CBS, NBC refuse to air church's TV ad

[karlrschneider]

http://www.wfn.org/2004/11/msg00231.html

[NC_Nurse]

1. Wow.

that sucks.

Meanwhile, there's a RW fundie asshole on every channel at some point in the week...what's wrong with this picture?

[BayCityProgressive]

9. I'm not surprised

Could you imagine if Reform Jews, Methodists, United Church of Christ, Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church, Quakers ect ect started organizing people for progressive causes? The right wing media will NEVER allow this. We are not living in a democracy.

[acmavm]

2. Saying that everyone is welcome to worship at their chruch, regardless

of race, gender, or sexual persuasion is too 'controversial'? But shows that feature sex and violence as their main attraction is not?

What part of Christian don't these people understand????????????

Judge not, lest thee be judged seems to have been scrapped from the scriptures.

[TankLV]

32. But they can show Pig Robertson and Jello Fartwell condemning

homosexhuals and wishing them dead is okie dokie.

First they said it was simple capitallism and commerce - that dems and liberals simply didn't spend the loot like the wingnuts did.

Then we came up with the money, and all of a sudden it's "not the right time", "too controversial", etc. etc.

Who are they kidding?
Who are they still fooling?

I'm sick of this shit.

If any demonstrations want to be effective, they've got to target the TV STUDIOS AND PRINTERS/PATERS!

TAKE BACK OUR AIRWAVES!

[Turn CO Blue]

3. What the heck!?! Send this to the ACLU.

Absolute craziness and hypocrisy by CBS and NBC!

Two excerpts for those who don't click on the link:
"Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations," reads an explanation from CBS, "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 networks."


"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," says the Rev. Robert Chase, director of the UCC's communication ministry.

_______________________________________________________
My blood is boiling, and although I never gave much thought to the United Church of Christ, I will be sure to send them an email of support.

DUDE, WHERE IS MY COUNTRY?

[BlueEyedSon]

6. Yup.... ACLU, baby! nt

[Turn CO Blue]

19. Yep. The ACLU supports both sides of the

religion issue -
1. freedom of religion and freedom from persecution
2. freedom from imposed religion

[iamjoy]

4. Amazing....

The "Liberal Media" is preventing positive faith messages from getting to the public.

And people wonder why Liberals seem alientated from religion. When the only religion that fills the airwaves, etc. is the likes of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and a Catholic bishop saying people who vote for pro-choice candidates can't take communion...

[Telly Savalas]

5. Just when you think you're numb to feeling moral outrage

Some stupid assholes have to pull shit like this.

What's wrong with these people?

[ComerPerro]

33. That's exactly how I feel

I thought I was completely numb. I didn't think anything would really shock me or cause feelings of outrage. But...

[IndianaGreen]

7. Fundies would murder Jesus were he alive today!

I suppose that it is okay for the networks to air hate messages from Christian fundamentalists, but it is "too controversial" for them to broadcast an all-inclusive message from a liberal Christian Church.

Don't you find it ironic that the ad will air on FAUX?

[bunkerbuster1]

44. My thoughts exactly: Fundies actually HATE Jesus.

For all their worshipful talk of the Son of God, they clearly hate what He did and preached while on this earth.

[whistle]

8. I just reread these three paragraphs several times . . .

. . . because the language used in the article had me perplexed:
<snip>

"The ad, part of the denomination's new, broad identity campaign set to
begin airing nationwide on Dec. 1, states that -- like Jesus -- the United
Church of Christ (UCC) seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability,
age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation.

According to a written explanation from CBS, the United Church of Christ is
being denied network access because its ad implies acceptance of gay and
lesbian couples -- among other minority constituencies -- and is,
therefore, too "controversial."

"Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other
minority groups by other individuals and organizations," reads an
explanation from CBS, "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 UPN] networks."

Now the part that confused me was the quoted explanation by CBS above, but I think it saying that because the United Church of Christ's ad welcomes gays and lesbians and other churches clearly don't and might consider the ad offensive to their principles, CBS is refusing to air the ads.

