ESPN Jesus Ad for SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center (CGMC) was aired on Saturday during VCU at Northern Iowa Basketball on ESPNU.

Just in time for Christmas, the commercial for sick kids had phrases such as ‘celebrating the birth of Jesus’ and ‘Help us reveal God’s healing.’

Earlier, the sports channel owned by Disney had refused to broadcast the commercial on the grounds that it was in conflict with network’s advertising guidelines that steer clear of ‘political or religious advocacy, or issue-oriented advertising."

According to ESPN, airing the commercial is ‘problematic,’ as revealed by Dan Buck, Vice President, CGMC. The 30-seconds commercial is a part of CGMC’s Tree of Hope campaign.

It said, "At SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, we celebrate the birth of Jesus and the season of giving, bringing hope to the many children, parents, and families that we serve. Our patients are filled with hope as they receive a message each day from the treasure chest beneath our tree of hope. Help us reveal God's healing presence this Christmas. Send your message of hope at Glennon.org."

ESPN’s refusal to broadcast the commercial created a lot of controversy for the sports channel, especially from the pro-Christian communities and religious groups. They deemed the rejection of ad as anti-Christ.

The opposition from religious and political fronts and sports fans persuaded ESPN to accept the original version of the CGMC advertisement.

In a statement released to the press, ESPN announced its decision to broadcast the commercial, “We have again reviewed the ads submitted for the SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center and have concluded that we will accept the original requested commercial. It will run in Saturday's VCU at Northern Iowa basketball game on ESPNU. This decision is consistent with our practice of individual review of all ads under our commercial advocacy standards.”