First up from the God Machine this week is a look at a new report from the Pew Forum for Religion and Public life, which as Jamelle Bouie noted, found some unexpected results when it came to evaluating the religiosity of the major-party presidential candidates.
The Church of Latter-Day Saints is still a mystery to many Americans, and there were fears that [Mitt] Romney's Mormonism would hurt him with voters unfamiliar with the religion. But the latest [Pew survey] suggests that Romney has nothing to worry about -- of the voters who know that Romney is a Mormon (60 percent), the vast majority say they are either comfortable with his faith (60 percent) or that it doesn't matter at all (21 percent). [...]
Indeed, of the two candidates, religion actually seems to be a bigger factor for President Obama.
Maddow Blog chart based on Pew Forum data
I put together this chart this morning, showing the percentage of Americans who falsely believe President Obama is a secret Muslim, broken down by self-identified political affiliation.
Overall, less than half of Americans (49%) overall, even after three-and-a-half years of Obama's presidency, can correctly identify his Christian faith, while 17% continue to believe he's a secret Muslim. But it's the GOP's far-right base that's throwing off the curve -- more than a third of them get it wrong.
What's more, note the trend -- after getting to watch the president over nearly four years, listening to his speeches in which he's talked about his Christian faith, watching him get inaugurated with his hand on a Christian Bible, more Americans believe Obama's a Muslim now than did so in October 2008, and the number of conservative Republicans who believe this has more than doubled. The more they learned about reality, the deeper they sank into their alternate reality.
The conventional wisdom was that Romney's Mormonism might pose a problem for him in 2012, but that's not the case -- Americans know he's a Mormon and don't care. With 100 days to go before the election, more voters say they're "uncomfortable" with Obama's religion than his rival's.
Also from the God Machine this week:
* Oops: "Mitt Romney is making a big push for the Jewish vote. In classic Romney (i.e., clueless) form, his campaign scheduled a trip to Israel on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av." Gershom Gorenberg added, "It seems no one on his staff checked a Jewish calendar" before scheduling his trip to Israel.
* A tough sentence for a tragic cover-up: "Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first Roman Catholic Church official in the United States to be convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision, was sentenced Tuesday to three to six years in prison." Lynn's efforts to cover up the sexual abuse of children spanned decades, and included shielding predatory priests, transferring them to unwary parishes, and lying to the public (thanks to reader R.P. for the tip).
* In the wake of Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-Minn.) anti-Muslim witch hunt, 42 religious and secular organizations joined together this week to send a letter to lawmakers, condemning the effort. The signatories included the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The letter comes a week after a similar condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League.
Leave a Comment:
"[A]fter getting to watch the president over nearly four years, listening to his speeches in which he's talked about his Christian faith, watching him get inaugurated with his hand on a Christian Bible, more Americans believe Obama's a Muslim now than did so in October 2008, and the number of conservative Republicans who believe this has more than doubled. The more they learned about reality, the deeper they sank into their alternate reality."
I suspect there are eschatalogical reasons for this among the fundamentalist crowd. They see Obama talking about his Christian faith, but what they hear is Shakespeare's line from The Merchant of Venice: "The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose." The crowd that's read Left Behind expect that the End Times are imminent, they expect a foreign Anti-Christ that says all the right things to con the world while masking his true (and devilish) intentions, and when they hear Obama saying Christian things and trying to build a bridge to them they see it as confirmation that he's conning them. It's a strange and twisted confirmation bias; the more Christian Obama behaves, the less Christian they see him as.
Why does the graph say Conservative Republican? They might be social jerks, but their the biggest bunch of fiscal liberals I have ever seen. I'm sorry but squandering the countries wealth is not a conservative value. Democrats should be known as the conservative ones. They don't just go out and spend spend spend on useless stuff like death killing and war, and my god is better than yours so I need to exercise my arm chair warriorness and kill you. squander squander squander with a massive body count, that's all the GOP does...but don't raise taxes on companies exporting jobs and lower them on companies bringing jobs back. My 3 constitutions would not fund my campaign if i did that! You mean other people live here too? About the presidents religion, Isn't it amazing how many people blissfully choose ignorance over fact. If we're not careful, these people will bring an end to this empire. Stand up and fight this ignorance, dont just let it stand.
