Accessible Airwaves

Once again, the United Church of Christ's inclusion-themed, 30-second TV commercial has been rejected by the broadcast networks and now cable network, Viacom.

The United Church of Christ's all-inclusive message has been deemed "too controversial."

It’s time for equal access.

1. Let Your Voice Be Heard - Send a Message to Viacom Viacom accepts ads laced with sexual innuendo, greed, violence, and the politics of personal destruction, while our message of openness and welcome is not allowed. Tell Viacom to make the airwaves accessible. 2. Tell Your Friends Broadcasters who use the public airwaves have a responsibility to operate in the public interest. Spread the word about our campaign!

Back to the UCC

When we lived in Amherst, MA, my wife, children and I attended the South Congregational Church. We loved the unpretentious preaching, the entwined lives of young and old members, the bustling coffee hour after church.

When we moved to Chapel Hill two years ago, one of our chief regrets was leaving that church behind. It had felt like home. Since then, we've ricocheted among churches -- Presbyterian, Universalist, Methodist. Alternatively pompous, diffuse or unsociable, they all made us uncomfortable. We fell into the habit of walking the dog on Sunday mornings.

About six weeks ago when the UCC began considering advertising on blogs, I got to see a draft version of the UCC's online Flash ad, the one that shows people being turned away from a church's steps. Though the metaphor was extreme, it spoke a poetic truth. Who wrote homogeneity into the scriptures? And doesn't the practice of church-as-a-post-college-fraternity subvert Christ's message?

So I did some Googling and found the United Church of Chapel Hill's web-site. We attended a service. Walking through the door into the bustling, laid-back entrance hall gave me an odd tingle. The plain-spoken sermon, the chatter-filled coffee hour, the light, unadorned building, the engagement in broader social concerns, and, as advertised, the congregation's diversity -- all amplified that tingle.

After we attended a second service, Richard Edens, the minister, struck up a conversation. I told him we'd moved from Amherst and had been frustrated since leaving South Congregational. He explained the UCC kinship between the Amherst and Chapel hill churches. I was stunned. We were home again.

Posted by henrycopeland
3/04/2005 04:01:00 PM
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About OC Inc.

The Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc. is the media advocacy arm of the United Church of Christ, a mainline Protestant denomination of over 1.3 million members. The United Church of Christ was the first voice to demand that broadcasters who use the public airwaves have a responsibility to operate in the public interest. In the 1960s, the United Church of Christ earned its place in U.S. broadcasting history by successfully challenging the license of WLBT-TV in Jackson, Miss, for refusing to broadcast news and information about African Americans.