Rejected

     The new UCC Commercial is scheduled to air on Monday, April 3 (prior to Palm Sunday and Easter) through Mother's Day, May 14.  However, like the "Bouncer" ad in the past, this new "Ejector" commercial has also been rejected by the major TV networks - ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and WB - as being either too controversial or too religious.  Three of the networks rejected the commercial as an inappropriate "advocacy" ad because of its references to race, ethnicity, and homosexuality.  It will however be airing on other cable networks, including: ABC Family, BET, CNN, Discovery Channel, TNT, Hallmark, Univision, Telemundo, and Telefutura.
 
    You can see the ad on line using Real Player, Windows Media, or Quick Time at http://stillspeaking.com/resources/indexvis.html, and judge for yourself whether or not this is too controversial for television.  Is it any worse than anything else that gets aired on TV?  Is it wrong to talk about the issues of inclusion and exclusion in regard to race, ethnicity, gender, age, orientation, and physical abilities?
 
    You can also view the previous two UCC Commercials at this web site: "Bouncer" (which has bouncers keeping people out of a church), and "All the People" (which has a variety of different people doing the rhyme, "Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors, and there's all the people"... all the people).
 
    The new commercial is intended to be humorous.  It features a woman sitting in a church pew trying to quiet her crying child, and an usher pushes a red button on the wall that ejects her from her spring loaded pew into the air.  During the commercial a Middle Eastern man, two males sitting together, a man with a walker, and more are ejected with the push of the button.  Finally, a woman who appears to be homeless sits in the pew, and people move away from her, expecting that she too will be ejected.  The commercial ends with a picture of a variety of different people of different races, ethnicities, ages, physical abilities, and genders all standing together, as the narrator says, "The United Church of Christ... no matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you' re welcome here."
 
    "The message of the commercial is simple," the Rev. John Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president, said Monday (March 27). "No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here at the United Church of Christ."  Thomas said he found it "odd and bewildering" that the ads would be rejected.  The UCC has launched a new Web site, www.accessibleairwaves.org, to prod the networks towards including mainstream religious voices.  Ron Buford, director of the Still Speaking Initiative, says, "the new ad enables the message to be funny but still impactful."  Thomas added, "No one will look at a church pew again in the same way!"
 
    You can read more about this issue, as well as find links to newspaper reports, at the following web sites:
        www.ucc.org
        www.stillspeaking.com

     You can give financial support to enable the airing of the God is Still Speaking commercial on line at http://www.stillspeaking.com/campaign/support.htm, or in person or by postal mail, by making a contribution payable to "Christ Church UCC; PO Box 205; Temple, PA 19560" with "GISS" written in the memo line.