Jesus too open-minded for TV networks

[pegkerr]

Thanks to cakmpls for this one.

The UCC (the United Church of Christ) tried to air a spot announcing that, like Jesus, they welcome everyone. Some networks consider that too controversial.

http://www.ucc.org/news/u113004a.htm

Edited to add: king_tirian pondered aloud a bit whether the problem the UCC identified with other churches was actually a real problem. Are people really turned away from churches? Based on this news story, and this followup, among others, I'd say that it is.

Comments

Hmm...

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Would you say sexuality _itself_ is "a behavior or an integral part of the character"?

Re: Hmm...

[king-tirian.livejournal.com]

Hurm. I identify myself as an asexual person, so you are free to feel as if I am talking out of my ass. :D But I suspect that our carnal urges are a fundimental part of us but how we react to them is a choice.

In fifty years when all of this has been sorted out and gayness is a respected freedom in our land, I think that there will be an established sexual morality for Christian GLB-folk. Sex outside the boundaries of a committed relationship, sex with someone who is committed to someone else, sex between people who are unable or unwilling to give consent -- these are temptations to GLB-Christians as much as they are to heterosexual Christians, and I suspect that they are expected to master those temptations in the same manner.

Re: Hmm...

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

See my comment here. I'd say the ad was dead on.

Re: Hmm...

[king-tirian.livejournal.com]

Okay, I concede the point. I don't normally put on my hat that allows me to speak for God, but any church that turns away the "too" sinful is out of fellowship with Christ, and I could imagine that the marginalized in our society would identify with the "bouncer" imagery even in cases where it was a fringe minority of the congregation and not the clergy that was perpetuating the unwelcomeness.

Even if this was a close moral call (and it is not), a broadcast television station has no place in choosing to censor the message or a major religious denomination, any more than if they chose to block Chevrolet ads because the network's board of directors prefer Fords.

If there is good news, it is that the stink that this is raising will undoubtedly provide more exposure of the UCCs Open and Affirming principles than if the ads had been broadcast and been forgotten.

And thank you so much for putting my mind to rest in another matter. I had been searching for a few days now to see what ETA stood for in blog-ese. :)