@Bob
I recommend reading "Our Divided Political Heart" by E. J. Dionne
One of the things I learned is how messed up our use of the terms "liberal", "conservative" and "republican" are.
It is very confusing.
He talks about two ideals - Individual Liberty and Community (We the people E. Pluribus Unum, "the Republic for which it stands") - that our country was founded on. The important thing is to find the balance between the two.
It used to be that "liberals" leaned for more Individual Liberty.
It used to be that "republicans" - note small "r" - and "conservatives" leaned for more Community (everything orderly - Law and Order. No big changes unless you can convince me why it would be a good idea).
Somewhere along the line "liberal" flipped toward more Government (Civil Rights, Voting Rights, SS / Medicare /Medicaid, EPA...).
And the Tea Party conservatives totally flipped toward Individual Liberty and small government and dragged the whole Republican party that direction.
SO:
I am not a "liberal". I am an individualist communitarian.
Bob - the Bush administration's view was not that they were "squandering" the nations wealth but that they were returning it to its "rightful" owners - the rich - via tax cuts.
This makes perfect sense if you view the United States as a target for a Leveraged Buy Out - the Bain Way - if you will.
The Bush administration "leveraged" the country by extracting as much money as possible for their closest associates and political supporters through changes in the tax laws, no-bid contracts, and unfunded wars - then when repayment was due – hoped to make that payment by a reduction of employee jobs, pensions, and health care – and yet more cuts in education spending and aid to the poor. The beauty of this approach is that even with new "management" the requirement to service the debt limits policy choices.
This is classic LBO - think how much more efficiently Romney - with his experience at Bain - will be able to continue this policy. If he takes the LBO approach to its logical conclusion he might even sell off Texas...
"And the Tea Party conservatives totally flipped toward Individual Liberty and small government and dragged the whole Republican party that direction."
maphi . . . They did? Denying people the right to make reproductive decisions, including wanting to monitor every pregnancy, is SMALL government? Wanting to build a several thousand-mile wall to keep out illegal aliens is SMALL government? Pushing punitive voter suppression legislation using public resources to deny people the right to vote is SMALL government?
You're right about their pulling the Republican Party to the right, but let's not forget that they're Repubs themselves. (And let's not allow any of the TeaPublicans to get away with this "I'm really independent," or "I'm a Libertarian" nonsense.) For all their talk about "getting government out of our lives," they only want to do that when it's convenient for them.
@mpguy Re: #28.3
Yes - you are correct. I was over simplifying.
I would really really like to hear someone on that side explain how they can be for small government for some things and really really big intrusive government on the other.
Appears totally illogical.
The only sliver of logic I can think of is that Individual Freedom means that each individual has the freedom to make choices - that I agree with, whether or not it is any of my business.
(*squints and rolls eyes*)
Logic doesn't apply to GOP priorities. Only hatred, grasping at power, and contempt for American values.
I agree Bob, it should say self absorbed xenophobe and that's about as kind as I can get!
I'm "uncomfortable" with Obama's religion because I have little truck with the Christian faith the way it manifests. None of the theistic religions have done much good over the long haul. As Mahatma Gandhi said "I love Christ but I don't like Christians". My sentiments precisely. Obama is more like Christ but the majority of Americans are more like Christians.
I skimmed the comment section, and maybe I missed it in your original post, Rachel, but I don't think the religion of our candidates should be an issue at all.
Although the Republicans are being willfully ignorant in believing Obama is a non-Christian when they tried to crucify him in 2008 for who is minister was, the bigger issue I see here is that people CARE what religion the candidates are! That is something that should be considered unAmerican and, I think, is a more important issue than willful ignorance.
