To hear the religious right tell it, Christians are victims in American society. Their voices are squelched and their ideas are ridiculed. Christians, the movement argues, are in desperate need to defense from forces of secular hostility.
With this in mind, where is the religious right on the UCC advertising story? In theory, shouldn’t Dobson, Robertson, Falwell, et al, be leading the charge to convince CBS and NBC to broadcast the UCC’s message?
This clearly isn’t happening. I checked the websites of the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, the Christian Coalition, the American Family Association, Falwell’s Ministries, and the Traditional Values Coalition — not one made any mention of the UCC controversy that has drawn outrage from much of the left.
Just so we’re clear, when a major Protestant denomination’s message is rejected by the “liberal” media, the religious right remains largely silent, while the left rallies to the church’s defense.
There’s no great mystery here. The religious right would be calling for CBS and NBC to lose their broadcast licenses if we were dealing with a politically conservative denomination, but since the UCC is left-leaning, and their message is one of inclusiveness and respect for diversity, the movement is largely indifferent to whether the UCC can broadcast its message or not. It’s simply more proof of what’s been obvious all along — the religious right isn’t concerned about matters of faith; it’s concerned about matters of their faith.
This is not to say that the movement has been completely taciturn with regards to the UCC. A New York Times report on the controversy included some reaction from a religious right figure.
“The ad isn’t indecent and doesn’t violate F.C.C. standards,” said the leader, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association. “I’m stunned they’re not running it. They might not want the grief.”
I guess you could argue that Wildmon is vaguely sympathetic to the UCC in that he expressed surprise that the ad was rejected, but Wildmon’s comments were hardly that of outrage. Indeed, the only “grief” the networks could face from running the UCC’s ad would be from groups like the American Family Association, which would likely complain about the pro-diversity message.
If the religious right wants to be even-handed about religion in the public square, it’ll have to do better than this.