COCU is changing its name and playing the race card An analysis by Robert P. Mills The Presbyterian Layman Friday, March 26, 1999 Battling outright rejection, widespread apathy and an outdated organizational vision, the Church of Christ Uniting (COCU) is changing its name and strategy. In 2002, COCU will become CUIC (Churches Uniting in Christ). Between now and then, COCU will play the race card. These changes were adopted as COCU held its 18th plenary meeting Jan. 20-24, 1999 in St. Louis. ‘White skin privilege’ The second paragraph of the plenary’s 10-page report sets the tone for the document, “… we have allowed ourselves to be divided as a result of participation in the racial injustice of our society. We repent of the complicity of many of our churches in the societal systems which perpetuate white skin privilege.” Part 6 of the report (its second longest segment, only a bit shorter than that outlining the mechanics of transforming COCU to CUIC) is titled “The Pledge to Combat Systematic White Privilege as a Hallmark of Churches Uniting in Christ.” The section begins, “The sin of racism is the most divisive issue confronting Churches Uniting in Christ. The Plenary names a struggle for racial justice as a primary hallmark of this new relationship …” After 40 years of debating the roles of bishops and elders, COCU’s abrupt discovery of racism as the most divisive ecumenical issue follows hard on the heels of the extraordinary success recently enjoyed by the National Council of Churches, which morphed a handful of church fires into a nationwide epidemic of racially motivated arson attacks. This manufactured crisis did help fund the rebuilding of some churches. Along the way it also helped the NCC replenish its own dwindling coffers. To be clear, all Christians should work to overcome racial injustice. But COCU’s recent discovery of the divisive power of racism must be greeted with some skepticism, especially since George Pike, COCU’s retiring finance committee chair, said “Churches are going to have to support [COCU] at an increased level,” because budget reserves will be exhausted by the end of 1999. COCU, like the NCC, historically has found more unity in left-wing politics than in theological consensus. Now, also like its big sister, it appears intent on gaining an organizational advantage by exploiting a painful reality. For if COCU touts combating racism as its paramount public concern, it will be able to dismiss any criticism of its endeavors as not merely “anti-ecumenical,” but also “racist.” Tokens The COCU report does offer token acknowledgment of concerns that critics have expressed over the past decades. The plenary report’s opening paragraph declares “The unity we seek to manifest is not our choice but God’s gift.” However, the remainder of the document details the work that denominational loyalists must do to earn the gift that has allegedly been given, sort of an ecumenical Arminianism. The report also says COCU “seeks dialogues … with the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches, the churches of the Pentecostal, Holiness and Baptist traditions, and the other historic black churches.” But the tokenism of COCU’s commitment to “visible unity” with these parts of the body of Christ may be measured by conducting the following thought experiment: Try to imagine COCU insisting that its member denominations cease ordaining women and (in the case of the Episcopalians and the UCC) self-affirming practicing homosexuals in order to achieve visible unity with 60 million Roman Catholics and 15 million Southern Baptists. ‘The back door’ Meanwhile, COCU’s pro-gay-ordination tilt is far more than imaginary. Section 4.3 of the plenary report calls for “mutual recognition of ordained ministry … as part of an effort to realize mutual reconciliation of ministry by 2007.” Moreover, section 4.7 specifically commits COCU “to oppose all marginalization and exclusion in church and society based on such things as … sexual orientation.” Presbyterian concerns that COCU thus provides a back door for those wishing to evade our denomination’s ordination standards are anything but hypothetical. In a recent exchange on More Light Presbyterians Internet discussion list, Susan Leo wrote, “5 years ago, during the same weekend as the Re-Imagining Conference, I was taken under care as a Candidate for the Ministry of the Word and Sacrament by the Presbytery of the Cascades – as an out lesbian.” She went on to report that she is now “being called out of the Presbyterian Church” to become a pastor in the United Church of Christ, a COCU member that permits the ordination of gays and lesbians. Charles Forbes, stated clerk of Baltimore Presbytery replied with “An open letter to Susan,” which reads in part: “Go with God. It is clear she is calling. “Remember that we are now in full communion with the UCC, so you aren’t going far. And as an ordained UCC pastor you can serve in any Presbyterian pulpit. Maybe you are just positioning yourself to come in the back door.” Historically, “mutual reconciliation of ministry” has been COCU code for the reordination of ministers. Should the PCUSA participate in such a process, any constitutional impediment to the ordination of gays and lesbians would become moot. A ministerial candidate would merely need to be ordained by the UCC or Episcopal Church, then demand, as a matter of right under COCU’s “mutual reconciliation” clause, that he or she be installed in a Presbyterian pulpit, no questions asked, or answered. New circumstances In the short term, playing the race card may prove an effective strategy for COCU, raising money and muting potential critics who fear being labeled racist. But adopting a new cause and a new name merely papers over the chasm that exists between a vision mired in the 1960s and the ecumenical and social realities that exist today, when individuals, congregations and parachurch organizations such as Promise Keepers routinely, and thankfully, do more to combat racism and demonstrate the unity of the people of God than have all 18 COCU plenaries combined.

The Presbyterian Layman March/April 1999

Home · Archives ·News History of the Lay Committee ·Feedback Online Reviews ·Resources ·Links