Which values? …

Christian Century, Jan 25, 2005 by Paul M. Ashby

I CONFESS I am part of the failure of mainline churches to address the "values gap" ("Values and virtues," Nov. 30). I share the mainline's lack of nerve in addressing the issue of abortion--a divisive hot-button issue that few mainline clergy will touch. Yet I know of Christians who call themselves "pro-life" but are not really "pro-life"; they are simply "pro-birth." After a child is born they offer no political support for Head Start, children's food programs, adequate funds for public schools, fair-housing laws, or even an increase in the minimum wage so that a mother's baby does not suffer malnutrition and the ravages of poverty.

Why have clergy failed to expand the questions about abortion to ask the significant moral questions about what happens after birth? We clergy have failed to challenge the shallow morality of Christians who attack any plan to provide universal health care for all American children as an example of "the horror of government regulation" yet want that same government to regulate family planning.

I have close friends who are gay and lesbian couples. Many of them believe--in light of the media coverage of Christians turning out en masse to vote down gay rights issues--that 99 percent of all Christians are "gay bashers." Mainline churches have failed to communicate a vision of Christlike compassion and welcome. We have failed to match the fervor of fundamentalists with the true gospel message that Jesus would not have been the first person or the last to cast a stone at those in a committed gay or lesbian relationship. Beyond meager denominational pronouncements on "inclusiveness," what have we done to shape a visible national image of Christlike love and blessing?

Paul M. Ashby

United Church of Christ of Kent,

Kent, Ohio