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(Cleveland, Ohio) The United Church of Christ has launched an edgy ad campaign designed to attract gays and others who feel alienated by other denominations.
The 30-second commercial features two muscle-bound "bouncers" standing guard outside a picturesque church and selecting which persons are permitted to attend Sunday services. Written text interrupts the scene, announcing, "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we." A narrator then proclaims the United Church of Christ's commitment that: "No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here."
The commercial, which will run from Dec. 1 - 26, on network and cable stations, offers a stark contrast to the rhetoric about moral values that permeated the election campaign.
"The symbolism in this commercial reflects the very real rejection people feel toward church," says Ron Buford, the campaign's director.
Though it has more than 1.3 million members in about 6,000 congregations across the country, the United Church of Christ (UCC) is widely unknown and the UCC hopes to improve its name-recognition among potential U.S. churchgoers -- especially young persons.
The ad was test marketed in six U.S. markets last spring and the UCC's national offices in Cleveland, Ohio, were flooded by unsolicited letters and e-mail messages of support.
"The comment I hear most often when people visit a UCC church for the first time is, 'I never knew that a church like this existed,'" says Buford.
The UCC has a long reputation for welcoming gays and lesbians. Although its individual churches are mostly autonomous, many offer blessing services for same-sex couples. In 1972 it became the first mainstream denomination to ordain an openly gay man.
The Church, which dates back to Pilgrim times, has had a long history of social activism including staging the nation's first act of civil disobedience that inspired the "Boston Tea Party" (1773) and hiding the Liberty Bell when the British occupied Philadelphia (1777).
©365Gay.com 2004
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