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By United Methodist News Service*

1:00 P.M. EST Oct. 1, 2010 | WASHINGTON, D.C. (UMNS)

Jim Winkler, top executive, United Methodist Board of Church and Society, has announced his agency is withdrawing its endorsement of an Oct. 2 rally in
Washington. A UMNS 2007 file photo by Kathy Gilbert.
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Concerned about recent “overtly political and partisan statements” made by event organizers, a United Methodist church agency has withdrawn its endorsement of an Oct. 2 rally in Washington.

That decision was made public a day before the “One Nation Working Together” rally.

Jim Winkler, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said the agency originally had agreed to endorse the rally because its aims — to “build a more united country with good jobs, equal justice and quality public education for all” — were consistent with Scripture and the denomination’s Social Principles.

Although initiated by groups such as the NAACP and the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, the rally has become increasingly political, adding some endorsers who “detracted greatly” from the aims of the rally, Winkler explained in the board’s statement.

The march now is being portrayed as a counter-demonstration to the Aug. 28 event at the Lincoln Memorial led by Fox News TV and radio personality Glenn Beck, even though Church and Society signed onto the rally before that event took place, Winkler added.

The Board of Church and Society also does not support a statement attributed to NAACP President Ben Jealous in a Sept. 29 story on The Washington Post website: “We aren’t the alternative to the tea party; we are the antidote.”

Winkler noted the increasing lack of civil discourse within the United States. “Perhaps more troubling, discourse within The United Methodist Church has taken on a very un-Christ-like tone,” he added. “E-mails and phone calls made to the board by clergy and laity have been shocking in their vitriol.”

Despite the controversy created by both rally opponents and proponents, the social action agency still supports efforts to provide “good jobs, equal justice and quality public education” to everyone, Winkler said.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.