Conspiracy & the United Church of Christ

on April 23, 2015


The ultra liberal United Church of Christ, which boasts of its inclusivity and radical hospitality, has now dropped below 1 million members for the first time.  Its latest stats, for 2013, show it at 979,239.  In 1968 it had over 2 million.  The UCC was founded in 1957 as the merger of several Reformed traditions, some dating to the early Puritans.

Among the first religious groups to affirm revisionist sexual ethics, the UCC once sponsored ads highlighting its permissiveness in contrast with ostensibly restrictive churches, which were spoofed for having a metaphorical ejector seat among their pews. Ha-ha-ha.

But in fact, the UCC has figuratively hosted its own ejector seats, having lost 800 congregations and 400,000 members just since 2000, with no clear end to the spiral on the horizon.

Interestingly, the UCC is set to elect the Rev. John C. Dorhauer as its general minister and president at its upcoming General Synod in June.  He is familiar to IRD as a regular participant in a UCC blog, “Talk to Action,”  which conspiratorially theorized IRD was “steeplejacking” congregations away from the UCC.  

Their exertions even led to a 2007 book called Steeplejacking, which outlined the IRD plot to dismantle the UCC.  A recent “Talk to Action” blog recalls fondly that Dorhauer contributed 71 articles to their blog.

Here’s a recent “Talk to Action” self-explanation:

In 2005, a few colleagues and I decided to create an international, interactive blog to counter the religious right — one of the most successful and powerful political and social movements in American history. One of my top priorities in picking featured writers was to find someone who could write knowledgeably and authoritatively about the attacks on the mainline churches by the Institute on Religion and Democracy, its satellite groups and those informed and influenced by their activities. The IRD’s operation on behalf of the financiers of neoconservatism and the religious right is an historic and catalytic force reshaping religion in America and in the world. There needed to be a place where people could come to find resources and compare notes — and I wanted the blog we were creating to be that place.

My search led me to John Dorhauer. We talked, and in the course of our conversation, I said that I thought that war had been declared on the mainline churches, a war of attrition, being played out in thousands of churches across the country, but that the churches aren’t acting like they are even aware of it. “If there is a war, and one side doesn’t know it…” John finished my sentence: “You lose.”


Dorhauer’s own blogs had headlines like “IRD Conspiracy, Part III,” which reported that young staff were “deployed by the IRD to follow me around the country and report about my activities, whereabouts, writings, and speeches…”

Actually, IRD’s interest in Dorhauer and “Talk to Action” was mostly limited to emailing their paranoid articles within the office for laughs.  But after a few years, our emails stopped, as the conspiracy stories became rote and repetitive.

Dorhauer and “Talk to Action” are just one example of denial among declining liberal denominations that could never admit the reasons for their half century of continuous decline:  a denominational failure to proclaim the Gospel with all its power.

In a recent video promo, Dorhauer refers cryptically to the UCC’s “diminished capacity,” with a promise that the UCC would be “meaningful and relevant.”

Whatever the UCC’s failed denominational policies, there are still many local congregations that proclaim the Gospel, although “Talk to Action” might grimly see them as IRD offshoots.  

The Lord has summoned to life dry bones many times in the history of the church, and hopefully He has exciting plans, maybe even a holy conspiracy, for revival within even the UCC.  





  1. Comment by Michael C on April 23, 2015 at 4:42 pm

    In 2004, the far-left United Church of Christ, launched its “God is still speaking” ad campaign in an attempt to draw new members. The campaign released a 30-second commercial that featured, by the UCC’s own description, “two muscle-bound ‘bouncers’ standing guard outside a picturesque church and selecting which persons are permitted to attend Sunday services.” As the video continues, written text declares, “Jesus didn’t turn people away. Neither do we.” A same-sex couple is among the persons turned away by the “bouncers” as they try to enter the church. The ad ran on several cable channels, but ABC, NBC, and CBS all rejected the ad as too controversial. The UCC responded to this by a public statement that the 3 networks had censored a “wholesome message.” It would be more honest to say that the ad was a blatant lie. No church in America has bouncers at its doors, and no church has ever barred two men from entering together. As in all things, the left has to lie to make its point. Anyone who had ever attended an evangelical church would know the ad was a lie, but unbelievers and people on the religious left might actually believe that bouncers keep gays out of conservative churches. For what it’s worth, the campaign accomplished nothing. The UCC did not get “steeplejacked” by evil right-wingers, it got gutted by its own clergy.