This has now gone beyond anything that can be tolerated as far as evangelical and fundamentalist religious organizations influence over the constitutional rights of people in our country. This insanity must be stopped. CBS and NBC are afraid of fines and having their broadcast licenses revoked, that's the issue here. This is a separation of Church and state and the power the two together can exercise over other institutions who are not afraid of their beliefs and values. I believe this is a violation of anti-trust laws, because churches have become big business and wish to eliminate competition. Wow, slap the fundies with property and income taxes, they need to loose their non-profit status.

[IndianaGreen]

11. One one version of Christianity will be officially sanctioned

and that is the extremist version being peddled by the likes of Falwell and Robertson. All other Christians are heretics!

What's next, the Holy Inquisition?

[whistle]

16. That already happened yesterday on the Tim Russert show...

...last evening when Falwell and another RW fundie by the name of Land were harassing Rev Al Sharpton and Rev Wallace who took the full page ad out condemning the extreme position of church and state. Falwell was condemning both of these men right on the show complete with finger pointing and in the case of Al Sharpton, Falwell using his back-pointing thumb, a clearly disrespectful and demeaning gesture similar to the European closed fist and upward thrust of the arm held back at the elbow! Disgraceful, intolerant and clearly not at all an example of unconditional Christian love. Shame on Jerry Falwell and may he show eternal repentance of his arrogance when he passes over and meets his creator.

[LynzM]

15. I'm with you on the confusion...

Preaching intolerance is fine, but as soon as you start preaching tolerance, that's too controversial? Pardon me, but :wtf:?

Good freakin' grief.

[Jane Eyre]

10. Which UCC is this?

There is one United Church of Christ which is mainstream, and the other is a cult. I'm not sure, but I think that the cult UCC is headquartered out of the Boston area so this must be the mainstream church.

I encountered several UCC cult members when I lived in Boston some years ago. They targeted single people and were very aggressive in their recruiting practices. Once I was approached at a health club, once while walking down the street and once I was targeted by one of my employees! They will call you at home incessantly, trying to get you to come to their "church", and there was definitely a programmed message that they were using to try to bring in people that they thought might be lonely and vulnerable. The "church" was more of a compound than a regular church.

Like I said, I think that this sounds more like the mainstream UCC church. On the other hand, I can see the cult UCC using their recruiting tactics to target populations that they think might be vulnerable.

[Ranec]

27. You are thinking of the Boston Church of Christ

The BCC recruits heavily from the students around Boston, and pressure their members to socialize only with other members. Not a great group of folks!

This is however completely different from the UCC.

[shuffnew]

47. Unfortunately, I think a number of denominations have two sects...

mainstream/traditional & cult! It's not just UCC. Not only is our country heavily divided, but so are many church denominations.

Traditional-Mainstream v Self-Serving Cult

[Doctor_J]

12. this further proves my theory

that we will get back in power the very minute the media is brought under control - not one minute sooner, not one minute later. As soon as Limpballs and the rest of his ilk are balanced out by voices of sanity, the long national nightmare will be over.

Most Americans AGREE with this chruch's position, but CBS and NBC (and the other media, for that matter) are either run by ultra-right wingers, or afraid of said wingers, or both.

[Buns_of_Fire]

24. Afraid of the Winger-in-Chief, too

"...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..."

Pretty lame reason, if you ask me.

[Eric J in MN]

28. I bet MSNBC would run it.

MSNBC ran ads calling Senator Paul Wellstone a "communist" in 2002, and so they're pretty open.

[madison2000]

13. this is my denomination and I was so excited about this ad campaign

The theme is God is still speaking.

I am stunned. I cannot believe that this is controversial.

What is the world coming to? The UCC is in many ways a very traditional, mainstream protestant denomination. It isn't a "gay denomination" by any means, but a place where everyone is made to feel welcome.

The purpose of the ad campaign is simply to let people know that not all churches are bigots - and that is considered controversial.

