The new Believe Out Loud campaign aims to increase acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in their respective religious communities. It’s not enough to believe that these individuals should be welcomed in their church communities—we must sing their welcoming as loudly as we sing the hymns. Because welcoming the LGBT community is itself a form of hymn—an expression of the ideals upon which our religious faith rests.
Believe Out Loud supports churches in becoming fully open to all - gays and lesbians included. It begins with a conversation, and the campaign website is a tool to help that conversation happen.
If you really believe in something, believe out loud.
UA client Just Detention International makes a great case study of how an organization can grow, while staying true to its roots. Founded by survivors of prisoner rape in 1980, JDI is the only organization in the U.S. working exclusively to end sexual abuse behind bars.
When they came to us in 2008, they still had the passion and dedication of their ex-prisoner founders, but were not being led by human rights attorneys. They had gone from being a grassroots activist organization to an international human rights watchdog. Our challenge was to update their identity in a way that allowed for new audiences and greater capacity, while maintaining their base of grassroots support.
A name change helped achieve this shift. Their old name, Stop Prisoner Rape, limited the audiences they could appeal to and locked them into the grassroots activist bracket. It captured the spirit, but not the potential, of their work.
Their current name positions them as authoritative experts, and is helping them direct more attention to their cause. Their contributions to a recent Department of Justice report on sexual abuse of inmates has won wide media coverage, including in publications such as the New York Review of Books and the Economist.
December 8th marked 29th anniversary of John Lennon’s death. As I walked to BART Tuesday night, I put on my headphones and listened to one of my favorite of his songs, God. Lennon goes through a list that covers all the bases, from religion to new age spirituality to rock and roll, and proclaims that he doesn’t believe in any of it.
Belief is big this time of year, and it creates something of a conundrum for non-believers. How do atheists address the challenge of holiday advertising? An article in the New York Times last week covered a campaign from the American Humanist Organization, which addresses the problem with kitschy holiday cheer:
One reader wrote a letter to the editor in response to the article, criticizing the ads for focusing on what sets humanists apart from religious folks. “One item of the humanist worldview,” the reader wrote, “is emphasizing the many positive positions we hold in common with a wide range of religious believers.”
Check out this new video about cap & trade from Annie Leonard, the woman who brought is “Story of Stuff.”
There are about as many takes on cap and trade as there are environmental groups, which isn’t surprising given the system’s complexity and multiple permutations. The big take home message in this one is that the simplicity and promise of cap and trade evaporate when we try to enact it in the real world.
Wherever you stand on cap and trade, it’s hard not to be delighted by Free Range Studio’s spunk and style. And I’m always charmed when cartoons commingle with real life. Annie Leonard is happy to hop into cartoon land to talk about cap and trade, but it’s clear that she wants it to stay on that side of the divide.
As you can see, it features portraits of the members of La Colectiva in outdoor advertising that’s running throughout San Francisco, and it’s designed to change perceptions about domestic workers while it produces more work for La Colectiva and more members, too. Reminding employers of domestic workers about the importance of that work– cleaning and organizing their homes, caring for their families– reminds them that is dignified work worthy of respect. Domestic work means a solid job for many immigrant women in San Francisco, and the campaign is designed to highlight the mutual benefits both employer and employee receive. The stunning portrait photography by Joseph Cultice only reinforces the immense strength and dignity of the women of La Colectiva.
