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It could be worse, the church I go to advertises itself with a runon sentence.

And if you recognize the UCC as being the church that Obama went to and that preached "God damn America!" you'd be right. Same denomination. And, yes, the church organization as a whole fervently backs Jeremiah White, no matter what the members might think. Mainly because he's black, and the vast majority of the church is white. And we're not racist, 'cause we have a black friend. Er, preacher.

Do some more research about the church before you write this off.

The UCC is currently under investigation from the IRS for illegal campaign contributions to Obama.

They're known to have funded astroturf campaigns in support of the cable companies against telecoms - really! There's some irony there, though: you know those ads that various religions run? The UCC attempted to run a TV ad campaign, but the broadcasters refused to run it because it was so offensive!

But in any case, ignoring their illegal activities and merely questionable activities, we're left with one truth. When the UCC learned of Wright's rhetoric, did they condemn him? Of course not, they came out in strong support.

So it's not just a single pastor, it's the entire church, a church that Obama has been a member of for 20 years.

This isn't something new. This isn't something Obama should be shocked about. This is standard practice for the UCC.

I think this is a critical issue, but I'd rather not turn it into a situation where people are fighting over whether they get to teach the answer. Rather, I'd make it a mandate to produce students who are capable of intelligently discussing the questions.

Here's what I'd teach them:

• Enough chemistry to understand what a compound is, and how atoms rearrange in order to make different molecules, and how energy is required and released in the process. One could teach this from a fairly young age, even without a full chemistry course. Just so they're conversant in the concepts and can know they want to learn more.

• Enough math to know what exponents are and what the difference is between a straight line and non-linear curve is. Even if they blur the huge difference between squares and exponentials, the notion that one can't simply rely on knowing that if it took x years to do something, it will take x more years to do twice that, it would be good.

  Also, again in the math front, enough math to understand simple optimization issues--nothing fancy. The ability to optimize the area of a rectangle is almost enough. They must be able to do simple things like know when it's good for a few people to do big things and when it's better for a lot of people to do little things and when neither of these will work and everyone has to do something big in order for anything to matter.

  Enough math to be able to comprehend the sheer quantity of waste and pollution in the world.

• Enough statistics and probabilities to be able to understand why something can happen one year, not happen another, and then happen again ... and yet still be a trend. That is, they must understand the difference between a tendancy toward something and a promise that something will occur.

• Enough logic to understand what it takes to prove and disprove existential and universal quantifications.

• Enough philosophy and morality to understand and discuss risk analysis and the general good.

• Enough politics to understand how it's BOTH the case that an obviously good idea won't necessarily be adopted by the free market, and something that is forced by government won't necessarily fix a problem.

• Enough economics to know how to calculate which investments are going to pay off and which are just boondoggles lining someone's pockets in the short term at the expense of the long-term good.

• Enough history to revive the notion of sacrifice for the greater good and get people out of the "it's all about me" mode.

• Enough biology to understand what an ecosystem is and how one thing affects another. There was a very good episode of the Wild Thornberrys where the ecosystem got upset by a small change and there was a big disaster. Required viewing of that would almost suffice in my eyes. Just enough to be able to understand the significance of the reefs going away or some plankton going away or polar bears going away in some sort of operational terms that didn't make it seems "distant and unrelated".

• Enough common sense to understand that not all things labeled bio-degradable, green, or earth-friendly are actually saving people money. We don't have to teach which ones are, just that the question has to be asked and that the answers might be deliberately obscured.

• And, just maybe, enough religion to understand that Noah didn't survive the Flood by sitting back and assuming it was God's will or that God would just take care of him.

  And enough to know that the true meaning of Faith is that you have enough confidence in what you believe that you are not threatened by truth and science.

  Bravo to the United Church of Christ for its recent "not mutually exclusive" stance on science and technology. (I'm not a member of that church, by the way. I just saw notice of this and thought it was cool.)

If they profess membership in a church and don't actually agree with the church, then that makes them hypocrites. Seems like quite a problem, don't you think?

Well, in the grand scheme of things, I guess 1.3 million people can be considered "fringe". :)

I decided to qualify my statement "Hope that didn't come off sounding like propaganda for this denomination," because I don't know your religious beliefs (because you stating that you don't go to church really doesn't tell me much), and some people see every attempt to inform others about a religious group as a (potentially offensive and/or insulting) conversion attempt.

In these trying times, I would like to hear some more of things like this sermon which probably only got promotion in that small group - Isaiah 1:11-18 (Verse 18: "Come and let us reason together," said God.)

Like after someone shoots an abortion doctor in the name of "unborn children", or a gang beats a gay guy to death:do Christian preachers immediately denounce the perpetrators as perverted sinners, "taking the lord's name in vain" or somesuch? Do Christian priests teach their congregations that the killing in war is evil, that killers go to hell? When torture is in the news, do preachers make it their business to teach their followers that torture is evil, that god punishes torturers? Do they teach people that doing evil in god's name is even worse evil?

To answer your question(s) - Yes, some pastors are pro-choice, denouce violence against gays, oppose the war in Iraq, and stand for justice over intolerance.

Hope that didn't come off sounding like propaganda for this denomination, but I think that their perspective (I believe I heard the phrase "liberation theology" tossed around, describing their belief in God's call for social justice) is refreshing from the more "generic" Christian denominations.

There are plenty of christian religions that don't have these wacky paranoid ideas, and understand that having an imagination is okay, and that they can trust their parishioners to understand what's real and what's fantasy.

I was raised in the United Church of Christ, and while I don't practice much anymore, they were always an accepting group.

Easter occurs based on when Passover occurs. Easter is supposed to be a celebration of the resurrection of Christ. Things like the Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs are "popular" rituals, similar to Santa Claus during Christmas, that were added to replace or emulate other spring time rituals.

Easter is basically the only "real" Christian holiday (along with Pentecost?). It is the most holy Christian holiday. Christmas was originally created to replace pagan "light" festivals. For many years, Christmas was denied by officials and made illegal to celebrate because it was seen as a pagan holiday. Only recently (in the 19th century, really) did Christmas become more popular.

That covers the two major Christian holidays - Easter, marking the resurrection of Christ, and Christmas, marking an attempt to assimilate various pagan light rituals. I can't think of any other "core" Christian holidays - most other holidays are not universal among the various Christian churches. Being a Congregationalist myself, I don't even know about any of the other "Christian" holidays. We don't even really make a big deal about Lent, which is really a part of Easter anyway.