Unbelievable.

http://www.ucc.org/index2.html

[ret5hd]

14. as this is your denomination...

is this ad campaign from the mainstream church or the cult group (as so referenced to in post #10 above).

as an atheist, it doesn't matter to me, but i am hopefu that it is the mainstream one.

[madison2000]

17. the mainstream - United Church of Christ

They are in every city in this country and have been around for a very long time.

Local congregations have a lot of decision making power as opposed to most denominations. Lots of concern for social issues.

The key word has always been "inclusive" and that applies to everything. I have no doubt that there are even conservatives who worship in this denomination.

Look at the crap that they show on prime time TV but you can't show an ad saying that there is a church without bigots out there...

[Ian David]

21. It's Springtime for Bushler in Jesusland

[gaia_gardener]

35. I'm UCC too

I'd rather be Quaker but the meeting in our area is basically dead. All the Quakers now attend the UCC.

Our church had a unanimous vote to be open and confirming. We have several same sex couples and our church van even participated in the gay pride parade.

I grew up southern baptist so the whole "autonomy of the church" thing is old hat to me. SB churches are pretty autonomous from the convention and get to choose their preachers (which happens a lot more often than in the UCC churches I've seen).

I love that our church is so open. Liberal Christianity at it's finest.

[Tess49]

18. Heard a great United Church of Christ minister

About three weeks ago, a United Church of Christ minister from OKC came to Norman to speak at a small student church at the University of Oklahoma. It was raining, parking was not abundant, and still, the little church filled up with people of all ages. I saw a couple of frail, elderly people making their way in from a distant parking lot, determined to hear this talk on the war. The minister said he was still grieving over John Kerry's loss. He said he refuses to give up his religion to the right wing. He spoke of the immorality of the Bush administration, the need to protect Roe-Wade because by doing so we protect women, and his opposition to the war in Iraq. He spoke of the members of his church who are straight, gay, lesbian. A place where everyone is welcome. He talked about Vietnam and said (and I loved this part) "the time has come when we may need to consider civil disobedience, like we did in the sixties". I am not religious -- having been arguing with fundamentalist fanatics since about age 10. But I think I may have found a church.

[madison2000]

20. by inclusive they also mean

people who are searching for god, unsure about what they believe, agnostics, anyone... the church I go to has a "noisy worship" service which is totally non-traditional in many ways, but the message is all there.

[Cheswick2.0]

22. Tess Thanks for sharing that story

I know how that minister feels.

[Tess49]

39. yes! Robin Meyers

[gaia_gardener]

36. Hey - Robin Meyers right?

I love Robin.

I go to that church (Mayflower). It really is a great place.

[Tess49]

40. Sorry, put that response in the wrong place.

Yes, it is Robin Meyers. I've been listening to his radio show. I hope to be able to drive up there soon.

[Cheswick2.0]

23. I am next to tears over this

I usually just get cynically disgusted and wonder where our help is coming from. But this.. I can't make any sense out of it.
I belong to PC USA and officially we are not as inclusive as the UCC. If this add shows and makes some of my fellow Presbyterians feel less inclusive and a bit ashamed THEN GOOD!

I can not believe that these networks are censoring a religious message because it is not BIGOTED enough and because it is not in accordance with our MESSIANIC, FASCIST REPUBLICAN (AND SOME DEMOCRATS) LEADERS.

This is clearly a political decision.

[Eric J in MN]

29. This line may cheer you up.

"The ad has been accepted and will air on a number of networks, including ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, History, Nick@Nite, TBS, TNT, Travel and TV Land, among others."

[Cheswick2.0]

34. Thanks Eric

I am glad the adds will play somewhere.

[Dr Fate]

25. I'ts that darned old Liberal Media again!!!

Always showing their bias!

Thank god for Fox!

[genieroze]

26. I'm not suprised, these people do think with their wallets.

Why offend anyone? Has the church been reduced to a commodity, with ad campaigns.

[Cheswick2.0]

31. the church is trying to reachout to people

In todays world TV might be the best way to reach people. The church isn't preaching, just welcoming people who feel unwelcome in other churches. Is there some problem with that?

