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But there's really no reason for the networks to reject it, American Family Association president Tim Wildmon said. "The ad isn't indecent and doesn't violate FCC standards," he told the Times. "I'm stunned they're not running it. They might not want the grief."

Ah, but grief they've gotten, as UCC leaders and pastors are claiming censorship, and that George Bush is behind the whole thing. The San Francisco Chronicle reports, "The Rev. Kyle Lovett, pastor of St. John's United Church of Christ in San Francisco, proposed [that on] the eve of President Bush's second term, she said, the networks 'can't afford to go against the administration's version of Christianity and what counts as moral values and what doesn't count as moral values.'"

Those networks sure are forward-looking. Back in March, when the networks rejected these ads, John Edwards was still running against John Kerry. Weblog doesn't remember seeing the UCC raise a fuss back then, by the way.

It's worth noting that the UCC may not be turning people away, but its members are fleeing in droves. The denomination has lost 23 percent of its membership in the past 15 years, reports the Associated Press. This is not a denomination that needs crowd control.

One wonders if this $30 million campaign will really help. All this "controversy" gets the UCC in the news today, but the denomination has a long way to go to win the kind of free publicity the Episcopal Church USA gets almost every other day. These days, when folks think about churches that celebrate homosexual behavior, it's the Episcopalians, not Congregationalists, that first come to mind.

The "all the other churches are racist and homophobic" aspect of the ad campaign is only one part. The campaign's dominant tagline is from the Gospel of Gracie Allen: "Never place a period where God has placed a comma." Other aspects of the campaign show sentences with periods replaced by commas. And you know how much mispunctuation attracts those church-goers. It's almost as attractive as telling them, "Come to a church where we don't really believe anything."

Getting little attention is ABC's rejection of the ad. It's running on ABC Family, but not the main network. In fact, ABC also rejected another UCC ad that was accepted by NBC and CBS of a little girl playing "Here's the church, here's the steeple." ABC's reason: it rejects all religious advertising.

Ah, but there's the rub. What makes religious advertising any different from any other advertising? Especially where this ad is concerned. Here's the full text of this ad, apart from the bouncers' rejections. "The United Church of Christ. No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you're welcome here."

Is this more religious than, say, the Red Bull ads with Peter at the gates of Heaven or Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden? Or Target promising, "Anything you want … [or] need, you got it"? Or those body spray and shampoo ads suggesting immediate ecstasy with use?

The larger story here is a cultural disconnect between persuasion and evangelism—or, to use the pejorative phrase, "proselytizing." Tell someone that they're uncool, stupid, or in danger unless they buy a certain product, you're in the clear. Tell them that they're endangering their eternal soul unless they turn to God, and you're infringing on their freedom. Tell someone that a widget will make them happy, and you're doing your part to stimulate the economy. Tell someone where to find true joy, and you're a zealot. Persuading "swing voters" and changing consumers' habits are part of everyday life, but we find something nefarious in telling people why one view of God is better than another.

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November (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48