FL Residents Having the Vapors Over Atheist Billboard.
The Florida Atheist and Secular Humanist Society put up a billboard in Ft. Lauderdale to promote their group. Of course area residents are rending their garments.
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The members of the community cite two main problems: born-again Christians own the business right next to the sign, and the billboard is located right in the middle of an African-American community.
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Why should it matter that born-again Christians own the business right next to the sign? Do born-again Christians care who might be living or running businesses near their countless signs and billboards? So why is it always a huge issue when atheists, LGBT groups or non-Christian groups put up a sign? Why do Christians need such heavy protection for their delicate faith, particularly when–as they incessantly remind us–it is the majority faith in this country.
Furthermore what is the significance of the fact that the neighborhood is an “African-American community”? If anybody has insight into that please fill me in because it’s a complete non-sequitur as far as I’m concerned.
Neighboring businesses have called to try to get the sign removed. “Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Christian, whoever you are, we all believe in a spiritual higher being. When you have something like this here, people don’t want to come and patronize us anymore,” said Theodore Hamilton, an employee at a nearby business. “We don’t agree with this. We don’t like this here in our community, and this is a spiritual based community.”
People need to grow thicker skins. Atheists, agnostics and other non-Christians have been exposed to Christian billboards, signs and proselytizing for centuries. If we can take it they can certainly do so. At least this billboard isn’t threatening anybody with “hell”, laying guilt-trips on people, or resorting to subtle threats the way many church signs do.
After seeing the billboard, Team of Life community activist Essie “Big Mama” Reed brought her students out to protest it Wednesday afternoon. “Nothing else matters, but that sign needs to come down. In the name of Jesus,” Big Mama chanted, as she led her students in protest.
She said the sign affects something much deeper than business. “I don’t know the reason for putting this sign up,” said Big Mama. “It says ‘Do not believe in God.’ How are we going to make it? Look at our schools, everyday. Everyday there’s something going on. Kids are out here killing each other, kids are here using drugs. Who else are they going to believe in?”
Big Mama needs to work on her reading comprehension. The billboard does not say “Do not believe in God”. But maybe that’s why so many people have bees in their bonnets. They don’t read properly, they misinterpret and they flat out refuse to consider (or allow) the existence of viewpoints other than their own.
Big Mama might also want to reconsider her insistence that “believing in something” is the antidote to all the crime out there. Study after study has shown that both in the US and around the world the higher the rate of religiosity, the higher the rates of societal ills like teen pregnancy, violent crime, divorce, STDs/HIV, and so on. It would be better to recommend more education and cooperation rather than dependence on divisive dogmas/gods. And that is exactly what groups like FLASH are promoting.
