Day 5, Way 5This is kind of a departure from the week's theme because this fund is not specifically focused on Mississippi, but I was taken by the backstory:
Hope Shall Bloom UCC Recovery FundThe United Church of Christ is one of the most progressive churches in the U.S. You may have heard of the UCC in connection with an advertisement they aired (or tried to air) as part of their "God is still speaking" campaign in December 2004. Called "Bouncers," the ad showed a pair of burly guys standing at the entrance to a church turning away a gay couple and various other patrons while letting through clean-cut looking straight people. The punch line was, "Jesus didn't turn people away...and neither do we."
CBS and NBC refused to run the ad, CBS because they claimed it was "advocacy" and NBC because they claimed to have a "long-standing policy of not accepting ads that deal with issues public controversy." (This despite the fact that both networks aired plenty of political campaign ads during the November election season.)
It is interesting to me, anyway, that CBS made the argument that if the "Bouncers" ad had just been about getting more people to 'buy' the 'product'--in this case, the United Church of Christ--they'd have had no problem with airing it. Because it brought up the homosexuality issue, CBS identified, or pretended to identify it, as an issue ad. But the UCC website devoted to the ad campaign--
StillSpeaking.com--is frank about the fact that the ad's purpose is to
increase the membership of the UCC by reaching out to "the spiritually homeless of our time." So it is evangelism, it's just not the kind we're used to.
Emboldened by the ad's success, the UCC had planned to release their new ad this past Advent season. They were trying to raise $3 million for the ad and the air time (damn that air time is expensive) when Hurricane Katrina hit. The people in charge of the StillSpeaking campaign felt it was
inappropriate to do a fund-raising push for the ad in the aftermath of Katrina. Instead, the goal became raising $3 million for the Hope Shall Bloom fund. By the time they started the fund drive for the new ad, it was too late and donors were too fatigued to make the December deadline. The new ad ("All The People") will be rolled out in April instead of December, and will probably air only on cable.
So, when the crisis hit, the UCC got its priorities straight. Help first, evangelize later--and don't do both at the same time and to the same people. The Hope Shall Bloom fund has raised over $4.6 million and you can
go here to see what they've done with it so far.
Not surprisingly, I suppose, there are no longer any UCC churches in Mississippi, but they do maintain the
Back Bay Mission, which has been operating in Biloxi since 1922. Here's their self-description from the Back Bay Mission website:
"Back Bay Mission was founded in 1922 as an outreach effort of the First Evangelical Church of Biloxi (later United Church of Christ), whose members responded with compassion and service to the needs of poor "fisher folk" living in deplorable conditions along the Back Bay of Biloxi, Mississippi. Since then, Back Bay Mission has continually grown its services and ministries, always keeping the impoverished and marginalized at the center of its concern. Although there were no longer any UCC congregations in Biloxi or in the state of Mississippi by the early 1970s, Back Bay Mission remained to offer a witness of the United Church of Christ. Its commitment is to be faithfully responsive to the emerging and critical needs of God's people, ever seeking a day of greater justice and peace."The Back Bay Mission was hit hard by Katrina--one of their buildings has been demolished and they may not be able to save any of the others--but it still operates out of two work trailers and is still fulfilling its mission:
"We are making progress, though we have come to define “progress” a bit differently than in former days. Our operations are running relatively smoothly (dare I say “normally”?) out of our two cozy work trailers. Most staff positions left vacant by the storm’s displacement of former staff members are now filled. We can do all those gloriously simple things, like receive mail, make phone calls, and communicate by email from these humble new office homes. Most importantly, of course, we are serving the community. We are providing financial aid to hundreds every month. We are housing and assisting the homeless. We are raising issues of justice and concern with community leaders and planners. We are working diligently to create new programs and ministries that will bring transformation in this new post-Katrina context. And, aided by UCC work groups from our churches nationwide, we are facilitating disaster relief and recovery work in countless homes and churches." The Back Bay Mission is one of the places being supported by the Hope Shall Bloom fund, so there is a Mississippi connection after all.
Anyway, you can donate online to the
Hope Shall Bloom UCC Hurricane Recovery Fund, which promises that 100% of your donation will go to the recovery effort (the infrastructure and overhead are already being funded through an ongoing fund called Our Church's Wider Mission).
Tune in tomorrow,
The Plaid Adder
Day 4: Southern Partnership Fund
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