Dr. Robin Meyers - Why the Christian Right is Wrong...

[realFedUp]

this looks like a good book...just found Robin Meyers via
this and his columns at the Oklahoma Gazette. If Dr. Meyers
posts at DU, thanks!

Why the Christian Right Is Wrong : A Minister's Manifesto for
Taking Back Your Faith, Your Flag, Your Future (Hardcover)
by Robin Meyers
amazon.com

and also by Dr Meyers:

A Minister Fights Back on Moral Values
Dr. Robin Meyers' Speech during the 11/04 Peace Rally at OK University

http://www.mayflowerucc.org/listening/PeaceMarchSpeech112004.pdf

As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, an Open an Affirming, Peace and Justice church in northwest Oklahoma City, and Professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University. But you would most likely have encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have been a columnist for six years, and hold the record for the most number of angry letters to the editor.

snip

Let me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in power who claim moral values are on their side:

a. When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your deceptions are justified because you are doing God's will, and that your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.

b. When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.

c. When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount, stuff like that we must never return to violence for violence and that those who live by the sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.

d. When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.

continued

[GOPBasher]

1. Wow! That was moving.

Thank you for posting that! :-)

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. Amen

[Critters2]

3. So, is Robin Meyers UCC?

And if her church is UCC, why doesn't she say so? If she is, I'm proud to be a fellow UCC. If she isn't, I'm proud to be a fellow Christian.

On edit, and after a glance at the yearbook...she is. I know it doesn't matter at one level. Just a pet peeve of mine--UCC churches that still call themselves "Congregational" only. Really. Ask my parishioners if this isn't a pet peeve of mine!

[regnaD kciN]

4. I think that's pretty common in some parts of the country...

When I was living in the Northeast, it was always "Congregational" or "Congregationalist." I never heard "UCC" or "United Church" until I moved up here to Seattle.

Oh, and also, they would on many occasions be referred to simply as the "Church of Christ." In New England, the thought that there was another, and quite different, denomination with that name would be unimaginable... ;-)

(Hey! That was my 7,500th post! :party: )

[Kat45]

6. Probably because the Congregational church goes back to the Pilgrims

New England is an area of tradition, with lots of historical places/events going back to colonial times, so I would guess that the church just gets called what it had always been called. Some of the Congregational churches themselves are quite old. That's probably also why there is a bigger concentration of this denomination up here than in other parts of the country.

I belong to an old church with "Congregational" in its name, but we also talk about it as a UCC church and we tell our new members about the UCC's history.

[Critters2]

8. I wish churches would drop "congregational"

The merger will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. It's time we acknowledge the UCC. And it confuses the hell out of new members. Most E&R churches dropped their pre-merger name right away. It's time Congs did too!

[Tess49]

5. I was just reading some old threads in groups I have not been

in before and noticed this one. Robin Myers' Church is UCC (in Northwest Oklahoma City), and he is a great speaker. I happened to wander in to the OU speech and was spellbound. I listen to him occasionally on he radio. (Robin is a man.)

[RedEarth]

7. He's an outstanding speaker and since his sermons are broadcast you

might be able to hear him on the radio. Also, Dr. Meyers will be giving the sermon at Riverside Church in NYC the middle of August. Below is a link to his church in Oklahoma City.

here is a little about Dr. Meyers.......


Dr. Robin Meyers has been the Senior Minister of Mayflower Congregational Church of Oklahoma City since 1985, the fastest growing UCC church in the Kansas/Oklahoma conference. He is also Professor of Rhetoric in the Philosophy Department at Oklahoma City University, where he has taught since 1991.

Dr. Meyers was born in Oklahoma City, and grew up in Wichita, Kansas. After graduating from Wichita State University, he attended the Graduate Seminary of Phillips University, and then earned a Doctor of Ministry degree at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. In 1991, he was awarded a Ph.D. by the University of Oklahoma's Communication Department, for his work in the area of persuasion and preaching.


Dr. Meyers is the author of three books. His first, With Ears to Hear: Preaching as Self-Persuasion (Pilgrim Press, 1993), is a textbook for preachers, and his second is a book on living a simpler and more sacramental existence, entitled Morning Sun on a White Piano: Simple Pleasures and the Sacramental Life (Doubleday, New York, 1998), and was endorsed television journalist by best-selling author Bill Moyers.

A third book, The Virtue in the Vice: Finding Seven Lively Virtues in the Seven Deadly Sins is due out in hardcover in August, 2004 from HCI Press (of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame).

Dr. Meyers is a frequent preacher and speaker at church conferences and communication workshops across the country, and has been a guest radio talk show host in Oklahoma City. He was a finalist for the pulpit of the Riverside Church, the Earl Preacher at the Earl Lectures in Berkeley in 2000, and the winner of the Angie Debo Civil Libertarian of the Year Award from the ACLU. His Sunday morning and Sunday evening sermon broadcasts on KOMA reach the largest listening audience of any religious broadcast in Oklahoma, and he is a regular columnist for The Oklahoma Gazette , where he holds the record for most angry letters to the editor.

http://www.mayflowerucc.org/

[Tess49]

9. He has published a new book called "Why the Religious Right

is Wrong". I think that's the title. It is a number 1 local best seller per Barnes and Noble. This is according to a recent blurb in The Norman Transcript. I feel so privileged to have heard him give this speech. It was raining, there was no place to park, and yet I watched people of all ages make their way into the small campus chapel. At least one person was using a walker. I thought I was going to hear a talk about Middle East religions (misinformation from another Transcript blurb) and thought I could benefit from the education. Imagine my surprise and delight when I heard this instead. I was "up" for days and told everyone I knew about it.

On edit: Just re-read the original post. About the new book. Sorry for being redundant.

[RedEarth]

10. That would have been a real treat to have heard that speech...

I would have headed down to OU had I known he was going to be speaking there. Since my wife and I live in OKC, we go to his church from time to time. He's a terrific speaker and there are a bunch of good Democrats there each Sunday.

[Tess49]

11. I've been thinking about driving to OKC to visit his Church.

I don't know my way around the city very well, but I am fairly sure I can find it. I usually attend an Episcopalian Church near my house, but one day I will make it up there. You know, the odd thing about this speech, which is now so famous, is that it didn't seem prepared. He said he really didn't know what he was going to talk about when he was invited. He seemed to be using a few notes and just kind of stood there talking. Is that his style? Or maybe he was inspired.

[RedEarth]

12. It's my understanding he will be out of town for the next 6-8 weeks,

so you might want to wait until after Labor Day to catch one of his sermons. One of the places he will be speaking is Riverside Church in NYC...around the middle of August.

I would guess his speech at OU was very heartfelt and didn't require much except a few notes. On Sunday's you can tell he is prepared, however he does not read his sermon. He will read quotes and passages, however, his speaking style is very natural. This past Sunday, he dropped in a line about "morals", when he said "it's not moral for a country to cut the estate tax, but not raise the minimum wage." That statement got a round of applause.