United Church of Christ, Night Club
Sunday morning, the sky is bright with a new day, and the church bells ring, attracting its flock to services.
Two men holding hands walk up to the steps, but are stopped by two bouncers in black T-shirts behind velvet ropes. "No," one says in a deep voice, with his hand up. "Step aside, please." The bouncers open the rope to let in a WASP-y family.
The bouncer then stops a young Latino with, "Not you." He stops a black girl, "I don't think so." A man rolling up in a wheelchair also gets hit with a firm "No." (It's not clear how he'd get up the steps anyway.)
Text on the screen then reads, "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we."
Over images of many people together, including a female couple holding each other, a narrator says, "The United Church of Christ. No matter who you are, or WHERE you are on life's journey, you're welcome here."
Although most religious commercials are innocuous and dull, no one would say the same of this effort!
Rather, some fundamentalists claimed the church is bashing other churches with this edgy ad, and that no churches actually refuse entry to people of color, the disabled or others. Of course, the spot is not meant to be taken literally (not coincidentally, fundamentalists are known for their literal reading of the Bible) but rather as an illustration of the problem that people feel excluded for one reason or another (sexuality, race, etc.).
In fact, the United Church's press release said that focus groups and test market research conducted before the campaign rollout indicated that many people feel alienated by churches.
The commercial was rejected by the Big Three networks ABC, NBC and CBS, but accepted by ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, History, Nick@Nite, TBS, TNT, Travel, TV Land, and others.
ABC says it does not accept religious advertising (its unit ABC Family apparently does, however), the only network with such a policy. The other networks relied on more murky standards for their defenses.
In a press release, the United Church (headquartered in Cleveland with nearly 6,000 congregations and 1.3 million members) quoted CBS as saying, "Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations, and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the
CNNMoney reported that a CBS spokesman confirmed that the ad was banned, but would not comment directly about the above statement. "It was against our policy of accepting advocacy advertising," said the CBS spokesman.
The CNNMoney article also quoted an NBC spokeswoman, who said the problem with the ad was the implication that other religions are not open to all people. "It went against our long-standing policy of not accepting ads that deal with issues public controversy," said the NBC spokeswoman.
In its press release, the Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president. said, "It's ironic that after a political season awash in commercials based on fear and deception by both parties seen on all the major networks, an ad with a message of welcome and inclusion would be deemed too controversial. What's going on here?"
The Rev. Robert Chase, director of the UCC's communication ministry, added in the release, "We find it disturbing that the networks in question seem to have no problem exploiting gay persons through mindless comedies or titillating dramas, but when it comes to a church's loving welcome of committed gay couples, that's where they draw the line."
The church is acting aggressively on the commercial. In December 2004 it even asked the Federal Communications Commission to deny license renewals for two network-owned
television stations in Miami, as a result of CBS and NBC refusing to air the ad. (Licenses come up for FCC renewal once every eight years.)
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