[genieroze]

46. There are religious shows all over, even when I was a kid.

They always want money. Remember the 700 club with Baker.

[Cheswick2.0]

49. it is not a religious show

It is a comercial letting people who would like to go to church but feel they are unwelcome, that there is somewhere that does welcome them.
Do you have any idea of how many religious gay people there are and how few churches treat them as equals?

[genieroze]

53. Self Delete off topic

[hvn_nbr_2]

30. Who has addresses for CBS and NBC?

We need to flood them with complaints.

I kind of thought there would probably be a media directory somewhere on DU but I didn't find anything (in a quick cursory search, admittedly).

[shuffnew]

52. Find Media & Government links & Write to Reps links, etc.....

The DU does have a links directory: http://www.democraticunderground.com/links/pages

I have my own contact list too (have not checked yet to see if these are all on the DU links or not, so this may have some duplication: (my below list includes more than TV Broadcasting, but will put all I have in case anyone else want to use these...))

ABC NEWS ADVERTISING CONTACTS (Media Kit):
http://mediakit.go.com/abcnews/index.html
mailto: [e-mail]
General Website: http://www.abc.com
http://www.abcnews.com

CBS ADVERTISING SALES CONTACTS: from CBC website: http://www.cbs.com
http://www.cbs.com/sales/contact/contact.shtml

FOXNEWS BROADCASTING: http://www.foxnews.com and http://www.fox.com (there are clicks for general & advertising contacts)

GANNET BROADCASTING-TV (on the web): http://www.gannett.com/web/gan014.htm

GANNET NEWSPAPERS (on the web): http://www.gannett.com/web/gan013.htm

NBC CONTACTS: from NBC website: http://www.nbc.com
http://www.nbc.com/nbc/footer/Contact_Us.shtml

MSNBCCONTACTS: from MSNBC website: http://www.msnbc.msn.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3303518/

SINCLAIR BROADCASTING: http://www.sbgi.com or
contact Sinclair: http://www.sbgi.net/contact/contact.shtml

FAIRNESS AND ACCURACY IN REPORTING website (often highlights Fox News & others that may be providing biased/unfair reporting): http://www.fair.org/

NEWSPAPERS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB: (search by country to find most all world wide newspapers)
http://www.gt.kth.se/publishing/news.html

WRITE LETTERS OR PETITIONS SENT TO LOCAL OR GOVERNMENT REPS:
This nonpartisan site at http://www.e-thepeople.org works with more than 150 newspapers, television stations and internet portals to gather information. This link takes you to the letters page, which allows you to write a letter to any public official in the United States. It also allows you to create group or individual Petitions that automatically will send the Petition results to the recipient(s) of your choice. Write Letters: http://www.e-thepeople.org/letter/write

FIND & WRITE OR CONTACT YOUR HOUSE or SENATE REPS: (from the senate & house websites)
House: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Senate: http://www.senate.gov/

CONTACT ELECTED OFFICIALS: Find elected officials, including the president, vice president, members of Congress, governors, state legislators, local officials, and more at: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/

FIND U.S. STATE GOVERNOR'S EMAILs & WEBSITEs: (search on University of Michigan's website - great site to search for state governors, etc.)
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/govemail.html

SEC (SECURITY & EXCHANGE) ENFORCEMENT WEBSITE:
http://www.sec.gov/divisions/enforce.shtml
SEC'S "EDGAR SEARCH" TO FOR SPECIFIC SEC FILINGS INFORMATION:
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml

SOME UNIONS & ORGANIZED LABOR WEBSITES:
ACLU's American Civil Liberties Union: http://www.aclu.org
AFL-CIO: http://www.aflcio.org/
AFSCME: http://www.afscme.org/
CWA-Legislative website: http://www.cwa-legislative.org/
CWA Communications & Technoligies website: http://www.cwa-comtech.org/
SEIU (HEALTH CARE WORKERS UNION): http://www.seiu.org
or find local SEIU unions: http://www.seiu.org/lookup/
UAE (USA's Rank-and-File Union): http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/
UAW website: http://www.uaw.org (The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW))
Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, Communications Workers of America, Local 37083, AFL-CIO: http://www.washtech.org

[Lydia Leftcoast]

37. Hmmph, I guess my church couldn't advertise on the networks, either

A few years ago, the Episcopal Church had a series of poster ads, one of which showed a baby and said, "You're welcome in the Episcopal Church, no matter how many times you've been born." Another one said, "You don't have to check your brains at the door."

