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http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5118963-2.html -- scroll down God won't be silentNBC and CBS both won't air an ad produced by the United Church of Christ that shows a bouncer standing in front of a church turning away certain people, including a gay couple (Star Tribune, Dec. 2). "Jesus didn't turn people away," the ad says. "Neither do we." The ad is part of the denomination's new "God Is Still Speaking" campaign.
NBC said it won't run the ad because it's "too controversial." Fair enough. Jesus always did get in trouble for all that hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors, healing people on the Sabbath and speaking to women in public, to say nothing of his problem with anger control when he turned over the money-changers' tables.
But CBS has refused the ad for a far more insidious reason. In a public statement, CBS explained that because the Bush administration has recently endorsed a constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between one man and one woman, it won't allow this image of acceptance of gay and lesbian couples to be broadcast on its network.
What country are we in? What happened to the free exchange of ideas, to say nothing of the free exercise of religion?
I thought it was in totalitarian regimes that government controls the news media and religious groups aren't free to express their views.
I'm glad that the United Church of Christ is out there proclaiming that "God Is Still Speaking" because if these television networks and certain people in government had their way, they'd probably much prefer that God would be silent.
The Rev. Heidi Vardeman, St. Paul;
senior minister, Macalester
Plymouth United Church.sw
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