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BANGOR – Congregational churches in Maine are participating in the God is Still Speaking campaign despite two television networks’ refusal to air a 30-second ad as part of the denomination’s new, broad identity campaign.
Nearly 50 Maine congregations associated with the United Church of Christ are participating in the campaign that officially began Wednesday.
“The key to it all is the idea of acceptance and honoring diversity and the power of inclusion,” the Rev. Mark Doty, pastor of Hammond Street Congregational Church of Bangor said earlier this week. “And that’s what we believe God’s church is supposed to be.”
He is one of three Congregationalists from Maine who this summer attended training about the campaign at the denomination’s headquarters in Cleveland.
Part of the campaign included an edgy 30-second TV ad slated to begin airing on Wednesday. The UCC announced Wednesday that CBS and NBC had refused to air the ad because it is too controversial.
The ad shows a muscular bouncer, working a rope line outside a handsome but nameless church, deciding who is eligible to enter and worship.
“No, step aside, please,” he says to two men holding hands.
Across the screen comes the message, “Jesus didn’t turn people away. Neither do we.”
“Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations,” a press release from the UCC stated was CBS’ explanation for rejecting the ad, “and the fact the executive branch 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.”
The ad campaign is estimated to cost $8.5 million for Advent 2004 and Lent 2005 and $30 million to run every Advent and Lent through 2007, the 50th anniversary of the denomination. The “bouncer” ad is scheduled to run for three and a half weeks beginning Dec. 1 with a softer ad about inclusion running just before Christmas.
The ads have been accepted by a number of networks including ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, The History Channel, TBS and TNT among others.
The God Is Still Speaking campaign credits comedienne Gracie Allen for its inspiration. After her death in 1964, George Burns, her husband and partner on stage, in radio and television, found a note she’d left for him.
It read: “Dear George, Never place a period where God has placed a comma. Love, Gracie.” Hence, God is still speaking.
The initiative is designed to:
. Speak to the alienated and those seeking a spiritual home.
. Let the world know that there is a church unlike any they may have known.
. Invite people to come and let them know that “No matter who you are, no matter where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.”
. Raise the knowledge and pride of members.
. Embrace a common brand and theme so UCC churches are instantly recognizable.
The most visible way most Maine churches are participating is by hanging a God Is Still Speaking banner on their churches. Doty said that the Hammond Street church spent about $300 on the banner and other campaign materials.
Centre Street Congregational Church in Machias is best known as the founder of the local blueberry festival. It is participating in campaign, according to Doug Guy, a lay leader who attended the training in Cleveland with Doty. He said that the campaign also emphasizes the denomination’s history.
“Congregationalists and the UCC have always been the denomination radical enough to tackle some of the more controversial and difficult issues such as race relations and homosexuality,” Guy said earlier this week. “Our denomination has a history of being open to the spiritual needs of all people no matter who or what they are.
“If you go to our church, you’re not going to find instructions on what Christianity is all about,” he continued. “You’re going to find an opportunity to associate with other Christians and find resources to learn for yourself how your spiritual life should relate to Christianity.”
The UCC has 1.3 million members and 6,000 church in the U.S.
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