On November 15 the Seattle Times online edition published a feature chastising an area Unitarian-Universalist Church. Interestingly, the article identified the church as a typical Northwest Liberal Christian congregation, then took it to task for its upcoming $17 million renovation. The issue--what to do with four houses the church owns, across the street from its sanctuary? The city says it must spend $1 million to bring the up to code. The families living in them were formerly homeless. The congregation decided to demolish the homes to create 17 additional parking spots. The media outlet blamed them for caring more about SUVs than the homeless.
While the Times may have a point, my first thought was why is a secular media outlet litigating a congregational matter within its pages? My second, less kind thought, is that if media are now going after liberal churches, how precious! They thought that if the bowed to the culture, obeyed the secular mores, took all the right (urr...left) political positions, well, at minimum, they would be left alone--perhaps even praised now and then. Instead, this soft target just took a major hit.
More traditional churches will likely get this treatment in the near future--and I suspect the trend will head out towards the Midwest, and then the South will want to catch up, so it doesn't look backward. HOWEVER, at least our churches are ready--we've seen this day coming. Blessed are we when they lie about us and persecute us for Christ's sake.
THOUGHTS?