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!

General Electric’s NBC Cannot Silence God’s Message Of Extravagant Welcome

What a weird world we live in. ABC will run advertisements for the Religious Right political group Focus on the Family – whose founder has made defeating democrats a primary task of his organization – but the network and others (now including some NBC-owned cable stations) will not air a television spot promoting the United Church of Christ. ABC says they won’t air religious commercials but the hypocrisy is apparent whenever they have aired Focus on the Family spots. NBC won’t air the UCC spots because our denomination promotes a message that God doesn’t turn anyone away. For the peacock network – a media conglomerate owned by General Electric – the Gospel message of extravagant welcome is one that should be silenced. General Electric, which gives millions of dollars to conservative political campaigns, clearly has a stake in silencing any prophetic message that challenges society to follow Jesus’ ministry – a ministry that spoke of tolerance, love, justice, and God’s gift of grace. Those are not always corporate values. Will the effort on the part of the media corporations to silence the voice of the United Church of Christ work? No. God is still speaking. Even GE isn’t powerful enough to keep that voice quiet.

Chuck Currie

Posted by Chuck Currie
4/05/2006 11:30:00 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.