Controversial church TV ad wins award
A television commercial produced last year for the United Church of Christ (UCC), aimed at attracting gays and others who feel alienated by other denominations, has won a prestigious national advertising award.

The 30-second ad, which features what appeared to be a gay couple and others being turned away by bouncers at a church entrance and selecting which persons are permitted to attend Sunday services, bagged the 2005 Multicultural Excellence Award conferred by the Association of National Advertisers on November 8.

A written message said, "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we." A narrator then proclaims the United Church of Christ's commitment that: "No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here."

The ad was banned by CBS and UPN as well as NBC which said in a statement that it
violated its "longstanding policy against accepting ads dealing with issues of public controversy" while others including ABC Family, CNN, Discovery, Fox and Hallmark aired it.

"It's a pretty radical message. It shouldn't be for Christianity, but here we spell it out," said the Rev Anton DeWet, who is white and grew up during apartheid in South Africa. "We actually say that everyone who walks into our doors will be embraced."

Meanwhile, the UCC and Gotham, its New York advertising agency, have created a new commercial that is expected to air during Lent, some 40 days before Easter.

"The next ad is going to be very funny," said Ron Buford, who is the director of the God Is Still Speaking initiative at UCC. "Some of the early feedback we got is it will be controversial."

Watch the ad that the networks deem too "controversial."
http://www.stillspeaking.com/default-1.htm

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MSM focal point in HIV/AIDS fight: China
China's Deputy Minister of Health Wang Longde announced that the country has made the prevention of HIV/AIDS amongst men who have sex with men (MSM) the focal point of its upcoming effort. The minister was speaking at the Third Chinese Aids Prevention International Co-operation Experience Sharing Forum, reported China's state-owned Xinhua News.

The report also highlighted that a "special type of anti-aids condom designed for male homosexuals," produced by factories under the order of and distributed by the National Population and Family Planning Commission is "one of the actual measures to implement anti-aids policies among gay men that are highly regarded by the Ministry of Health."

It also quoted China Rubber Industrial Association latex sub-association president Tao Ran as saying he believes that many Chinese gay men have regular families to hide their sexual identity. He added that the group has to be targeted.

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Arrested 'gay party' guests face hormone treatment
More than two dozen men arrested at an allegedly gay party could face compulsory government-ordered hormone treatments, five years in jail and a lashing, said officials in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, according to various media reports.

Following a string of recent group arrests of homosexuals, the Interior Ministry said police raided a hotel chalet earlier this month and arrested 22 men from the Emirates as they celebrated the wedding ceremony. Police said some of the men had been wearing women's clothes and makeup.

The men are likely to be tried under Muslim law on charges related to adultery and prostitution, said Interior Ministry spokesman Issam Azouri.

According to a CNN report, the US State Department has condemned the forced medical treatment of gay couples in the Muslim Gulf Arab state and called on the UAE to comply with international legal standards.

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Vatican 'gay' priest ban widely condemned
The Vatican has made its first major policy announcement since Pope Benedict's election, barring gay men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" from entering the priesthood. The instruction, which was leaked last week on the Internet, will not be applicable to gay priests who have already been ordained. It will however allow men who have "clearly overcome" homosexual tendencies for at least three years to serve as deacons - the step before priesthood.

The ban has worried gay rights advocates and some insiders, who describe it as an overreaction to the sexual abuse scandals that rocked the church during the 1990s and more recently in the US.

"This does not address what was the original tension - to placate people who believed homosexual priests were the cause of the sexual abuse," says the West Australian academic Jane Andersonan who had spent 10 years conducting interviews with 50 priests.

"That is totally erroneous. Homosexuality has nothing to do with pedophilia. If a person has a genuine call, what does their sexual orientation have to do with their ministry? The priority is to honour that call," she said in an interview with an Australian newspaper.

Neil Ormerod, a professor of theology at the Australian Catholic University, told an Australian newspaper that the instruction is not a surprise as it simply reaffirms church teachings on homosexuality. But he says the church would be wrong to draw a link between the abuse scandals and homosexuality.

"It's really more about an abuse of power than about sexual orientation. It's about the sexual irresponsibility of people in ministry, and you can be irresponsible if you are heterosexual or homosexual."

Last month, Bishop William Skylstad, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in his Spokane diocese newsletter: "There are many excellent priests in the church who have a gay orientation, are chaste and celibate, and are very effective ministers of the gospel. Witch hunts and gay bashing have no place in the church."

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