he's probably free to orchestrate things like this with even less risk of scrutiny.
Please understand, I feel the rules about separation of church and state are necessary and vital. (I know my parents do also and I believe most members of the UCC do, as well.) If someone at the IRS with genuine intent thought that there may have been something wrong with their actions, was there no intermediate option available? Perhaps they could have contacted the denomination, brought up the concerns to see what they'd have to say. Perhaps then they would have found out all of the legal research and work that was done to make sure they were being totally legal and above board. Perhaps they would have still felt there were concerns that warranted this sort of investigation. Either way, this would have been a rational first step. Ah, but this would have required that these questions were being brought up by someone whose intent was grounded in genuine legal concern and not malicious political maneuvering.
But given the lengths to which the UCC went to address the issue, it seems likely that this is an attempt to draw negative attention to Obama and harass the denomination to which he belongs, simply to create further distraction to the candidate and negativity in the media. I will be tremendously glad to see this administration gone and the prospect of a McCain still makes me nervous. There was a time where I thought that McCain would really be his own man if he were president, though I certainly would have disagreed with him on many viewpoints. Call it knee-jerk if you will, but I no longer trust that he can totally avoid the influence of these powers in his party who desperately want to hold onto power, any power, at all costs.
And hey, I could be totally wrong, maybe it's all an innocent, run-of-the-mill check of a situation to make sure there was no impropriety. Yeah, right.
The UCC tends to very open and accepting, up to and including welcoming gays and lesbians not only in the church but also in the ministry, and they have been for decades.
All of this is a little set up and perspective for those that may not know me well, and to give context to this email which my dad forwarded to me tonight:
February 26, 2008
To: Clergy in the Wisconsin Conference
Re: News of IRS investigation of the UCC
Dear Colleagues:
Grace, mercy and peace be with you all in the name of the one whose gift is peace, Jesus Christ.
Greetings from Albuquerque and the annual consultation of the Conference Ministers of the UCC. It's a bit warmer here, but not so warm that you should have any feelings of jealousy.
I am writing this quick note to you to alert you to news that is currently on the UCC website and will likely be in some newspapers tomorrow.
On Monday of this week the Internal Revenue Service notified the United Church of Christ that the IRS had reason to believe that the UCC was in violation of its tax exempt status, because of the church's invitation to Senator Barack Obama to address last June's General Synod. The church has 15 days to respond to the series of violations that the IRS alleges.
As you may recall, before inviting Senator Obama, the church went through an extensive and careful negotiation with his staff to make clear that the invitation was to him as a member of the UCC who was a public figure and who was being asked to reflect on his faith and on the intersection of faith and public life. There was no campaigning in the convention center, and Senator Obama's speech, at least to my ears, kept to the theme of faith and public life. You can read his speech on the UCC website and judge for yourself.
The Senator was invited, because he was a prominent figure who was a UCC member. There were a number of other prominent persons who also spoke, because they were UCC church members.
I wanted to write to you tonight, so that you were not caught off-guard by this news, which has been released by the UCC, rather than let others offer the initial interpretation. The church is confident of its position and had extensive legal counsel in even inviting the Senator. The church is securing appropriate legal counsel and will cooperate fully with the investigation and will answer each of the allegations. These responses must be made in the next 15 days.
I will let you know more when I have some additional information. For now, you may look for the UCC statement on the website: www.ucc.org.
You may have people getting very anxious in your congregation. Please respond with patience and a non-anxious presence. The church is cooperating and is confident of its position. I will provide you with 'talking points' when I have them. You may want to go back to the points I sent to you around Synod time last summer, if you still have them, because they will tell you of the care of the church in this matter.
Be patient. It may be some time before there is resolution, and we will just have to wait for this process to run its course. When I have more information I will forward it to you, but, for now, I just wanted you to hear this news early from me (though some of you will undoubtedly have read it on the web).
Wishing you many blessings and every good measure of hope.
David S. Moyer
Conference Minister
Wisconsin Conference UCC
What. The. Fuck.
Does anyone else read this and have a dreadful sense that the cold, clammy hand of Karl Rove was at work here? Yeah, yeah, he "retired"... but it seems unlikely that would stop him from working on this kind of underhanded shit. If anything, he's probably free to orchestrate things like this with even less risk of scrutiny.
Please understand, I feel the rules about separation of church and state are necessary and vital. (I know my parents do also and I believe most members of the UCC do, as well.) If someone at the IRS with genuine intent thought that there may have been something wrong with their actions, was there no intermediate option available? Perhaps they could have contacted the denomination, brought up the concerns to see what they'd have to say. Perhaps then they would have found out all of the legal research and work that was done to make sure they were being totally legal and above board. Perhaps they would have still felt there were concerns that warranted this sort of investigation. Either way, this would have been a rational first step. Ah, but this would have required that these questions were being brought up by someone whose intent was grounded in genuine legal concern and not malicious political maneuvering.
But given the lengths to which the UCC went to address the issue, it seems likely that this is an attempt to draw negative attention to Obama and harass the denomination to which he belongs, simply to create further distraction to the candidate and negativity in the media. I will be tremendously glad to see this administration gone and the prospect of a McCain still makes me nervous. There was a time where I thought that McCain would really be his own man if he were president, though I certainly would have disagreed with him on many viewpoints. Call it knee-jerk if you will, but I no longer trust that he can totally avoid the influence of these powers in his party who desperately want to hold onto power, any power, at all costs.
And hey, I could be totally wrong, maybe it's all an innocent, run-of-the-mill check of a situation to make sure there was no impropriety. Yeah, right.