No More Mr. Nice Guy!

Those poor persecuted Christians...

You can hardly go anywhere in the US without seeing freeway signs, billboards and what not with some Christian message on them. "Follow me - God", "If you think it's hot now, try Hell" and various other gems of Christian wisdom are everywhere. There seems to be a direct correlation between how much media power and saturation coverage Christians have, and how much they rant and whine about being persecuted and their free speech suppressed by those evil all-powerful atheists.

So what would happen if some freethought group were to put up a billboard with a secular message? The same thing as happened when they tried to display a secular message at Christmas, amid all the nativity schlock. The outraged local Christians shut it down, pronto.

In Florida, a restaurateur was furious when a billboard with the message "All religions are fairy tales" went up next to his establishment. He blamed the billboard for a drop in business, which I suppose is possible; fearful Christians would not wish to go anywhere near the sign lest they be struck by lightning or the pox or something. But in the end, it was not Jehovah's mighty wrath but the "city-wide controversy" and flood of angry calls to the billboard company which led to the sign being taken down.

But maybe there was a supernatural aspect after all, though involving Satan rather than the other guy. As the article notes, "The billboard was on Colonial Drive near Old Cheney Highway." Now that's someone you really don't want to piss off!

[Via PZ]