Ice Age Commentary

Op-ed in today's BG with the UCC's view of the allegedly controversial ad. The overall idea is to raise their profile by extending a welcome. (Gee, so un-American these days). They held focus-groups to find out why people weren't going to church, inviting

Unchurched people (some had once been churched, others had never been) to talk about their experience and/or perception of church. The overwhelming majority expressed negative feelings. claiming that churches (of every ilk) are judgmental, archaic and make you dress and think a certain way.

So the UCC is specifically addressing the view of churchgoing religion generally held by "blue-state voters."

Two other points:
(1) In the current context it seems that the UCC is distinguishing itself most obviously from the RCC. It does so by maintaining that "all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance, or sexual orientation will find a welcome in the church." One wonders how it ever came to this.
(2) It strikes me that in the evangelical red-states, the verb "to church" might be considered suspiciously, er, blue.