Controversial Church TV Ad Wins Award

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - Even though two television networks refused to air it, a provocative commercial has won a national advertising award for a religious organization.
The 30-second United Church of Christ spot showed what appeared to be a homosexual couple and others being turned away by bouncers at a church entrance. A written message said: "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we."
For local and national United Church of Christ leaders, the award is a vindication for what they say was simply an advertisement based on Jesus' teachings.
"It's a pretty radical message. It shouldn't be for Christianity, but here we spell it out," said the Rev. Anton DeWet, who is white and grew up during apartheid in South Africa. "We actually say that everyone who walks into our doors will be embraced."
The spot, which is part of a five-year campaign under the theme of "God is still speaking," was test-marketed in the Tampa Bay area last year and ran nationally on cable channels including ABC Family, CNN, Fox and BET. CBS and NBC deemed the commercial too controversial. NBC said in a statement that it violated its "longstanding policy against accepting ads dealing with issues of public controversy."
Church leaders say the commercial, which won the Association of National Advertisers award for multicultural excellence earlier this month, has given the denomination a national identity, stirred congregations to action and brought viewers, homosexual and heterosexual, to churches across the country.
"We've had people come to our church, at least several times a month, that have seen the ad, sometimes as long as a year ago. They remember it," said the Rev. Warren Clark of First United Church (UCC) of Tampa. "Our church is growing. ... I'm not sure we can say directly because of the ad, but our regular flow of visitors has mushroomed," said the Rev. Kim Wells, pastor of Lakewood United Church of Christ in St. Petersburg. "I think the ad makes people willing to test the water of the church, people who have been alienated from church or given up on church or feel the church is irrelevant."
St. Mark United Church in Valrico saw an increase of visitors and many later became members. But the church's parish hall was destroyed by arson, and a God Is Still Speaking outdoor banner was slashed.
"I'd like to think that they had seen the commercial and objected to what was put forward," the Rev. Garry Scheuer said of the vandals.
He said his congregation "manifested excellent morale" in the face of the attack. When the denomination's national office replaced the shredded God Is Still Speaking banner with two larger ones, a church member demonstrated the church's resolve by underlining the word "still."
"That represents the kind of in-your-face-attitude they have adopted," Scheuer said. "We would like those who did this to be apprehended, not so that we could wreak vengeance on them, but that we might forgive them. It kind of fits into who we are."
The 1.3-million-member United Church of Christ is accustomed to controversy. Formed in 1957, when four denominations merged, its history is rooted in activism. It helped free 53 captives from Sierra Leone who rebelled on the slave ship Amistad in 1839. It ordained a woman in 1853 and an openly gay man in 1972. In 1985, the church declared itself "open and affirming" to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. In July, it voted to approve a resolution endorsing same-sex marriage, making it the largest Christian denomination to do so.
"One of our gifts is that we often break new ground. We're not better, we're different," said Ron Buford, who is the director of the God Is Still Speaking initiative at the United Church of Christ national office in Cleveland.
He said he conceived the outreach campaign to express the denomination's unique identity. He was inspired, in part, by a postcard with a quote from comedian Gracie Allen: "Never place a period where God has placed a comma." An oversized comma is prominent in the God Is Still Speaking logo. Weighing in on the controversial TV commercial, evangelist Pat Robertson is said to have remarked, "Never place a comma where God has placed a period. God has spoken!" Some conservative churches responded similarly, Buford said.
"We don't think that's a bad thing. As our message has gone out, people have realized that there's a wide diversity of Christian thought," he said.
Such diversity exists within the United Church of Christ, where congregations are autonomous and can embrace or reject controversial initiatives. The Rev. Keith A. Haemmelmann of Pass-a-Grille Beach Community Church, whose members have diverse theological backgrounds, note that the God Is Still Speaking campaign has given the United Church of Christ a national identity. "It's the notion that our churches are open to continuing dialogue about what the Christian faith means now," he said.
Visits to the denomination's Web site have skyrocketed since the TV commercial aired last December, soaring from a typical 950,000 annually to 5.5-million, Buford said. More than 520,000 visitors to the site also tried to find a nearby church. "The thing we heard most often is that we didn't know a church like this existed," Buford said.
DeWet, of Faith United Church of Christ in Clearwater, said the campaign helped local churches like his "to grow an identity in the community."
"We have found people looking for us on the Web site, especially people coming in from the fringes of society and people who have been wounded by the church," he said.
"From an internal perspective, it has made our people who are already in church and who have been in church more excited about the church they're a part of," said Wells in St. Petersburg.
There's more to come. The church and Gotham, its New York advertising agency, have created a new commercial that is expected to air during Lent.
"The next ad is going to be very funny," Buford promised."Some of the early feedback we got is it will be controversial."
from The St. Petersburg Times