We’ve always been champions of the underdog, but never quite this literally.

Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
- Rainer Maria Rilke

I’ve been thinking a lot about questions lately. I recently attended the Breakthrough Institute’s Modernizing Liberalism Conference, and one of the many things that struck me about it was its focus on questions – and not just as means to an end.

The conference took place largely at the level of the question. It was about getting comfortable with questions, exploring them fully, and avoiding the temptation to kill them with answers. Questions begat questions; questions steered the dialogue. When Michael and Ted sent an email to “provide closure” to participants, it too was full of more questions.

I see now why Breakthrough is drawn to the phrase “politics of possibility” – questions are charged with the energy of all their possible answers. That charge can be uncomfortable at times, and a little messy. But answers are, well, a poor answer to this problem of questions. Answers are everywhere, but there’s no guarantee that they’re right. Questions don’t ask to be right – they just ask. In a world where everyone is jockeying for the truth, a rhetoric of uncertainty is refreshing.

At the time of my introduction to Breakthrough in 2008, it felt a bit like we were planning for something that would happen in the future. We were challenging the status quo, swatting at naysayers, trying to build a movement. At the conference, surrounded by dissonance, disagreement, and the unanswerable, all I could think was: this is it. It’s happening right now.

***For some serious, challenging, provocative questions, check out Breakthrough’s newly released Breakthrough Journal.

After months of toils and tears, dreams and heartache, we are proud to present our reel. You + us = some pretty cool work, no?

Underground Ads 2011 you + us reel from underground ads on Vimeo.

Announcing Underground’s Summer 2011 Internship!

At Underground* you won’t be just an “intern” who sits awkwardly in meetings, summarizes next steps and
organizes files on our server. You will be the captain of your own intern ship. A choose-your-own-adventure
set in a downtown do-good creative agency. Do you have what it takes to brave these waters and fight
that good fight alongside us? Apply today. Ship sets sail in July.

And I don’t mean that in a palliative self-help kind of way, like when your girlfriends take you out to bottomless mimosa brunch to tell you that you were too good for him anyway. No, sometimes rejection is clearly the best possible outcome of a situation. Take “Silent Thoughts,” the video we recently created for Believe Out Loud. It’s about the need for clergy to speak up and welcome gay and lesbian members of their church communities. We anticipated a positive reaction to what many Christians agree is a much-needed message about inclusion.

Instead, we got rejected — from a prominent and self-identified progressive group of Christians, who refused to run the ad because they wanted to “avoid taking sides on the issue.” They didn’t realize it, but they’d given the campaign a big boost. The Huffington Post picked up the story, and it said the blogosphere abuzz, generating dozens of news articles about the video and nearly 40,000 views to date.

Our video for Believe Out Loud (produced by our friends at Kontent Films) is part of a multi-faceted campaign that includes a website, advertising and social media working together to generate support for LGBT equality in the church and in broader society. Become a fan on facebook, follow the campaign on twitter, and share “Silent Thoughts” with your friends!