{"id":101,"date":"2006-06-20T12:38:38","date_gmt":"2006-06-20T19:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/sethinca\/2006\/06\/20\/lions-hunters-and-media-consolidatio"},"modified":"2006-06-20T21:41:31","modified_gmt":"2006-06-21T04:41:31","slug":"lions-hunters-and-media-consolidation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sethinca\/2006\/06\/20\/lions-hunters-and-media-consolidation\/","title":{"rendered":"Lions, hunters, and media consolidation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Until the lions can tell their own story, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.&#8221; &#8212; African proverb<\/p>\n<p>Which is to say, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ucc.org\/ocinc\/wmm\/\">media consolidation matters<\/a> (excerpt from a United Church of Christ pamphlet <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\"><font size=\"2\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"10\" height=\"10\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ucc.org\/ocinc\/gifs\/link-blu.gif\" \/> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ucc.org\/ocinc\/wmm\/brochure_06.pdf\"><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>For faith groups<\/strong><\/font><\/a> [PDF]):<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>They had had enough. No longer would an ecumenical group of ministers from Arizona be lumped together with preachers spouting venom in the name of Christianity. No longer would they allow Christianity to be hijacked by hate mongers.<\/p>\n<p>So the Arizona ministers formed \u201cNo Longer Silent,\u201d but found that their message of unconditional love was a harder sell than one of hate. \u201cWe tried to buy a billboard in a prominent, well-traveled area of Phoenix,\u201d says the Rev. Eric Elnes, No Longer Silent member and pastor of Scottsdale (Ariz.) Congregational United Church of Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Elnes says that more than 150 local pastors wanted to proclaim that God loves everyone, including gay and lesbian persons. But Clear Channel and Viacom, who owned the billboards, labeled the message \u201ctoo controversial,\u201d effectively telling the pastors to shut up.<\/p>\n<p>No Longer Silent couldn\u2019t overcome the censorship, but its energy was already created and, as the rules of science teach, energy can\u2019t be destroyed: it only can be transformed.<\/p>\n<p>So Elnes rallied help and formed Cross Walk America, a 2,500-mile pilgrimage from Phoenix to Washington, D.C., between Easter Sunday and Labor Day weekend 2006. The pilgrimage would include speaking at local churches and interviewing with local media along the way, and would conclude with the posting of 12 affirmations on a Washington landmark \u2014 affirmations of unconditional divine love, justice and respect for all God\u2019s creation. The grassroots effort is \u201ca voice from the heartland that can\u2019t be ignored by the media,\u201d says Elnes, \u201ca voice of hope for those who are spiritually homeless.\u201d Elnes says he hopes Cross Walk America continues as a catalyst within the Christian mainstream.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to make sure that the average person knows that there is more than one thought out there,\u201d he says, \u201cthat the public voice of Christianity isn\u2019t only fundamentalist.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I found this pamphlet through a new group that just launched called the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stopbigmedia.com\/\"><strong><font>StopBigMedia.com Coalition.<\/font><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Until the lions can tell their own story, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.&#8221; &#8212; African proverb Which is to say, media consolidation matters (excerpt from a United Church of Christ pamphlet For faith groups [PDF]): They had had enough. No longer would an ecumenical group of ministers from Arizona be lumped [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sethinca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sethinca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sethinca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sethinca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sethinca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sethinca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sethinca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sethinca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sethinca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}