Religious Tolerance is "Too Controversial for TV"

I woke this morning to the staggering story that ABC, NBC and CBS in America have refused to run a TV ad from the United Church of Christ that advocates religious tolerance and inclusion.

AlterNet reports:

the UCC ad features an arresting image: a pair of muscle-bound bouncers standing in front of a church and telling some people they can attend while turning others away.

After people of color, a disabled man and a pair of men who might be gay are turned away, the image dissolves to a text statement that: "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we."

Then, as images of diverse couples and families appear on screen, an announcer explains that, "No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here."

This is exactly the kind of message that should be encouraged, in my opinion, as an antidote to the poisonous exclusivity of the extremists. The Christian religion should be a full-spectrum religion and whenever it has ceased to be so, historically, it has been co-opted by those who would use it to visit violence on thier own neighbours.

So why did the networks turn the ad down?

The CBS statement is blunt."Because the commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations, and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the (CBS and UPN) networks." In other words, they turned this laudable attempt at true Christian values down because the are scared of Bush and his coterie of bigots.

"It seems incredible to me that CBS admits it is refusing to air the commercial because of something the executive branch, the Bush administration, is doing," says Dave Moyer, conference minister for the Wisconsin Conference of the UCC. "Since when is it unacceptable to offer a different perspective?"

Since when, indeed! The American Taliban have arrived.