Believe Out Loud is a project of Intersections International that is committed to being a” trans-denominational movement that promotes LGBT-inclusion in the Christian church.” Recently they launched a campaign to get one million Christians to sign on in support of “full LGBT equality in the church.” Sojourners, led by Jim Wallis, rejected their new 83 second ad (watch below) depicting lesbian moms and their son entering a new church and receiving a welcome from the minister. Over the last several days dozens (by now the number is likely in the hundreds) of blog posts were written about this ad with far greater attention given to Sojourner’s decision than to the ad itself.
So What?
Rather than link to some of the well researched and thoroughly documented summaries of what has happened or any of the opinions about whether or not this was the right move for Sojourners, I want to focus on the ad itself and the campaign it was created to support.
- What was your initial reaction to the ad? What aspects of the ad resonated with your perspective and which (if any) fell short?
- Have you already or would you now consider joining their initiative to gather one million Christians in support of full LGBT equality in the church? Why or why not?
- How might the unexpected additional publicity for this ad serve to extend the message to a wider audience than would have been possible without the controversy? (I immediately think back to the earliest days of the United Church of Christ‘s StillSpeaking television commercials when the traditional news media’s coverage extended their reach far beyond the scope of the ad buy and arguably helped fuel what has been one of the longest running and most successful multi-year initiatives by a progressive religious group.)