Cancel Culture at Its Best. The Dryland UCC Drama. What Actually Happened?
One would expect a church to be supportive of the family unit and the protection of children in society, am-I-rite?? Dryland UCC is a local place of worship (and a polling precinct) in the Newburg area of Lower Nazareth. Our chapter booked their Christian education center (CEC) to host a viewing of the movie “Whose Children Are They?” in December. The movie’s website claims it is “A Documentary Uncovering the Hidden Agenda in America’s Public Schools”.
As education and outreach is one of our chapter’s main goals and purpose, we feel strongly that this movie would be essential to establishing a foundation of understanding of the complex issues plaguing our public school and higher education level culture for parents and community members. Dryland UCC has a governing body which is responsible for approving church facility use requests. Upon noticing one of our flyers advertising the movie, one of the governing members (of the consistory) reached out to the consistory and expressed concern that the movie was too political and that it was not part of their mission. After deliberation, a majority of the consistory members agreed not to allow it. The president of the consistory stated that this movie topic is a diving one not a uniting one, just like any political issue and agreed not to support our event. This all unfolded during the holiday weekend, while just about everyone involved was working, grocery shopping, spending time with family, traveling, etc. We (M4L) received the rejection from Dryland on Sunday night via email, 4 days prior to the event.
I would like to point out that Susan Bostian, a community member and leader in our community, Pastor of the Community Church of Faith, that was operating out of Dryland UCC tried to explain to the consistory the basis for the movie, what is happening outside of the church, the need to support parents and their rights to protect their family. Jennifer spoke with the president of the consistory this past Monday. (Thank you Jennifer!!!) She demonstrated the leadership and courageousness we need to find in all of us to stand up to nonsense and gaslighting in a professional way and was able to get our deposit back. We own a copy of the movie and will be announcing a new movie date soon, once we secure another venue. Stay tuned!!!