Muffin Betsy has posted raw audio files of an interview with me for Head On Radio Network. The interview took place during the 2007 Yearly Kos convention in Chicago, so a few comments are out of date.
At one point I discuss Barack Obama’s church, by which I believe I meant the United Church of Christ, not Barack Obama’s congregation specifically. The UCC are mostly your old-style mainline Protestants, albeit from the more progressive end of the old-style mainline Protestant pool. In 2007 the entire UCC was under fire from the Right for ordaining gay ministers.
Thanks so much for linking back to us!
When I was growing up in Omaha in the 1960s, my family attended a UCC Congregationalist church. Which was weird, considering that my family was fairly right of center politically. Omaha had its share of conflict between the police and the black community back then (and still does, like many places), and I remember some of my adult relatives getting all pissy because our church held an event where some of Omaha’s black citizens aired their grievances against the OPD.
In the 1980s, I heard a really cool pastor from my childhood church speak at a Nebraskans for Peace event, and I almost convinced myself to drive the 55 miles back to Omaha every Sunday to attend church there. The only thing that stopped me was the whole I’m-just-not-a-Christian situation, because of course belief is a helpful prerequisite.
Anyhoo, yes, the UCC is mainstream but not conservative, and often activist in the “community organizer” way that candidate Palin found so mockable.
“In 2007 the entire UCC was under fire from the Right for ordaining gay ministers.”
Just to clarify/expand, the UCC has been ordaining GLBT ministers since the 70s, though it may have taken the Right three decades to realize it.