My current parish has on its Sunday bulletin, "Wherever you are on your faith journey, we welcome you."

That would be too controversial for national television, I suppose.

It all reminds me of the time that George Will, Pat Buchanan, and Gore Vidal were all commentators on ABC's Sunday morning program. After a year or so, they fired Gore Vidal, telling him that he was "too outrageous." Vidal's comment was, "They kept Pat Buchanan but I'm too outrageous?"

[charlie]

38. "Wherever you are on your faith journey, we welcome you."

Yep. Too controversial. Really. From the ad:

"No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you're welcome here."

http://www.stillspeaking.com/default.htm

[madison2000]

41. Look at the programming on NBC

Isn't this the network that brings us Will and Grace?
And what about Seinfeld, Friends, SNL? Plenty of homosexual humor on these shows.

I guess what's really radical is not to have homosexual characters or jokes on your primetime shows, but to show an ad which implies that they are acceptable in God's eyes. That's just going too far.

[Dem2theMax]

42. The programming makes them $$$.

The right wing will yell like crazy if they show the ads, thereby losing $$$. As usual, it's all about $$$$$.

[mainer]

43. I see ads for the Mormon Church all the time

Maybe this ad's controversial because of the bouncer?

[shuffnew]

45. NBC & CBS et al don't mind giving "Free" ads to Falwell, Robertson, etc.

This is dispicable... They don't mind giving "free" press to the lunatics such as Falwell & Robertson (the "hate mongers"), but they won't even allow "paid" ads for a church who invites anyone and everyone to worship with them? Supporting the hate-mongers only? This is terrible.

We should write letters of disgust to those channels refusing to run the ad and letters of praise to those that are running it.

The "hate-mongers" are the ones causing the "controversy" and tearing up the churches around the country. The channels should be terminating their "free" press for the likes of Falwell and welcome paid ads from those who welcome "all" in any church.
(snip from you URL link below..)
"In focus groups and test market research conducted before the campaign's national rollout, the UCC found that many people throughout the country feel alienated by churches. The television ad is geared toward those persons who, for whatever reason, have not felt welcomed or comfortable in a church.

"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," says the Rev. Robert Chase, director of the UCC's communication ministry."
(end of snip)

I find this totally disgusting that any channel could refuse an open church while supporting those with a selective closed-door policy.

[Stuckinthebush]

48. Jeez...

I guess the UUs could forget ever getting a national ad on these networks.

[elehhhhna]

50. certainly this would make the baby jesus cry.

[TalkingDog]

51. Wait a FREAKIN minute here....Will and Grace anybody?

Which one of these networks makes a major sh*it load of money off of Will and Grace?

HYPOCRITES!!!!!

These people make me sick.

[Z_I_Peevey]

56. NBC also is the network of Fear Factor, the most morally

repugnant television show in the history of the medium, IMHO. The disgusting displays on that show would make Caligula blush. Recently, they showed people drinking pureed RAT, followed by lurid shots of the inevitable barfing.

This is what we've come to as a nation. Christ's message of all-inclusive love is too controversial. Watching people consume and regurgitate putrid brews is acceptable entertainment.

I can't even get mad anymore. It's just gone too far.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

54. This Outrages Me

But on the bright side, I don't watch TV any more, and this controversy alerted me to the existence of the church and the ad campaign. As a result, I am going to visit a UCC church this month.

DTH

[xerox]

55. They should

its not hurting anything.

[atommom]

57. It's a sad day when an ad like this is too "controversial." And how

ironic is it that Fox, whose "news" we all love to hate, is actually going to carry the ad?