{"id":7024,"date":"2006-04-01T09:59:33","date_gmt":"2006-04-01T14:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7024"},"modified":"2006-04-01T09:59:33","modified_gmt":"2006-04-01T14:59:33","slug":"this-week-in-god-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/this-week-in-god-12\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in God"},"content":{"rendered":"

First up from this week’s God machine is a progressive Christian denomination that’s having a little trouble reaching the public airwaves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The nation’s major television networks have rejected an ad that shows a gay couple and others being banished from a church, saying it violates their rules against controversial or religious advertising.<\/p>\n

The 30-second commercial for the [tag]United Church of Christ[\/tag] will begin airing on cable networks and Spanish-language stations next week. The ad, called “Ejector,” shows a gay couple, a single mother, a disabled man and others flying out of their pews as a wrinkled hand pushes a red button.<\/p>\n

Text on the screen reads, “God doesn’t reject people. Neither do we,” and a voiceover says, “The United Church of Christ. No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox all declined to air the commercial. As an NBC spokesperson said, the ad “violates our long-standing policy against airing commercials that deal with issues of public controversy.”<\/p>\n

I’ll never understand this. First, all of the networks run programming<\/i> that deals with issues of public controversy. Second, the networks run campaign ads that deal with “issues of public controversy” all the time. The Swiftboat Liars can get buy ad time on ABC, but a progressive, tolerant church can’t?<\/p>\n

For that matter, I can’t help but notice the silence from the religious right on this. The nation’s major networks are denying a Christian denomination the chance to reach out to potential congregants. Dobson & Co. have nothing to say? Would they feel differently if the UCC were right wing?<\/p>\n

Next up is the infamous [tag]American Family Association[\/tag] — known for it’s willingness to launch a boycott at the drop of a hat — which may pick a fight<\/a> with the biggest retailer of them all.
\n<\/p>\n

The American Family Association, already involved in a national boycott of Ford Motors for advertising in the LGBT media, is now turning its sights on [tag]Wal-Mart[\/tag] for selling “Brokeback Mountain”.<\/p>\n

While the AFA has not yet called for a boycott of the retailer it is urging its members to complain to Wal-Mart managers “over the chain’s decision to promote and carry the pro-homosexual movie.”<\/p>\n

“It’s quite obvious to anyone who shops at Wal-Mart that they’re no longer the family-friendly company that they used to project in their image,” Randy Sharp, AFA’s director of special projects tells Agape Press.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, the AFA is particularly upset because many Wal-Mart stores already feature posters and promotional materials for Brokeback Mountain. In other words, they retail behemoth is not just selling the DVD, they’re encouraging people to buy it<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I usually like to poke fun<\/a> at the AFA’s boycott fixation, but this could be an entertaining fight. Go ahead, AFA, go after Wal-Mart, and let the chips fall where they may.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First up from this week’s God machine is a progressive Christian denomination that’s having a little trouble reaching the public airwaves. The nation’s major television networks have rejected an ad that shows a gay couple and others being banished from a church, saying it violates their rules against controversial or religious advertising. The 30-second commercial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7024\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}