WASHINGTON (ABP) — Some progressive groups are protesting a decision by two major TV networks to reject advertisements that stress a major Protestant denomination's inclusiveness.
The United Church of Christ announced Nov. 30 that negotiations with NBC and CBS officials over the TV spots had broken down. NBC executives told church leaders the ad was “too controversial,” and CBS officials cited the White House's support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in rejecting the ad.
The ad — which can be viewed on the UCC communications office's website at www.stillspeaking.com — features two muscular male “bouncers” standing guard at the door of a picturesque church building. A male couple, holding hands, approach the bouncers, who deny them entrance. The bouncers then let a young white family through while rejecting a young African-American woman and a man who appears to be Latino.
The scene is interrupted by text that reads, “Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we.” Then, as a multiethnic and age-diverse group of people pose, smiling, inside what appears to be a church sanctuary, 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.”
According to a document that UCC officials provided to Associated Baptist Press, CBS' program practices division initially withheld approval for the ad Feb. 19, saying, “Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations, and the fact that 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 networks.”
A UCC spokesperson said that, despite the early rejection of the ad, the church understood itself to be in continuing negotiations over the ads until their final rejection by both networks Nov. 30.
Officials at ABC also rejected the ad, but UCC leaders did not protest because that network cited a policy of declining any advertising from any religious group.
A CBS spokesperson would not speak on the record about the controversy other than to say that the network “has a long-standing policy of not accepting advocacy ads or issue-oriented ads.” According to published accounts in the Washington Post and the New York Times, NBC executives cited a similar policy. NBC officials did not return requests for comment from an Associated Baptist Press reporter by press time for this story.
However, a spokesman for a left-leaning media watchdog group said CBS had previously aired controversial advertisements on issues such as marijuana use and Medicare reform that were produced by President Bush's White House. Similarly, in 1993, NBC twice sold advertising to former presidential candidate Ross Perot, who used the time to attack then-President Bill Clinton's economic policies.
“There are so many ways that the CBS explanation doesn't make sense,” said Jamo Foser, senior adviser at Media Matters for America. “But it does raise important questions about how independent the network is from the [Bush] administration.”
Several liberal groups criticized the decision. The pro-gay Human Rights Campaign released a statement from Seth Kilbourn, its national field director.
“That the divisive and unsuccessful attempt to put discrimination in the Constitution is being used to deny the church its freedom of religion is un-American,” Kilbourn's statement read. “Millions of religious people across the country want their churches, synagogues and mosques to be diverse and welcoming. The media should be offering a balanced portrayal of this, not a myopic and incomplete picture.”
CBS and NBC officials also reportedly said the ads were rejected because they appeared to set up a contrast between the progressive UCC — the nation's only major Protestant denomination to support same-sex marriages and the ordination of openly gay clergy — and other denominations.
“If the church wants to say they are inclusive and open, that's a very positive statement that we are very happy to have on the air,” said Alan Wurtzel, NBC's head of broadcast standards, according to the Washington Post. However, he continued, the UCC ad “throws down the gauntlet at a variety of unnamed other churches.”
But that was not the ad's intention, said UCC spokesperson Barb Powell. “I'll first say how surprised we were that they deemed the ads controversial, because we just thought they were ads about Jesus' extravagant welcome,” she said. “To us the ads are clearly allegorical — there's no church with bouncers in front in real life.”
She also said the ads were not aimed exclusively at changing public attitudes about homosexuality but rather at drawing in “unchurched people” who have felt excluded by organized religion “for whatever reason.”
“That's what the commercial is about — it's about the simple message that Jesus welcomes everyone, and we strive to welcome everyone as well.”
Powell also said officials from several other denominations had contacted her office in support of their position. She pointed to comments by the United Methodist Church's advertising director in his denomination's newspaper, in which he roundly criticized CBS and NBC.
“The reasons given by the networks for rejecting this message should bring a chill to everyone who supports freedom of religious expression, because they are saying that a fundamental tenet of Christian belief is politically unacceptable for the public dialogue,” said Larry Hollon, according to the United Methodist Reporter.
Despite its rejection, the ads are airing on several other broadcast and cable networks, including Fox, ABC Family, BET and TBS.
It is part of a $30 million multiyear advertising campaign designed to promote the denomination and help it gain new members. The Cleveland-based body has about 1.3 million members and 6,000 affiliated congregations nationwide. It grew out of a merger between older Congregational, Reformed and German Evangelical denominations.