  2. Comment by MarcoPolo on April 25, 2015 at 9:53 am

    I see satire is lost on some people!
    How else to impact an audience, if not by making an extreme example to drive the point home?

    The ebb and flow of everything is natural, so why do we fight so hard to maintain some things that need to pass into oblivion?

  3. Comment by Michael C on April 26, 2015 at 8:57 am

    Have you see the ad? Obviously not.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx1u1v7hAtY

    This is not “satire,” it is blatant slander, since the ad shows dark-skinned people being barred from the church, which does not happen in any church anywhere in America. We expect the secular left to repeat the lie – “they don’t except homosexuals, so they’re also racist” – but it was disgusting to see the UCC stoop so low. Happily, their lying ad offended many people and had no effect at all on their decline. A “Christian” denomination that would do something that underhanded deserves to shut down.

  4. Comment by MarcoPolo on April 27, 2015 at 10:24 am

    Do you mean to say ACCEPT, versus EXCEPT?

    And yes, I did watch the advertizement, and found it’s satire to be spot on.
    Obviously there are no bouncers at any church, but the intended message is that the UCC doesn’t make distinctions regarding one’s sexual orientation, or any other trait for that matter!

    Not slander, just satire!

  5. Comment by AmethystTear on October 24, 2015 at 3:25 pm

    I don’t think anyone honestly believes there are bouncers outside of the other churches. Yet, many congregations act much like that with their judgment and commentaries. I remember this was one of the ads that helped me decide to become a member of my church. I’ve never regretted my decision and feel far more connected to God than I ever have in the past.

  6. Comment by fredx2 on April 26, 2015 at 6:28 pm

    The ad was an attempt to say they were better than other Christians, and that other Christians were mean people. It was one of the most idiotic things I have ever seen a church do. So arrogant. But that is how they define themselves – as better than everyone else. I cannot imagine a less Christ like message.

  7. Comment by Mark Brooks on April 23, 2015 at 6:11 pm

    LOL. “Steeplejacking”? I find it fascinating how these faux Christians get confused over the whole issue of sheep-stealing. Whose sheep are they? If they are the Christ’s then who are they to complain? The sheep know their shepherd.

  8. Comment by Greg on April 23, 2015 at 7:28 pm

    Mr Dorhauer seems to be running for the top spot of his church unopposed. Sounds like an election in Iraq cir. 1979-2003. The outcome could be interesting.

    If he wins the election, I’d like to ask him “What do you think is the corollary, if any, between your denomination’s proclamation of ‘radical hospitality’ and concomitant hemorrhaging, year after year, of believers?”

  9. Comment by Greg on April 23, 2015 at 8:39 pm

    One more item of interest: I just checked out the schedule for the UCC’s upcoming synod. It sure is interesting to note that they go out of their way to advertise the Cleveland Gay Pride Parade on their agenda, for Saturday, but on Sunday, a.k.a. The Lord’s day, there is no worship scheduled for the synod. They just go right into meetings, and the usual general synod nonsense.

  10. Comment by fredx2 on April 26, 2015 at 6:30 pm

    It’s probably not the chaps. It is probably the Saturday night activities that make them tired.

  11. Comment by yolo on April 23, 2015 at 9:23 pm

    We’re closer to 2030 now than 2000. That means that we’re closer to the U.C.C. having fewer than half a million members than over a million members. To put that in perspective, U.S. population will probably be close to 400,000,000 by then or the decade after. This is assuming, by the way, that the spread in U.C.C. membership is evenly distributed by age. It isn’t. It is disproportionately old. You know what that means? The U.C.C. could be well under half a million people by 2030. The U.C.C. will be an eighth of a percent of the population by 2030.

  12. Comment by MarcoPolo on April 24, 2015 at 9:16 pm

    An aside here for clarification:
    If the U.S. population reaches, or surpasses 400 million by 2030, we’re screwed in more ways than we can imagine!

    Yikes!!! There are too many people on this planet already!!!!!

    Okay, now resume your conversations…

  13. Comment by yolo on April 24, 2015 at 9:57 pm

    Europe is dying because of a lack of domestic population growth. There is a book out there that pops the “overpopulation” myth that is dogma in mainline churches. There is a real population problem, but it has nothing to do with whether you have more than 2 kids. Franklin Graham has identified this problem. It is letting in people who hate Christians or who will move the country away from Christendom. The Europeans are starting to awaken to what they have let in while not embracing marriage, which is natural family.

