ELCA Communication Officer, Others, Respond To TV Ad Rejection

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In the wake of the CBS and NBC television networks' refusal to air an advertisement from the United Church of Christ (UCC), communication officers from several religious denominations and organizations decried the "arbitrary standards of the network gatekeepers" that kept the ad from being broadcast.
In a Dec. 3 public statement issued through the Communications Commission of the National Council of Churches USA, the communication leaders complained that the "for-profit" broadcasters "are all too willing to promulgate messages laced with sexual innuendo, greed, violence and the politics of personal destruction, but a message of openness and welcome that merely says 'church doors are open to all' is being silenced as too controversial."
The Rev. Eric C. Shafer, director of the Department for Communication of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was among those who signed on to the statement. The ELCA and the UCC share a relationship of "full communion," in which the churches agree to engage in cooperative ministries and, under certain circumstances, clergy from one church body may serve in a congregation of the other church.
The ad, part of the UCC's new identity campaign that began airing nationwide Dec. 1, stated that -- as Jesus did -- the United Church of Christ (UCC) seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation.
CBS-TV and NBC-TV rejected the UCC ad, saying its all-inclusive welcome was "too controversial." In a written explanation, CBS-TV said it declined to air the ad because it implied acceptance of gay and lesbian couples among other minority constituencies.
"Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations," read an explanation from CBS-TV, "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."
Similarly, a rejection by NBC declared the spot "too controversial."
The ad has been accepted and is airing on several networks including ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, History, Nick@Nite, TBS, TNT, Travel and TV Land.
"Church doors are open to all who would come; but broadcast channels are increasingly closed to all but the wealthy and well-connected," the religion communication leaders said in their statement. The UCC did not ask the networks for free time to air the message, the communication leaders' statement said. The church was willing to "pay dearly" for the privilege to air the spot on the networks, it said.
The communication leaders noted that there is plenty of advocacy advertising on television for agribusinesses, drug manufacturers, gambling casinos, oil companies and some government agencies.
"Are only the ideas and attitudes of faith groups now off limits?" the communication leaders asked. "Constitutional guarantees of religious liberty and freedom of speech, not to mention common fairness, beg for leadership by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to assure that America's faith community has full and equal access to the nation's airwaves, to deliver positive messages that seek to build and enrich the quality of life."
In focus groups and test market research conducted before the campaign's national rollout, the UCC found that many people throughout the country felt alienated by churches. The television ad is geared toward those people who, for whatever reason, have not felt welcomed or comfortable in a congregation, according to a UCC news 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," said the Rev. Robert Chase, director of the UCC's communication ministry.
The UCC has nearly 6,000 congregations and 1.3 million members. Its national office is in Cleveland.
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The United Church of Christ maintains a site at http://www.ucc.org on the Web.

The ad rejected by the broadcast networks can be viewed online at
http://www.stillspeaking.com on the Web.

The communication leaders' statement will be posted at www.ncccusa.org/about/comcomadvocacy.html on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news