Brody's Notes... Christian Activists Enraged Over Advert Pulled From Website

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Mar 2 | American Christian activists are enraged over the decision by the National Collegiate Athletic Association  last week to pull a website advert by the advocacy group Focus on the Family. In a statement released by American Family Association's President Tim Wildmon, he remarked, 

"The NCAA, who apparently believes only in selective diversity - "Christians need not apply" - has censored this ad after homosexual activists complained. He further disingenuously added, "Are NCAA officials saying that they celebrate divorce rather than intact families? That they celebrate death instead of life? That they don't want fathers to be involved with their sons? What is remotely objectionable about the message in this ad?"

In an interview with Associated Press Educational Writer Eric Gorski, NCAA spokesperson Bob Williams stated;

"The NCAA made the decision after some of its members — including faculty and athletic directors — expressed concern that the evangelical group's stance against gay and lesbian relationships conflicted with the NCAA's policy of inclusion regardless of sexual orientation."  Williams also noted the decision to pull the ad was based not on the message but on the messenger."Advertisers "should be generally supportive of NCAA values and attributes and/or not be in conflict with the NCAA's mission and fundamental principles," according to NCAA standards. The NCAA may exclude ads or advertisers "that do not appear to be in the best interests of higher education and student athletes." He said.

Responding to media inquiries, Focus on the Family's spokesman Gary Schneeberger said that if such material were "all of a sudden labeled hate speech, we have deeper problems in our country than we even know."  

But Pat Griffin, a retired University of Massachusetts Amherst professor who is a consultant to the NCAA on gay and lesbian issues, said it's not a generic feel-good message. She said the slogan's "life" reference is anti-abortion, and celebrating families does not extend to all families but "a very specific kind of family — heterosexual married families. A large part of their energy goes to preventing other kinds of families of having recognition."
San Francisco based LGBT Equality Rights Activist Sean Chapin produced a proactive video on YouTube to ensure wider coverage and recognition of the issue and to further channel efforts to pressure the NCAA to insure that any other similar adverts will not be aired during the coverage of the annual NCAA Championship Basketball Games, also referred to as 'March Madness.'
On prominent citizen-journalist Joe Jervis's Joe.My.God website, Chapin commented,

"It's important to not lose sight of the face that CBS may still air television ads from Focus On The Family during the NCAA basketball tournaments this month, and we need to put pressure on the NCAA to stop these ads from airing.  We need to tell the NCAA to do the right thing and celebrate all families, not financially benefit from organizations that are not aligned with NCAA's anti-discrimination policy."