Nonsense. If someone wants to believe something for which there is no reason AND wants to be the leader of 300,000,000+ people, then those 300,000,000 have a right to know what and why that someone believes what he does and how it informs his view of the world.
Looked at the Pew Forum Article referenced:
Romney
Got it right = 60% (Mormon)
Got it wrong = 9% (Other)
Don't know = 32% [Note rounding]
Obama
Got it right = 49% (Christian)
Got it wrong = 20% [Muslim = 17%]
Don't know = 31%
------------
Conclusions and questions:
31% did not know the religion of either candidate.
Are these the same people?
Do these people know anything about the candidates or just pay no attention to religion?
If the question was "Which direction is UP", how many would get it wrong?
This number can be used to correct all polls for those who are totally confused.
35% of the 17% that say Pres. Obama is Muslim say it doesn't matter or they are comfortable with it.
Wow - really?! I am actually surprised - and frankly encouraged with this number. Interesting.
------------
And the CRITICAL questions:
Where do the people who think Pres. Obama is Muslim get their information?
Would it change their minds if their information sources made firm statements that Pres. Obama is what he says he is - a Christian?
@irish,, don't forget all those secular humanists' laws against christians exerciseing their biblical right to have slaves, to torture/murder their own children, women's subjigation,,,
Proverbs 13:24, 23:13-14,
Mat 15:14, Mark 7:10, Deu 21:18, Lev 15:19-24,,, sure, I could put another hundred or so Sharia/bibblical laws here, but neither you nor any christian will read and or respond to them..
I hope Obama is a secretive agnostic, as were our greatest presidents..
I wish he were at least an agnostic, too. He isn't, but it would say good things about us if that were the case. The day when we can elect a president who is openly agnostic or, better yet, an atheist, will be another big step forward in our development as a nation.
I'll gladly run! ;)
We are all of us agnostic because, even with a belief, the evidence is purportedly only visited upon us by expiration. And please run grumpyliberalbastard!
Need to see grumpy's tax returns :)
Yeah, not much to see; unemployed since Oct. '10, no big shakes before that. :)
According to the cited poll, only 49% of Americans know Obama is a Christian, and 17% think he's a Muslim. So what do the other 34% think he is, a Druid??
Okay, just saw maphi's posting above showing the whole poll. I wish the original post would have done the same...
@Dave
Here is what I try to do - does not matter what I am reading:
"Blur: How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload" by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel
Includes a section on "The Way of Skeptical Knowing...amounts to asking - and knowing how to answer - a series of systematic questions... including the following.
This post is an example of a piece of data (in this case a pool) is extracted that demonstrate a particular point.
In my opinion the post correctly displays the data and draws valid conclusions from it. Any conclusions are subject to debate, of course.
But it is also just as possible to take a piece of data and distort it.
Oh yes and the bibble sets the standard for "freedom of religion" with "Thou shall have no other gad before me"..
Those little virtual keyboards are a bitch aren't they?
I feel the need to get specific and state the obvious; there is a sad sick market out there for folks like Rush Limbaugh and his disgusting xenophobic and frankly false "news radio". It's all very pathetic because he is a very passionate speaker and has somehow managed to convince listeners that dragging people down to a level of prejudice and ignorance is politics. That's not politics. It's fueling the engines of hate; and it comes off as rather immature. This is beyond the revenge of the grade school loser who justifies his bad behavior and blatant lies under the cathartic guise of "free speech". This is a sociopath.
Allyn @#27, your analysis is spot on. Brilliantly stated and very helpful. Thanks.
As you say, these poor eschatological types are forever trapped in a tautological prison of their own making condemned to chase the Ouroborian tail of an inextricably self-referential teleology.
Well, that was a sesquipedalian comment if I ever heard one!!! : )
Why didn't you just say that the "religious right" have their heads up their arse trying to chase the "brown ball" given to them by their "leaders" thinking that will solve all their problems?
