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Wednesday, December 08, 2004 |
National Council of Churches Statement on UCC ad.
National Council of Churches Statement on UCC ad.: " The National Council of Churches has issued a nice statement on the refusal of NBC and CBS to air the bizarrely controversial advertisement by the United Church of Christ.
Advocacy advertising abounds on TV: agribusinesses, drug manufacturers, gambling casinos, oil companies, even some government agencies regularly expose viewers to messages advocating their products and programs, in the interest of shaping public attitudes and building support for their points of view.
Are only the ideas and attitudes of faith groups now off limits? Constitutional guarantees of religious liberty and freedom of speech, not to mention common fairness, beg for leadership by the FCC to assure that America’s faith community has full and equal access to the nation’s airwaves, to deliver positive messages that seek to build and enrich the quality of life.
If you watch evening network TV you may well, I suppose, think that such an ad would be completely out of place — there are no grisly murders, no-one has sex with someone they don’t know, there is no irrational anger, and the bouncers do not physically assault the people they turn away. Even the humiliation of the rejected congregants is mild compared with that heaped on numerous participants in reality shows. I suppose that is what makes the ad so controversial. Or perhaps it is part of a conspiracy to improve UCC’s visibility. If you want to help pile on to the networks, UCC has some suggestions here. Oh, and if you’re not American, and don’t live in the States, please watch the ad; it’ll cheer you up. "
(Via Crooked Timber.)
6:06:07 PM Permalink
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The American Ballad
On KQED this morning Michael Krasney talks with Greil Marcus, Sarah Vowell, and Cecil Brown about the new book The Rose and the Briar, a collection of essays on various American ballads. it's the kind of thing that if Greil Marcus had written it alone, would probably sink under weightiness, but as a collection might be well worth reading. Certainly this radio program is worth a listen.
11:02:00 AM Permalink
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Tim Keown
I miss Tim Keown's humor in the San Francisco Chronicle, but thanks to an ESPN RSS feed, I see headlines for his pieces in my newsreader. I don't agree with a lot of what he says in this column, but I do like these paragraphs towards the end:
Cal should boycott the Holiday Bowl. I confess to having spent two years wandering around the campus many years ago, so I'm not completely objective. But somebody has to do something, or the BCS stupidity will continue to run amok.
So just tell 'em thanks but no thanks. Stay home and prove a point. Nothing against the good folks at the Holiday Bowl, but tell them to get another one of those great teams from the Big 12. Or, better yet, the Big East. In fact, how about Syracuse? They're bowl eligible with six wins and beat Pittsburgh, which is one of the top eight teams according to the genius BCS bowl system.
Why you've got to love television: In the aftermath of the steroid revelations by the San Francisco Chronicle, local television stations went to local sports bars to get fan reaction, because, after all, the folks who are drinking at 2 in the afternoon are always the ones who should speak for all of us
9:42:20 AM Permalink
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Paying Attention to Religion
Paying Attention to Religion: "
Paul Waldman writes:
A recent CBS/New York Times poll finds that in answer to the question, 'What worries you more: public officials who don't pay enough attention to religion and religious leaders, or public officials who are too close to religion and religious leaders?', only 35% said they were worried by politicians who didn't pay enough attention to religion, while 51% said they were worried by politicians who were too close to religion. A year ago, these numbers were reversed, with 50% saying they were worried politicians didn't pay enough attention and 34% saying they were worried they paid too much attention. Although we can't say for sure, I agree with Chris Bowers that most of this movement probably happened since the election.
(Via Jesus Politics.)
8:38:21 AM Permalink
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Did the Nazi's Separate Church and State?
Mainstream Baptist is nearly always interesting, smart, and provocative, proof which is sorely needed today that yes, there are theists who can thing.
This piece, for example, links to an essay and a shocking page of photos that nicely rebut historical revisionism that attempts to blame the Nazi holocaust on separation of church and state. The intellectually dishonest Antonin Scalia has recently done this, and the Baptist links to a great piece by Tom Hartmann taking Scalia down. All good reading.
[The] new state-sponsored German church's constitution opens: "At a time in which our German people are experiencing a great historical new era through the grace of God," the new German state church "federates into a solemn league all denominations that stem from the Reformation and stand equally legitimately side by side, and thereby bears witness to: 'One Body and One Spirit, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of All of Us, who is Above All, and Through All, and In All.'"
8:31:28 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2005 Steve Michel.
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