A 30 second television commercial produced by the United Church of Christ, debuting December 1, 2004, part of the denomination's God Is Still Speaking identity campaign. Depicts bouncers at a velvet rope turning away a same sex couple and people of color while admitting a well dressed white family, closing with the line "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we." CBS and NBC both declined to air it; it ran on numerous cable networks and drew national press coverage including a debate segment on ABC's Good Morning America.
Facts
Subject Matter
Religious Subject MatterSourced to the subject's own accountThe United Church of Christ's own declared position of welcoming those other churches turn away, expressed through the allegory of church bouncers. UCC communications director Robert Chase defended the ad on Good Morning America as clearly allegorical. 2 Scholarly ReceptionSourced to the subject's own accountWidely covered as a landmark instance of a network declining religious advertising on content grounds; Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. publicly called it "masterful propaganda" and a "diabolical misrepresentation of Christianity" in a nationally broadcast debate. 2 Production
Release Year Country of OriginUnited States; national and cable television broadcast. 1 FormatTelevision Advertisement 1 Learn More
Two Bouncers at a Church Door Became a National Debate
The commercial runs thirty seconds. Two muscle bound bouncers stand at a velvet rope outside a church, deciding who gets in. A same sex couple is turned away. So are several people of color. A well dressed white family walks through without a second look. Then the screen reads: "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we."
The United Church of Christ debuted the spot on December 1, 2004, the centerpiece of a $1.7 million campaign called God Is Still Speaking. CBS and NBC both declined to air it. The denomination had not approached ABC's main network at all, expecting the same answer, though the ad did run on ABC Family and on a long list of cable networks, from TNT and FOX to BET and the History Channel.
The rejection became the story. The day after the spot debuted, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. appeared opposite UCC communications director Robert Chase on ABC's Good Morning America. Mohler called the ad "masterful propaganda" and a "diabolical misrepresentation of Christianity." Chase defended it as clearly allegorical, aimed at anyone who has felt shut out of a church. Reaction inside UCC congregations themselves was not uniform either. Some called it a bold answer to censorship. Others found the bouncer imagery jarring, more combative than welcoming.
What is not in dispute is the scale of attention a single television spot drew, for a mainline denomination whose own leadership had cited a steep membership decline as the reason a campaign like this was needed at all.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Americas directly: "A 30 second television commercial produced by the United Church of Christ, debuting December 1, 2004, part of the denomination's God Is Still Speaking identity campaign."
Belongs to Tradition
The United Church of Christ's own advertising campaign, produced and paid for by the denomination itself.
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