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Recently in Salon Media

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Every holiday somebody trots out "The Ten Commandments" or "The Robe," but the major networks are usually unholy zones.

So it makes sense that folks at the Christian Web site iBelieve.com saw the CBS miniseries "Jesus" as a blessedly rare opportunity to advertise.

IBelieve, launched in January, bills itself as "a site for Christians of all denominations to learn how to apply their faith to all areas of their lives." "Jesus," whose two parts will air May 14 and 17, tells the story of the man from Nazareth, from birth to crucifixion. You might forgive iBelieve's John Nardini for considering the opportunity a marriage made in heaven.

"30 million people with an interest in Jesus watching for four hours," says Nardini, who handles marketing at the Grand Rapids, Mich. site. "It's a perfect audience for us."

Or would have been. Last week, after several months of negotiations, CBS informed iBelieve that it would not air its ads during "Jesus." Citing a disclaimer that neither iBelieve nor its ad agency Hanon & McKendry had ever heard before, the network proclaimed, "CBS will not air a commercial if the product or content relates too closely to the content of the prime-time entertainment program. If this is the case, the program becomes a program-length commercial. It then proselytizes the show or commercializes the programming."

Which, in this case, translates to: No Christian advertisements during a program about Christ. (What the hell were those guys at iBelieve thinking?)

Dana McClintock, a spokesman for CBS, claims the network's policy is consistent and nondenominational, as it were.

"We don't want to commercialize entertainment value," he says, adding that the network's first responsibility is to "our diverse audience. There are people who will watch the special because it is entertainment programming and not, perhaps, for religious reasons."

The exceptions to the policy as stated by CBS -- sports advertising during sporting events, advertisements for financial institutions and services during money shows -- are beside the point, according to McClintock. iBelieve and its publicists are only trying to muddy the waters.

"They've been trying to come up with these contradictions that are clearly irrelevant," he says. "The consumer has an understanding of the difference between sports-entertainment programming and prime-time programming."

Even if you forgive the tacit assumption here (everyone knows everything's for sale in sports), there are several problems with CBS's argument: First, iBelieve is not, in the strictest sense, selling anything. Visitors to the site are encouraged to register at no charge. Though its revenue model is based on selling Christian tchotchkes online (iBelieve is financed by the same company that owns Family Christian Stores and the site moves quite a few Bibles, books and CDs), there's plenty to do without reaching for your wallet. (Read scripture. Talk to other Christians. Read some more scripture. Etc.)

Secondly, a visit to CBS's own "Jesus" site reveals that the program is, not surprisingly, based on the gospels of the New Testament. Yes, a "Jesus Time Line" takes pains to differentiate historic fact from Biblical verse, but most of the events found there are Bible-based. Here are all the big miracles (raising the dead, turning water into wine), along with the Sermon on the Mount and other famous utterances; there doesn't seem to be anything drawn from outside sources (such as the disputed Gnostic gospels).

In other words, the show is based on Christ as presented in the Bible. So why would an ad for a Christian Web site be such a stretch?

"They're telling us the consumers would confuse the commercials with the content," says iBelieve's Nardini. "We think they'd be pretty interested."

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