BTW Slurpidog,
I was not slamming you! I am truly impressed with your command of the esoteric!! I haven't heard words like that since college! Where do you get to use words like that any more to remember they still exist?
You're quite welcome, Slurpidog. :)
Being religion, it all sounds scatological to me.
what a shame reruns of Saved by the bell gets higher ratings tham MSNBC forgot MS dropped NBC wonder why
T'was the other way around..NBC offered to buy out the remaining 18% which MS still held of their original 50/50 split. I suspect we'll see an overhaul by the end of the year.
(I worked in a web-media-heavy position at MS when the original deal went down. At the time, I didn't consider it a permanent investment..more of a dabble on the part of MS/MSN really. But it seemed interesting. It lasted much longer than I expected it would.)
i wonder if the full poll has cross-tabs that match "candidate's religion" answers with "information sources" answers, particularly over time. it would be interesting to see the Faux News effect on so much ignorance of fact.
Right-Wingers know perfectly well that President Obama isn't a Muslim or an Arab. The very accusation seems to imply that anyone who is one of those "dreaded" groups is somehow disqualified from holding office in this "Land of the Free".
How can they at the same time they claim he was a Muslim claim that his participation in Reverend Wright's church for 20 years poisoned his mind with Critical race theory?
It is just nonsense. Muslim is a codeword for the N word plain and simple.
in other "twig" news...huffington reports
Forty-two religious and secular organizations united on Thursday in condemning conservative lawmakers' allegations that Muslim-American individuals connected to the U.S. government may be trying to spread the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The signatories include the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which often sides with Republicans on social issues, along with the Interfaith Alliance, American Civil Liberties Union, American Baptist Churches USA, NAACP and United Church of Christ.
The Anti-Defamation League has already condemned the lawmakers, calling their allegations "anti-Muslim conspiracy theories."
http://tinyurl.com/ce7veu5
Not that there is anything wrong with a President being a Muslim, mind you...
8% of Democrats think the President is secretly a Muslim.
Just to give you a clue... there was a 1% chance in the 1940s, that setting off the first atomic bomb would have immediately set the world on fire... it had never been done before, and they just didn't know what might happen. But what the hell, they did it anyway.
8%? If that was a clock, 8% would be 5 minutes out of an hour.
What sickness does a political party have when that large a piece of its pie thinks its party chief is a Crypto-Muslim? That number should be far below 1%
There wasn't a 1% chance, there was a 0% chance. It's just that a lot of people were misinformed and believed it could happen.
@Bill Re: #42
Nope.
From Wikipedia - Manhattan Project:
"[Edward] Teller also raised the speculative possibility that an atomic bomb might "ignite" the atmosphere because of a hypothetical fusion reaction of nitrogen nuclei. Bethe calculated that it could not happen, and a report co-authored by Teller showed that "no self-propagating chain of nuclear reactions is likely to be started." In Serber's account, Oppenheimer mentioned it to Arthur Compton, who "didn't have enough sense to shut up about it. It somehow got into a document that went to Washington" and was "never laid to rest"."
Here is a link to the PDF of the report (contains calculations and graphs incomprehensible to normal humans - whew):
Ignitions of the Atmosphere with Nuclear Bombs
I must admit to having been naive. I really thought that the Mormonism would be a deal-breaker in the South having actually heard mainstream Baptist ministers openly denounce Mormonism as a "Satanic cult." I am ashamed that it honestly never occurred to me that these "men of God" would vote for a member -- no, a leader! -- of that same "Satanic cult" rather than vote for a black man.
And many of those same baptist ministers will tell you that all the catholics are going to burn (and of course vice versa).
Amen Sister. Color me fooled as well.
