AgapePress) – A conservative United Methodist activist is skeptical about the impact of the latest installments in a series of television advertisements the United Methodist Church (UMC) is running, which tout its slogan "Open hearts, Open minds, Open Doors." A new two million-dollar extension of the church’s ad campaign will begin airing today (August 29) and will run through September 18.<\/p>\n
According to the United Methodist Communications office, the new series of ads called "The Journey" features various "people following different paths until, ultimately, they join together with an invitation to visit a United Methodist Church." But Mark Tooley, who heads the United Methodist Action Committee at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, feels many UMC "elites" are overly preoccupied with diversity, and this latest church public relations campaign may be a rather disingenuous example of that preoccupation.<\/p>\n
Well I am surprised they didn’t have the Church be at the peak of a mountain and have people following different paths reach it. Though I guess it is rather ironic for a church with syncretism impulses to advertise in the first place. <\/p>\n
If only they had come to me I would have provided them some slogans free of charge.<\/p>\n
"Open minds, empty pews"
\n"We don’t need not stinkin’ doctrine"<\/p>\n