Special Offering Campaign Raises Reponses
About two weeks ago, I first saw the publicity posters for the P.C.(U.S.A)'s 2015 One Great Hour of Sharing special offering. The annual offering collected each spring at churches helps to funds the denomination's efforts to help people around the world by providing relief to those affected by natural disasters, providing food to the hungry, and helping to empower the poor and oppressed. The offering supports programs including Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Hunger Program, and Self Development of People.
I follow Bruce Reyes-Chow, the former moderator of the General Assembly, on Twitter and he shared the posters and asked people to reach out to the denomination with their concern about the posters which he felt were inappropriate. Here are the posters:
I'll admit that when I first saw them I thought they were interesting, edgy, and the word play was clever. They would definitely get people talking and take notice. But then again, I was thinking that I would feel very uncomfortable about hanging these around my church. Our church opens its doors to weekly AA and NA meetings and despite the clever word play - making light of substance abuse would not be very welcoming. Friends that work in marketing that have seen the posters have commented that they are creative and achieve the goal of getting people to talk about them. I see that side of it, but I also think that maybe this misses the mark when the audience is churches across the U.S. We are also in a time where things happening across the country have highlighted issues of race and violence
Here is an article I found announcing the campaign:
Here is a link that summarizes the response:
Ultimately the P.C. (U.S.A.) decided to revise the campaign and will be reissuing new materials for the special offering. Here is a link about the revision:
So what do you think? I am interested in hearing your thoughts and comments. I hope to hear from you!
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