Luz CanN. A few years ago I thought I had need to involve myself in a more organized. I had been raised a Catholic, but had not attended church in several years. I could not believe that just because someone was not a Catholic you were going to hell or that if you died before you were baptized you could never go to heaven. I investigated several religions and everyone of them finally got around to telling me, in one way or another, that if I did not belong to their religion I was surely going to hell. There have been more people killed in history in the name of God than almost all the other reasons for death combined. I will never belong to an organized religion again, I will however continue to live my life in my christian beliefs. Most religions will basically give the same set of guidelines to "live by", but you can only get to heaven if you belong to that particular religion. How sad so many people believe that they have to belong to an organized 'club" in order to be a true christian.
I figured the biracial card would trump the Mormon religion card. The Catholic religion was once a problem, not today.
The President says he's Christian many times, they complain about the brand of HIS Christianity or call him secret Muslim, but not a peep about the brand of Romney's brand.
It doesn't matter to them, they know he probably is a citizen and Christian. But oh, it's his incompetence (even though the taxes are still low and people still buy guns)-he's threatening "our way" of life. Republicans just want power and control and that's all. They know they can use religion and race to get it. I gotta wonder how the AA conservatives can stand the obvious pandering to racists and bigots.
Hypnosis and the reflex of denial prevents self examination or even questioning. But we need control and WE can't let THOSE voters vote that might vote for Obama.
Irrationally appealing to emotion of "this can only be fixed if we get Obama out" and put Rmoney in.
The Muslim thing is a cover story, as is the birth certificate. Phony baloney and most of them know it, but some are just in denial.
It is hard for me to claim one brand over another for the same reason. I can find strong values in many different religions, but I cannot choose one church, never could. I can only go with my own spiritual guide as it applies to my life. I cannot make judgements about where other people are going, because I don't know. It's their path.
I know this is about he's one of us… but come on... Rmoney, really? One of us? He can't even play the role of trying to be appreciative to his hosts. He says those cookies are from 7-11, says GM should go just die off and he has overseas accounts, come on!
He would follow directions of neo-con foreign policymakers. That means more wars, more wars.
I have not read all the posts so this may be redundant. Yes, a nice job of disinformation, but here is my point. WHY IS THIS AN ISSUE AT ALL? What on Earth does anyone's religious beliefs have to do with their morality or ability to lead and manage? None. About half the US is behind a man who believes a petty criminal (Joseph Smith) spoke with angels who informed him of Jesus' life in North America. I mean if that doesn't test credulity, what does? But, why do I care what anyone believes so long as they are moral, intelligent, and effective in their position. Basing one's vote on a candidate's religion is beyond asinine.
because being a christian often means your are praying/wishing/hopeing that only thru jebus will you get to heaven,, thereby condemning 10 billion people to burn in hell for an eternity for no other reason than they guessed wrong at the shell game called faith based religion.. A pretty good example of immoral behavior...
You answered your own question kalaheo. His faith does test credulity, just like you said. Personally I don't want someone who is so bat-@!$%# crazy representing us around the world, much less to have his finger on the big red button. Nor anyone else who puts their faith above their country. Look at George W Shrub. Now THAT'S what a faith based presidency gets you - wars, death, hunger, homelessness . . .
@kalaheo Re: #44
The poll results show that in spite of evidence that has always been accepted as true:
In spite of these, there are an astonishingly high percentage of people who don't believe it.
That - by itself - is not the issue. I shouldn't have to care.
The problem - and why I have to care - is that it doesn't stop with his religion!!
I just told my son's fiance, who 1/2 Navajo and raised on a reservation, that according to the Mormons she is really a Jew. She really hard and said,"I don't think so".
What do people know about the socialist underpinnings of the Mormon church? The injunctions to redistribute wealth in order to benefit the poor???
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/51308137-82/mormon-book-poor-saints.html.csp
Knowing that Romney is a mormon and knowing what mormons believe are two completely different things. If people knew what mormons really believe, the number of people who are comfortable with it, or say it doesn't matter, would flip drastically. It is incumbent on all of us who actually know about the mormon belief system to spread the word to our less informed family members/friends/acquaintances before election day.
