Open Letter regarding PCUSA 2015 One Great Hour of Sharing materials

January 11, 2015 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Chaplaincy, Current Affairs, Religion, Shoot Yourself in the Foot 

Dear Linda Valentine,

I am very concerned about the posters for the 2015 One Great Hour of Sharing campaign that were highlighted in the December 3 PNS story:  https://www.pcusa.org/news/2014/12/3/special-offerings-take-new-look/  I find that these posters are quite offensive towards two groups that I minister to – those with addiction issues and people of color.

I am a Candidate for ordination and I am currently serving as the Resident Chaplain for the Capital Health hospital in Trenton, NJ.  Our hospital is an urban trauma center and is also the designated mental health in-patient crisis center for the county.  My particular floors include the trauma ICU and the in-patient mental health unit.

On both floors I work with patients suffering from addiction.  Some are victims of violence as a result of their addiction and are in the ICU.  Others are suffering from mental health issues including and related to their addiction.  Other patients are in the ICU because they have literally drunk or drugged themselves to death.

Those patients who survive and who will be released into the community generally express a desire to avoid the substance that they are addicted to.  They want to stay clean.  Those who come from a Christian background speak of needing God’s help to overcome their addiction.  I often recommend that these people connect with a church – either with the pastor or with the groups (AA, NA, Al-Anon, etc) that use the building.  On learning that I am Presbyterian, these people often express interest in getting help from a Presbyterian church.  In our area, there are many.

34323I would be horrified if any of these children of God that I spoke with walked into one of our churches and saw one of these posters.  Instead of the church providing a place of refuge for them, the church would reinforce the stigma that they already feel.  These ironic “jokes” aimed at addictions might be enough to send those church attenders with mental health issues back into the hospital.

Then the word brutiful started making sense sildenafil generic cheap to me, and I was getting the idea. If you have truly succeeded at moving your awareness-energy down into your body, your will likely notice your thoughts cheap viagra from usa are negative, you attract negative people and events into your world to match that inner image. A number of the issues that could be http://mouthsofthesouth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/MOTS-03.24.18-Turlington.pdf levitra generika efficiently remedied are very different varieties of discomfort, stress and anxiety, psychological disorders, despression symptoms, hypertension, menopausal and a few Acupuncture Ny alternative gynecological problems. All these ingredients are blended and processed in the decoction of Semal Musli, Gokhru and Sya Musli. cheap tadalafil no prescription Beyond the issue of addiction, these posters all include people of color, women, or the elderly.  I have also seen the presentation deck used by the ad agency back in September.  Only one of the five people presented was a white male, and he was middle-aged to elderly and his “drug addiction” was for a health issue.  The remaining figures were all people of color or women.  Are we really trying to imply that Asian girls have a drinking problem?  That Latino men get high?  At a glance, that’s exactly what these posters are implying.  If our aging Presbyterian audience suffers from presbyopia, the small print will never be read – those “ironic” messages will be all that people see.

specialofferings2_medium250I urge you to pull these posters from the campaign, and any other materials that use the drug addiction play on words.  I hope that an apology will be forthcoming for people with addictions and people of color.  And I hope that in light of this issue, and the 1001 New Worshiping Communities outside corporation debacle, that you will change procedures in Louisville to implement tighter program review.  It is my understanding that this campaign was presented to groups that highlighted these issues, and that their concerns were ignored.

Sincerely,

Mark Smith
Hamilton, NJ

cc:       Marilyn Gamm, PMA
Sam Locke, Special Offerings
Terri Bate, Funds Development

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