  14. Comment by Namyriah on April 24, 2015 at 10:13 pm

    This clown is just blowing smoke. The leftists do this – “Ooh, the world is overpopulated, isn’t it just AWFUL!” But they never do anything to decrease the population. (Frankly, I think they’re a bunch of self-righteous phonies.)

  15. Comment by yolo on April 25, 2015 at 6:40 pm

    They enjoy their place in the world and wish to deny it to others, except of course where it is politically correct. Example: Little Mogadishu in Minneapolis. Example: Muslims who threw all of the Christians off of a boat that was illegally transiting from Libya to Italy.

  16. Comment by yolo on April 25, 2015 at 6:42 pm

    They have no qualms about not only making a place for these people in their progressive societies, but handing them stuff, a lot of stuff, while ignoring the plight of the few million disproportionately black people that are aborted each year.

  17. Comment by MarcoPolo on April 25, 2015 at 8:10 pm

    What does aborting of black fetuses have to do with accommodating some ‘alien’ Immigrants?

    And as is, an American tradition, we welcome ALL!

  18. Comment by MarcoPolo on April 25, 2015 at 8:07 pm

    Forgive me for not remembering the boat incident, but I’ll research later. Was the problem because somebody on the ship was unwelcome?
    Was it clearly a religious altercation, or a character conflict?

    I think we’ll need more information, and less speculation to resolve the issue.

    Thanks for the exchange!

  19. Comment by MarcoPolo on April 25, 2015 at 8:29 pm

    To a degree, we are ALL, a little self righteous.

    The ego is the Devil. So it’s best to avoid being too self centered.

    That’s why as a Liberal (Leftist, your term), I seek to assist in the effort to move Humanity forward, without the loss of Faith, Hope and Charity.

    I’ll admit, I do find some masochistic pleasure in hearing some of the vile associative Nouns used when referring to me.

    As a person who was voted in High School as “Most Friendly”, I find it hard to believe that over forty years, I could have changed into a “Communist, Socialist, Liberal, Hater, Radical, Deviant, Pedophile, Devil…Oh, and Old Queen Faggot! (There are way too many to mention here).

    But changes occur, so we deal with it!

    I suggest, that we have a lot in common, but with all the name calling, we’ll never get to know.

    Namaste’

  20. Comment by MarcoPolo on April 25, 2015 at 8:55 am

    I’ll need to read the book to get the full gist, but I’m curious to know why the influx of immigrants appears to threaten one’s existence?
    Whether the nation’s growth is from indigenous, Neo-native, “home-grown” or immigrant, the number of humans in a given space is the issue.

    It sounds as if Rev. Graham is concerned about the displacement of his religion and its followers.

    My point is not concerned about whose religion emerges as dominant. It’s that there are just going to be too many people, period!

    Consider too, that new immigrants might have a whole new idea of how a “family” is composed?
    Your family composition might be the old standard that is on the wane during the next fifteen years? Who knows… but then, who cares?

    And so it is!

  21. Comment by yolo on April 25, 2015 at 6:44 pm

    Nah, he is concerned about granting status or, God forbid, citizenship to people that would throw all of the NON-Muslims off of a boat in the middle of a sea.

  22. Comment by Namyriah on April 24, 2015 at 10:12 pm

    If there are too many, you can change that. Go for it, prove you really believe there are too many people on earth already.

    Never yet met a leftie who would follow through on his complaint about overpopulation. Makes me think they are just a pack of hypocrites.

  23. Comment by MarcoPolo on April 25, 2015 at 8:59 am

    Well, if not reproducing is the first step, then I’ve done my part!
    So don’t fault me for adding to the world’s growing problem of too many inhabitants.
    And when the time comes to leave this plane, I’ve got a personal plan for that too! (Oh, but there might be some religious authority that prevents me from doing so….. NOT!)

  24. Comment by Reason0verhate on April 26, 2015 at 10:42 am

    Go for it, full speed ahead.