That is the absolute most important information we can share with them, especially if they claim Christianity as their faith.
Can you imagine a mormon dem running for pres ? The right would be screaming faking bible fake christian !!!!! which is what they are doing to some degree with Barack , but they keep it 1/2 under the covers , because the gop know it would out them as nothing but racist , this is why jim crow is not dead after all , now they are applying jim crow to all dems tho , not just the colored folks
I have FAITH that mit the twit will out himself as a full blown racist before the election is over , or immediately there after , his disdain for the working class and people like the obama family is palpable imo , you can just feel it , and we are demoralizing him , and getting away with it , remember how freaking mad mccain was after the last election ?? lol , he is STILL FLAMING
How about this "logic" to explain why some people think President Obama is Muslim:
If "it" walks like a duck
and "it" talks like a duck
and "it" acts like a duck
and "it" prays like a duck
and "it" says "it" is a duck,
and if I'm a duck and I hate "it" then "it" must be a pigeon because if "it" was a duck I shouldn't hate "it".
??
Prior to the whole Jeremiah Wright thing, President Obama worshiped in a United Church Church of Christ Church (read: Congregational) So I at least know he is a Christian since I do too!
Me too!
I don't usually copy and paste lots of stuff so if anybody is not interested, please ignore and I apologize for taking up space.
The reason I am inserting it is because it might help people who are not familiar with UCC understand the faith background of the church President Obama was a member of.
(from UCC website about us) {emphasis added for easier reading}:
What is the United Church of Christ?
The United Church of Christ came into being in 1957 with the union of two Protestant denominations: the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches. Each of these was, in turn, the result of a union of two earlier traditions.
The Congregational Churches were organized when the Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation (1620) and the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1629) acknowledged their essential unity in the Cambridge Platform of 1648.
The Reformed Church in the United States traced its beginnings to congregations of German settlers in Pennsylvania founded from 1725 on. Later, its ranks were swelled by Reformed immigrants from Switzerland, Hungary and other countries.
The Christian Churches sprang up in the late 1700s and early 1800s in reaction to the theological and organizational rigidity of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist churches of the time.
The Evangelical Synod of North America traced its beginnings to an association of German Evangelical pastors in Missouri. This association, founded in 1841, reflected the 1817 union of Lutheran and Reformed churches in Germany.
Through the years, other groups such as American Indians, Afro-Christians, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Volga Germans, Armenians, and Hispanic Americans have joined with the four earlier groups. In recent years, Christians from other traditions, including the Roman Catholic Church, have found a home in the UCC, and so have gay and lesbian Christians who have not been welcome in other churches. Thus the United Church of Christ celebrates and continues a broad variety of traditions in its common life.
Characteristics of the United Church of Christ
The characteristics of the United Church of Christ can be summarized in part by the key words in the names that formed our union: Christian, Reformed, Congregational, Evangelical.
Christian. By our very name, the United Church of Christ, we declare ourselves to be part of the Body of Christ—the Christian church. We continue the witness of the early disciples to the reality and power of the crucified and risen Christ, Jesus of Nazareth.
Reformed. All four denominations arose from the tradition of the Protestant Reformers: We confess the authority of one God. We affirm the primacy of the Scriptures, the doctrine of justification by faith, the priesthood of all believers, and the principle of Christian freedom. We celebrate two sacraments: baptism and the Lord's Supper (also called Holy Communion or the Eucharist).
Congregational. The basic unit of the United Church of Christ is the congregation. Members of each congregation covenant with one another and with God as revealed in Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit. These congregations, in turn, exist in covenantal relationships with one another to form larger structures for more effective work. Our covenanting emphasizes trustful relationships rather than legal agreements.
