The Compassion of the Christ

The smallest of the mainline churches, the United Church of Christ braids several Protestant denominations, each with a long history of fighting for other people's rights. UCC forebears were the first mainliners to take a stand against slavery; first to ordain an African American pastor (1875); first to ordain a woman (1853). In 1959, after a station in Jackson, Miss., refused to cover the civil rights movement, UCC members won a federal court ruling that the airwaves are public property. In 1972, the UCC became the first Christian church to ordain an openly gay man.

Christians do not always have to agree to live together in communion, says the UCC, known for its gentle ecumenical partnerships with churches of all kinds.

But last winter, after spending two years listening to unchurched Americans, the UCC came up with an ad campaign. One after another, people had described how they felt rejected or alienated at Christian churches – some for reasons as simple as lack of a wheelchair ramp; others because of who they were, who they loved, how they lived, or what opinions they voiced. The UCC wanted to capture that feeling of rejection – and contradict it. So one of the 30-second ads, dubbed Night Club, showed two young men in crewcuts, their black T-shirts pulled tight by bulging muscles, standing outside a church. "No. Step aside please. No way. Not you. I don't think so." Two of the people they brushed aside could easily be assumed a gay couple.

"Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we," appeared next on the screen, as a narrator emphasized the UCC's commitment to Jesus's "extravagant," unconditional welcome.

NBC and CBS rejected the ad as "too controversial," and even after 11 affiliate stations aired it with no complaints, refused to change their minds.

Now the UCC is fighting for its own rights.

And with every pebble slung, this small church is raising huge issues of language, power, faith, money and fear.

"A Watered Down Piety"

At the surface, the UCC ad controversy looks like it's about a couple of broadcasting corporations holding up fat trembling fingers to see which way the political winds blow. But dig a little deeper, and you strike the gnarled roots of the Tree of Knowledge itself. This is the central religious conflict of our time: literal versus metaphorical understanding.

The religious denominations most outraged by the Night Club ad are those that believe religious teachings must be taken literally and remain unchanged through history. They see it as sinful, arrogant and self-indulgent to loosen our grip on our various sacred texts, placing them in cultural context and allowing our interpretations to evolve. And they're applying their method of Biblical understanding to another denomination's commercial.

The networks are taking the commercial literally too, by categorizing it as advocacy of a public-policy issue and insisting that it implies criticism of other churches. No other denomination is named; gay marriage is never mentioned. The real question the ad raises is not one of public policy, but of "welcome." That's a religious question, and again, its answer hinges on how literally one defines the word. Should people feel welcomed because they have the ability to walk through a church doorway and not be turned away? Or does welcome require unconditional acceptance?

I close my eyes and see images: Mary and Joseph, turned away from an inn and welcomed at a stable. Jesus making wine from water to keep a wedding party lively; multiplying bread and fish to feed a crowd; hugging lepers and bringing prostitutes home for dinner. Christlike individuals tending strangers' wounds and inviting them inside for a meal, entertaining angels unawares.

"In our culture the concept of hospitality has lost much of its power and is often used in circles where we are more prone to expect a watered down piety than a serious search for an authentic Christian spirituality," wrote Catholic priest Henri Nouwen. And that's what worries David Greenhaw, a UCC minister who is president of Eden Theological Seminary. "Throughout its history, the church has had hospitality at its core," says Greenhaw. "And throughout its history, the church has repeatedly failed to live up to that." Churches should be called to accountability, he adds, when they fail to welcome anyone. "That this could in any way be controversial is just absurd."