Heaven help us when television networks that regularly pander with titillating dramas and suggestive sitcoms refuse to air a church commercial because it's "too controversial." Hypocrisy was served up recently by CBS and NBC when the networks rejected a national ad campaign by the Cleveland-based United Church of Christ.

What was so controversial in the religious denomination's ad was its message of inclusion and openness to encourage more members to join the congregation. The 30-second commercial, which was accepted by ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, TBS and TNT, among others, features a bouncer working a rope line in front of a nameless church and deciding who can enter and worship. Among those turned away are people portraying gays, blacks and the disabled.

Seeing two men holding hands, the bouncer says, "No, step aside, please." A message follows that reads, "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we." The ad ends with two women hugging.

The implication that some churches embrace diversity more than others was evidently the offensive part. NBC, which pushes the envelope regularly with "Will and Grace," a bawdy comedy about gay relationships, cited a company policy not to accept ads that deal with "issues of public controversy." The network did agree, however, to run another UCC ad that ended with the more benign, "God accepts all people, and so do we."

CBS said gay relationships are a matter of public debate and "we have a long policy of not accepting advocacy advertising."

The UCC, which was founded in the 1957 merger of the Congregational Christian Church and the Evangelical and Reform Church, finds it hard to comprehend how networks that have no trouble exploiting the gay community for laughs draw the line "when it comes to a church's loving welcome of committed gay couples."

It's a double standard worth condemning.