Evangelical. The primary task of the church is the proclamation of the Gospel or (in Greek) evangel. The Gospel literally means the "Good News" of God's love revealed with power in Jesus Christ. We proclaim this Gospel by word and deed to individual persons and to society. This proclamation is the heart of the leiturgia—in Greek, the "work of the people" in daily and Sunday worship. We gather for the worship of God, and through each week, we engage in the service of humankind.
What we believe
We can tell you more about the United Church of Christ with the help of seven phrases from Scripture and Tradition which express our commitments.
That they may all be one. [John 17:21] This motto of the United Church of Christ reflects the spirit of unity on which it is based and points toward future efforts to heal the divisions in the body of Christ. We are a uniting church as well as a united church.
In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity. The unity that we seek requires neither an uncritical acceptance of any point of view, nor rigid formulation of doctrine. It does require mutual understanding and agreement as to which aspects of the Christian faith and life are essential.
The unity of the church is not of its own making. It is a gift of God. But expressions of that unity are as diverse as there are individuals. The common thread that runs through all is love.
Testimonies of faith rather than tests of faith. Because faith can be expressed in many different ways, the United Church of Christ has no formula that is a test of faith. Down through the centuries, however, Christians have shared their faith with one another through creeds, confessions, catechisms and other statements of faith. Historic statements such as the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Evangelical Catechism, the Augsburg Confession, the Cambridge Platform and the Kansas City Statement of Faith are valued in our church as authentic testimonies of faith. [See Beliefs for the complete texts of some of these testimonies.] In 1959, the General Synod of the United Church of Christ adopted aStatement of Faith prepared especially for congregations of the United Church. Many of us use this statement as a common affirmation of faith in worship and as a basis for study.
There is yet more light and truth to break forth from God's holy word. This affirmation by one of the founders of the Congregational tradition assumes the primacy of the Bible as a source for understanding the Good News and as a foundation for all statements of faith. It recognizes that the Bible, though written in specific historical times and places, still speaks to us in our present condition. It declares that the study of the scriptures is not limited by past interpretations, but it is pursued with the expectation of new insights and God's help for living today.
The Priesthood of All Believers. All members of the United Church of Christ are called to minister to others and to participate as equals in the common worship of God, each with direct access to the mercies of God through personal prayer and devotion.
Recognition is given to those among us who have received special training in pastoral, priestly, educational and administrative functions, but these persons are regarded as servants—rather than as persons in authority. Their task is to guide, to instruct, to enable the ministry of all Christians rather than to do the work of ministry for us.
Responsible Freedom. As individual members of the Body of Christ, we are free to believe and act in accordance with our perception of God's will for our lives. But we are called to live in a loving, covenantal relationship with one another—gathering in communities of faith, congregations of believers, local churches.
Each congregation or local church is free to act in accordance with the collective decision of its members, guided by the working of the Spirit in the light of the scriptures. But it also is called to live in a covenantal relationship with other congregations for the sharing of insights and for cooperative action under the authority of Christ.
Likewise, associations of churches, conferences, the General Synod and the churchwide "covenanted ministries" of the United Church of Christ are free to act in their particular spheres of responsibility. Yet all are constrained by love to live in a covenantal relationship with one another and with the local churches in order to make manifest the unity of the body of Christ and thus to carry out God's mission in the world more effectively.
The members, congregations, associations, conferences, General Synod, and covenanted ministries are free in relation to the world. We affirm that the authority of God as revealed in Jesus Christ and interpreted with the aid of the Holy Spirit stands above and judges all human culture, institutions and laws. But we recognize our calling both as individuals and as the church to live in the world:
To proclaim in word and action the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
To work for reconciliation and the unity of the broken Body of Christ.
To seek justice and liberation for all.
This is the challenge of the United Church of Christ.
They all know that Obama is neither a muslim, Kenyan or even a socialist. All those words are cipehrs for the n word. They are not actually stupid just racist.
Stupid and racist are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they're correlated.
http://www.leaderu.com/offices/michaeldavis/docs/mormonism/mormonism.html