  25. Comment by Namyriah on April 23, 2015 at 9:57 pm

    Working for the United Methodists in the 1980s taught me that the leaders in the mainline/liberal churches are mostly agnostics or atheists. I’m referring to their bishops, seminary professors, employees of the national agencies. They believe in “the church,” not as the body of Christ but as kind of club for Nice People, but I never got the impression that the classic Christian vocabulary – sin, salvation, repentance, conversion – meant anything to them at all. They don’t believe in any of the miracles of the Bible, especially the virgin birth or the resurrection. To the extent they believe in an afterlife, they believe everyone will be saved – but, as C. S. Lewis pointed out, when people stop believing in hell, they really don’t have any strong belief in heaven, either. They share the secular left’s hatred of orthodox Christians. They would fairly spit when saying the word “fundamentalists” (they wouldn’t use the term “evangelical,” since it’s a sign of contempt to refuse to call the enemy what he calls himself). They didn’t care about the repression of Christianity in the USSR, China, or other communist nations, but they had plenty to say about apartheid in South Africa (never mind that millions more people, and not just Christians, were oppressed in Russia and China).

    If I could put the mainline mentality in a nutshell, there’s this: One of the UM publications ran an article with the title “When Is a Cracker a Cookie?” No, I’m not joking. The article was about – brace yourselves – Ritz crackers. The author was pointing out the horrors that sugar was being sneaked into foods that people didn’t think of as sweet. Now, if people are nutrition-conscious, that’s cool. But why on earth would any Christian publication run an article on Ritz crackers? I mean, that is Exhibit A for “majoring in minors.”

    Combine that kind of triviality with the shrill feminists and the various other shrieking activists that have dominated the mainlines for 50 years, and you have churches that don’t bear the faintest resemblance to Jesus and his apostles. Simply put, a social club with a little sprinkling of “spirituality” just doesn’t have much appeal to Americans any more – too many other distractions, the internet, the health club, a thousand cable channels, ample opportunities for porn and cybersex and no-strings hookup. On the other hand, a church where the old words like salvation, heaven, hell, Savior, and God still have meaning – that kind of church has a future, just as it did in AD 30. There were and always will be people who want to “get right with God” and in doing that find peace with themselves and with their neighbors. The mainline churches have nothing that people can’t get elsewhere. Plenty of people choose to be “spiritual” without ever darkening a church door, and can get more of a righteous buzz by joining a political protest or an Earth Day gathering.

    Godless churches die. Good riddance.

  26. Comment by Mark Brooks on April 24, 2015 at 6:43 am

    “Godless churches die. Good riddance.”

    Amen. They’ve lost their lampstands.

  27. Comment by AmethystTear on October 24, 2015 at 3:22 pm

    Actually, as a member of the UCC I find a lot of spiritual guidance and feel very much brought back to God by my experience with the church. We might be losing attendance but if over 900, 000 people are finding their spiritual home there, that’s still a statement that there is a place for this church.

  28. Comment by Ramon Estevez on April 25, 2015 at 11:02 am

    ENVY is the main reason they hate conservative churches. They see people leaving the liberal churches and just assume it’s some kind of conspiracy.

  29. Comment by John S. on April 24, 2015 at 7:51 am

    If the IRD is good at steeplejacking it would never need to worry about funding again. It could hire itself out to different denominations to solve their problems. Think of it, instead of the UMC hiring another PR firm to come up with another campaign doomed to failure it could simply hire the IRD.

  30. Comment by Eternity Matters on April 24, 2015 at 1:02 pm

    The UCC is full of false teachers. The sooner that fake denomination dies out the better.

  31. Comment by Ramon Estevez on April 25, 2015 at 11:01 am

    I like their line “God is still speaking.” Maybe it should be amended to “God is still speaking, and He’s telling people to leave the UCC in droves.”

  32. Comment by yolo on April 25, 2015 at 6:46 pm

    Or: “We’re hearing voices, and the voices are telling us that we can ignore God.”

  33. Comment by Jessie on April 28, 2015 at 5:02 pm

    As a life long former member of the UCC, I can tell you that the UCC steeple jacked itself and installed their own ejector seats. I’d say that their ‘God is Still Speaking’ campaign also led to its own demise, among other things, including their intense hatred for Israel, and support of terrorists. Naim Ateek of Sabeel Liberation Theology was their keynote speaker at one of the Synods. He calls for the destruction of Israel. At their Synod 4 years ago they voted to reject “God the Father” out of the Trinity. In my own former church, since 2007 when we left until now attendance is down by 3/4’s! Within the UCC there are several faithful pastors and churches, specifically, the Faithful & Welcoming churches, who go to the Synods and have been garnering more interest each time.

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