marketing gay-friendly churches

image from www.stillspeaking.com

Ben's ex-gay blog, Scattered Words, referenced a church marketing blog called Church Marketing Sucks. The marketing blog had an interesting commentary by Brad Abare about gay and lesbian brand loyalty and gay-friendly churches. I posted the following comment:

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Brad Abare: "Shouldn't gay and lesbians feel most welcomed in the Church? In other words, shouldn't every church be gay-friendly, just like every church should be adulterer-friendly, liar-friendly—in short, sinner-friendly? Me-friendly?..."

Most churches have already changed their doctrines to be divorce-friendly. The bible speaks much more strongly and clearly about divorces than same-sex relationships. Also, divorces are a much great "threat" to straight marriages than gay marriages. However, many churches are more vocal about opposing gay marriages than no-fault divorces. Afterall, opposing gay marriages alienates a tiny market opportunity whereas opposing no-fault divorces and second marriages alienates a huge market.

In a related story, there seems to such a thing as being too welcoming. According to an article in the gay magazine The Advocate, Viacom's CBS TV network again rejected a television ad from the United Church of Christ. The rejected ad mentions that UCC welcomes gays and lesbians. According to UCC, a CBS executive claimed that "it would have to become commonplace across the United States for churches to welcome gays and lesbians" in order for CBS to allow the ad to air. So according to the alleged comment from the CBS executive, it's commonplace for US churches to NOT welcome gays and lesbians.