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Wednesday, October 26, 2005

UCCTruths is reporting:

UCC member blocked from UCC-sponsored divestment conference

Although the United Church of Christ advertises that all are welcome to church, apparently the same doesn't hold true for UCC-sponsored events. Dexter Van Zile, a UCC member from Boston (and regular editorial contributor to UCCtruths.com), was prevented from attending the UCC-sponsored divestment conference being held this week in Toronto. Van Zile, who works for the David Project - a group dedicated to promoting a fair and honest understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict - was denied entrance because conference organizers (Sabeel) determined his "aims and work to be in opposition to Morally Responsible Investment" (the new politically-correct words for divestment).

According to Van Zile, "this proves is that the leadership of the United Church of Christ is not really interested in an honest discussion about effective strategies that may lead to a lasting peace in the Middle-east - a peace that would give security to both Israeli's and Palestinian's. The whole point of this event is to encourage people to offer an anti-Israel narrative to churches. Why is the UCC co-sponsoring this event, unless of course, the leadership in Cleveland is on board with this agenda. I've been to numerous Sabeel conferences and I can assure you, Palestinian suffering will be blamed entirely on Israel, Arab terror will be given a pass and the failure of Palestinian leadership to protect the rights of Christians will be ignored. In other words, the narrative about the Arab/Israeli conflict offered by Sabeel will be indistinguishable from the story told by our church leaders. This narrative can't withstand any scrutiny, which is why the Sabeel event is closed to the public and UCC members".

My apologies to UCCTruths for quoting the complete item, but I didn't see any way to do a permalink and don't want this to slip away.

This is scandalous as the UCC, as I understand their structure, is Congregational in nature. That is, there is theoretically space for a wide range of views, and no single Pope for dictating the line on acceptable teaching. There is supposed to be space for divestment pro and con in the UCC. The only reason to bar Mr. Van Zile that I can see would be if he were a dangerous person, or known not to conduct himself appropriately. Anyone who has met Dexter, or read his writings -- often linked to here -- knows that this could not possibly be the case. The only reason he could possibly have been barred would have been because he's known to be someone who does not support the conference's orthodoxy.

Keep an eye on UCCTruths for updates.

5 Comments

Solomon,
Email me Dexter's email addy.
I once spoke with him via email but can't find it. Thanks.

For those who don't know ... and I suspect that's most who would read here:

The UCC is a far fringe denomination that I, as a main line denominational evangelical Christian, would label a cult. They have strayed far from accepted doctrine and have in effect denied Christ.

They have gone off into deep apostasy and are in no way worthy of the appelation Christian.

May Satan teach them not to blaspheme.

here i am

I went to a UCC-affiliated college for a year, and they had apparently shared info about a more conservative student with adjuncts and other students so that people were stalking the student around on the internet where they posted political opinions at message forums. This student wasn't using a campus computer, was not on any academic sites like Facebook, and so these creepy UCC-affiliated people had no reason to be stalking the student around.

And they were bringing up topics in class, sometimes quoting almost verbatim, just to creep out the student so that student knew they were being snooped and spied one.

This church sounds like a creepy cult if they are anything like their affiliated colleges. Oh, and we kept getting political emails (lots of politicized stuff). I totally transferred schools.

Just to add, the UCC-affiliated college was trashing President Bush while buying flowers for an unwed mother who gave birth to an illegitimate child even though she was still with the father in a relationship. They are nice to unwed mothers who have a guy around and who they should have gotten to marry them prior to having the man's child, but if you are more for the mainstream agenda that believes the ideal family is married, then you get harassed verbally by other students? These liberals are upside down and backwards. Since when is illegitimacy something to praise and send flowers over?? I'd send a card out of politeness and that's it, but the school spent money on flowers to send over! Oh my goodness. Very sleazy, very radical left-wing bunch these UCC-affiliated types.

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