wfn.org | Rel. Rt. telecon video available

[powellb@ucc.org]

Religious Right teleconference video

Oct. 15, 1996

United Church of Christ
Office of Communication

Hans Holznagel
(216) 736-2214
holznagh@ucc.org

Nancy Erikson
(216) 736-2200
eriksonn@ucc.org

On the web:  http://www.ucc.org

Don't just gripe about Religious Right; get active,
national panel urges mainline church in new videotape

      CLEVELAND -- Nationally known panelists such as former
U.N. ambassador Andrew Young, radio host Ray Suarez and U.S.
Rep. Maxine Waters tell mainline church members in a new
videotape that they should speak out publicly if they want to
challenge the political power and viewpoints of the Religious
Right.
      And churches can take political action in a number of
legal ways, according to the video?s companion written
materials, receiving wide distribution in the 1.5-million-
member United Church of Christ.
      "Freedom of Conscience and the Radical Religious Right:
is an 80-minute video recording of a Sept. 14 teleconference
that was beamed from People's Congregational, UCC, in
Washington, D.C., to more than 1,000 United Church of Christ
members who gathered at "downlink" sites around the country.
      It features four panelists -- Waters, D-Calif.; Suarez,
host of National Public Radio's daily "Talk of the Nation";
the Rev. John Beckman, a Lutheran minister who heads Bread for
the World; and the Rev. Timothy Crater of the National
Association of Evangelicals.  Young, the well-known leader in
the civil-rights movement and U.S. government who is also a
UCC minister, was moderator.

      Suarez says moderate and liberal Christians have allowed
the Religious Right to fill a vacuum and have failed to
respond in an effective, organized way.
      "Many Christian denominations who are not at peace with
this kind of public Christianity have left the field open and
then complained that the people they don't agree with are
winning the attention of the big institutions in the society,"
Suarez says.  "To sit home or to go to church on Sunday and
say, 'Gee, it really burns me that they call it The Christian
Coalition' -- well, what did you expect them to call it, 'A
Christian Coalition'?  They're grabbing the high ground in the
national debates over many of these issues just because the
ground has been left empty by many others who don't agree with
them."
      Noting statements by right-wing religious leaders in the
teleconference's opening video clips, Suarez adds:  "It's hard
for people in the news business to balance, or try to give the
appearance of balance, when there often is no balance to be
had.  There is no voice of similar amplitude meeting these
voices to say, 'No, there is another way for a Christian
person to look at this.'  So we cover what's there.  And
what's there is this."
      Young, agreeing that "our understanding of the gospel is
not being heard in the public arena," also warns mainline
Christians "not to castigate one group or another," adding,
"Tolerance is what we're after.  And if we want tolerance, we
have to begin by extending tolerance even to those with whom
we disagree."
      Crater, of the evangelicals' association, warns against
viewing all conservative Christians as extremists.  A "broad
community" of conservative Christians do not necessarily agree
with the most radical sentiments expressed by right-wing
leaders.  "On both the left on the right, you have zealots who
do intemperate things, extreme things, and sometimes leaders
on both sides say intemperate things," Crater says.  "But
there are millions of just plain Americans who are troubled by
abortion, troubled by things happening in the sexual realm. 
They don't hate; they simply disagree."
      "I agree we must be tolerant," Waters says.  "However,
just as we respect the voices we disagree with, those of us
who are very passionate on the other side of the issue have
got to help build the forces and voices and create the
platforms so that we can be heard.  So, yes, be tolerant, but
you?ve got to be very forceful about getting your side of the
story heard."
      The recently passed "welfare reform bill" comes up
several times in the video as an example of where the
religious right, which favored it, was vocal, powerful and
well-organized -- and where moderate and liberal Christians
who opposed it could have raised an alternative voice.
      "How does making more kids hungry, more families poor,
fit in with the Gospel?" asks Beckman.  "The poor are targets
because they are weak politically.  The Christian Coalition
has no serious program to reduce poverty.  They say nothing
about how the poor can be helped."  He urges progressive
Christians to join activists' networks, such as those offered
by the UCC, Bread for the World and others, to track issues,
get organized and make their voices heard in Washington and
elsewhere.
      The video features two local examples of where UCC
members and other mainline Christians have taken on
fundamentalist or extremist groups:
      * In Forest Grove, Ore., the right-wing Oregon Citizens
Alliance targeted the local school district, demanding that
textbooks mentioning religions other than Christianity be
abolished.  Mainline Christians took action with other
community groups to oppose the book ban and support the school
district.
      * In Billings, Mont., an anti-Semitic, white supremicist
group attacked schools where children had put up Hanukkah
decorations.  Christians across Billings responded by
displaying menorahs in their home windows in support of Jewish
people.
      Printed materials accompanying the video -- the same as
those used in UCC discussions around the country on Sept. 14 -
- tell local churches and individuals how they can take action
in local, state and federal politics.  Among other things,
they tell how to:
      * Avoid endangering a church's nonprofit "501(c)3"
      status.
      * Conduct a voter registration drive.
      * Hold a candidates' night at church.
      * Write letters to Congress and local officials
      about issues.
      * Become active in local political issues.

      They also include a theological reflection, "Jesus and
the Christian Vocation to Politeia," by the Rev. Dr. Stephen
Patterson, a professor at UCC-related Eden Theological
Seminary, St. Louis.
      The videotape, "Freedom of Conscience and the Radical
Religious Right," and accompanying printed materials, which
may be photocopied, are available for $25 from Office of
Communication, United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Ave.,
Cleveland, OH 44115-1100; telephone (216) 736-2226; fax (216)
736-2223.
      The United Church of Christ has more than 6,100
congregations in the United States and Puerto Rico.  It was
formed by the 1957 union of the Congregational Christian
Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
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