A rough draft of an op-ed I'll be flogging:
The recent rejection by CBS and NBC of a United Church of Christ television commercial reminds me of a story: When Gracie Allen died, George Burns found a note in a box of her things, clearly left for him.
"Never place a period where God has placed a comma," was Gracie's last advice to her husband and show business partner.
That story became the seed from which grew an identity campaign for the UCC, along with a tagline: God is still speaking.
That's more than just an advertising slogan. It's one of the core beliefs of my denomination.
As early as 1620, John Robinson told the Pilgrims as they departed Holland that "the Lord hath yet more truth and light to break forth from his holy word."
Those Pilgrims, of course, went on become the Congregationalists, one of the predecessor churches that now make up the UCC.
Nor is the idea that God is still speaking without scriptural foundations. "Behold, I am doing a new thing," God declares in Isaiah. The covenants that God makes with humanity are subject to change without notification or prior consent.
The hitch in all this is that many in the UCC believe that the "new thing" that God is doing is to call us to welcome all people to our churches.
We take that "all" seriously. It applies to people of any age or race or income level, the disabled and anyone else who cares to drop by on a Sunday morning.
Yet the only time this seems to be controversial is when it is applied to gays and lesbians.
Apparently, Christ's command "Do not judge, and you will not be judged" doesn't apply here.
There are many denominations that believe homosexuality is a grave sin and willful disobedience of God's law. They are entitled to their beliefs.
But what if we in the UCC believe that to deny admission to the church is to put a stumbling block in front of the children of God? Christ himself tells us it would be better to have a millstone hung around our neck and be tossed in the sea.
What if we believe that God is in fact still speaking to us? Is this not faith? Or does God only speak to James Dobson and Gary Bauer?
What if we believe that it would be arrogant and foolish to put a period where God has placed a comma? Isn't the very essence of faith to listen for God's voice leading us? Why is this "controversial"? Why is it "advocacy" to be accepting of all people? Because it might somehow contradict the President's talking points on the Family Marriage Act? Because it might irritate the Religious Right to hear that not all Christians agree with them?
The gospels were not written for corporations. The depressing familiarity of executives at CBS and NBC ducking even the faintest whiff of disagreement prove that. The good news was--and is--for the poor and the dispossessed, the sick, the lost, and the rejected.
That may seem controversial to some folks. So be it. Christ welcomed those whose brothers and sisters would have prevented them from drawing near to God, and he called us to "Love one another as I have loved you".
It was a scandalous commandment when he said it. It still is.
And the last time I checked, that calling did not include an instruction to love up to a certain point and then stop. The love of God in Christ Jesus is an ever-unfolding story with no finish to it.
God is still speaking to me and to many faithful people, calling us to love and accept one another. I'll be damned if I let somebody else put a period on that kind of comma.