[Mb-civic] Love One Another? Not on NBC, CBS

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Published on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 by The Nation  
Love One Another? Not on NBC, CBS  
by John Nichols 
  http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1201-22.htm
The Rev. John Thomas, who serves as general minister and 
president of the United Church of Christ, is having a hard time 
figuring out why the same broadcasters that profited so handsomely 
from airing the vicious and divisive attack advertisements during the 
recent presidential election are now refusing to air an advertisement 
from his denomination that celebrates respect for one another and 
inclusiveness. 

"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," said Thomas. "What's going on 
here?" 

The ad in question is part of an ambitious new national campaign by 
the UCC to appeal to Americans who feel alienated from religion 
and churches, and to equip the denomination's 6,000 congregations 
across the U.S. to welcome newcomers. In an effort to break 
through the commercial clutter that clogs the arteries of broadcast 
and cable television, the UCC ad features an arresting image: a pair 
of muscle-bound bouncers standing in front of a church and telling 
some people they can attend while turning others away. 

After people of color, a disabled man and a pair of men who might 
be gay are turned away, the image dissolves to a text statement 
that: "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we." 

Then, as images of diverse couples and families appear on screen, 
an announcer explains that, "No matter who you are, or where you 
are on life's journey, you are welcome here." It is a graceful 
commercial, which delivers an important message gently yet 
effectively -- something that cannot be said of most television 
advertising these days. But viewers of the CBS and NBC television 
networks won't see it because, in this age of heightened focus on 
so-called "moral values," quoting Jesus on the issue of inclusion is 
deemed to be "too controversial." 

What was controversial? Apparently, the networks don't like the ad's 
implication that the Nazarene's welcome to all people might actually 
include ALL people. 

Noting that the image of one woman putting her arm around another 
was included in the ad, CBS announced, "Because the 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 (CBS and UPN) networks." 

NBC was similarly concerned that the spot was "controversial." UCC 
leaders, pastors and congregation members are upset, and rightly 
so. 

"It' seems incredible to me that CBS admits it is refusing to air the 
commercial because of something the Executive Branch, the Bush 
administration, is doing," says Dave Moyer, conference minister for 
the Wisconsin Conference of the UCC. "Since when is it 
unacceptable to offer a different perspective?" 

Moyer says that people of all religious faiths and all ideological 
perspectives should be concerned that the major networks -- which 
dominate so much of the discourse in America -- are seeking to 
narrow the dialogue. 

The Rev. Curt Anderson, the pastor of the First United Church of 
Christ in Madison, Wisconsin, says that people of good will should 
also be concerned about the message being sent to gays and 
lesbians in the aftermath of an election season that saw them 
targeted by the political right. 

"I'm thinking of the LGBT folks in my church who felt so under 
attack after the election. They are getting hit again," explained the 
pastor. "This is another way where the culture, the media, makes 
them invisible. It is incredible that it is controversial for one woman 
to put her arm around another." 

It is also bizarrely hypocritical. After all, the same NBC network that 
found the UCC ad "too controversial" airs programs such as "Will & 
Grace" that feature gay and lesbian characters. "We find it 
disturbing that the networks in question seem to have no problem 
exploiting gay persons through mindless comedies and titillating 
dramas, but when it comes to a church's loving welcome to 
committed gay couples, that's where they draw the line," explained 
the Rev. Bob Chase, director of the national UCC's communication 
ministry. 

Chase has a point. CBS and NBC, networks that reap enormous 
profits from the public airwaves, are not serving the public interest. 
Rather, they are assaulting it by narrowing the dialogue and 
rejecting a message of inclusion that is sorely needed at this point in 
the American experiment. 

John Nichols' book on Cheney, Dick: The Man Who Is President, 
has just been released by The New Press. 

© 2004 The Nation
 

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