We can’t let the United Church commit suicide
There's something morbid about watching the United Church of Canada (UCC) douse itself with gasoline and prepare to light a match. That's what Canada's largest Protestant denomination seems determined to do, judging by a recent conference supposedly looking at the denomination's future. This would be a tragedy for the Christian faith in Canada.
As a UCC member myself and board chair of a staunchly traditional UCC church, I have to admit to being a bit biased when it comes to the United Church leadership and its guilt-tinged naval gazing. Yes, it's hard for us, the UCC remnant who still believes that Jesus Christ is Lord, to take the church's leadership seriously when it comes to yet another hand-wringing conference.
The United Church of Canada has made an art out of believing in nothing except perhaps in process. Its staff exists to serve its committees and its committees exist to meet with staff. It's all about soulless process and bland statements on whatever is the latest left-wing cause.
The UCC's touchy-feely, God-free theology does nothing to address the hunger for the spirituality that Canadians tell pollsters they feel. It shamelessly avoids preaching core Christian beliefs for fear of offending or being seen as intolerant.
Normally, any organization looking at its future would be focused on finding ways in which to survive, or at least to start pulling out of its nosedive. But not the UCC. The four-day Church-sponsored conference held last month opened with a session entitled, "Shouldn't the United Church Just Throw in the Towel?"
While UCC leadership argued that it was trying to be provocative with its opening session, my own minister and (ironically) a panelist on the session, Connie denBok, rightly pointed out, "even asking the question in this way shows we are acting as if we are a human organization rather than a God organization. It is the [national leadership] that is profoundly flawed with no strong sense of purpose or direction or destiny."
The real key to understanding the rot at the heart of the denomination is in the first word of the session title, "shouldn't." The UCC seems to be assuming that the denomination is as good as dead—"Why shouldn't we die?" It's akin to a soldier marching off to war, hands held high in surrender.
So why shouldn't the UCC give up the ghost? Why not let Baptists, Pentecostals, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox or any other Christian group that still believes in traditional faith just march on? After all, isn't the United Church of Canada the same denomination that's fought hard to jettison traditional Christian teaching such as the divinity of Christ?
There are several good reasons why Christianity in Canada will be worse off if the UCC stays on its kamikaze course:
1) The idea of a united denomination is worth fighting for. The Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists who came together in 1925 understood that Christians have a lot they can agree on, provided we stay true to the foundational truths of the faith.
2) The UCC's death will encourage those who want Christianity to go away. Aside from Canada's Catholics and maybe the Anglicans, no other group represents Christianity to Canadians like the United Church does. It's not just sheer numbers, but the UCC's traditional dedication to both intellectualism and social action that gives it a profile on Parliament Hill as well as the newsrooms across Canada.
3) Mainline Protestantism's death march to oblivion will hurt the ability of Christians to speak to our political, economic and social leaders. We need Anglican, Catholic and even evangelical groups that are increasingly working together to speak out above the myriad of voices, both secular and religious, fighting to be heard in Canada.
The UCC is part of our history. Yes, there's a lot to be ashamed about in the UCC's past—residential schools being a prime example. But United Church leaders have also made great contributions to our political and social development, particularly on the social justice side. Losing your history is losing your identity.
I'm tired of defending our faith in the face of church leaders who think Jesus was a great teacher but not the "way, the truth and the life." Those who denounce Christians don't need help from our own leaders.
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