Billboard says non-believers aren’t alone

Eugene Bernard

The Signal

Got God? You don’t need to, according to a message that was brought to three U.S. cities, Houston included, in a recent multimedia campaign that sought to allow the voice of the non-believer to be heard.

Houstonians received free-thinking messages that were displayed on billboards from a nonprofit educational organization out of Amherst, N.Y., called the Center for Inquiry. In efforts to convey the belief that it is possible to have a happy, fulfilling life without believing in God, the Center for Inquiry advertised the message: “You don’t Need God … to Hope, to Care, to Love, to Live.”

The billboard went up the second week of March and ran in a month-long campaign.

“Our primary focus is not to try to persuade religious people from believing in God, but we believe that you can have a fulfilling life without believing in God,” said Ron Lindsay, CEO and president of the Center for Inquiry.

Lindsay described Washington D.C. and Indianapolis as being characterized by strong religious beliefs, which is why they were also selected to display the billboards. Houston was specifically targeted due to being the fourth-largest city in the nation as well as one of the largest cities in what is referred to as the “Bible Belt.”

“It was a good idea to get our message recognized in an area that it may not be heard that often,” Lindsay said.

Advertising the message in areas where normally it wouldn’t be heard raised questions for non-supporters of the nonprofit’s campaign.

In a recent 740 KTRH radio interview with Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston area pastors’ council, Lindsay defended the purpose of the organization’s campaign by saying the goal was to break down prejudices against non-believers in the United States.

“People have the right to express their beliefs,” Welch said. “We have to recognize that there are two dynamically different world views here, one being that there is a loving and just God who created us, and the other is that we are simply evolved animals, which is the approach Dr. Lindsay is suggesting. If that is true, then ultimately what society boils down to is might makes right, the survival of the fittest, and that is not what most people in this country believe.”

This is not Houston’s first rodeo in terms of godless messages appearing around town. In 2009, the Houston Freethought Alliance posted a billboard that featured the expression “Don’t Believe in God? You are not alone.” Although completely separate entities from one another, the Houston Freethought Alliance and the Center for Inquiry have similar views regarding the vision for campaigning in Houston.

The idea behind both campaigns is to abandon the assumption that everyone believes in God.

“Houston is a population that has a strong influence of people of Christian faith and many times when people first meet you, they ask where you go to church,” said Roxie Deaton, president of Houston Freethought Alliance.

With such a hefty population that believes in God, Houston’s response to the campaign was not as controversial as one might have imagined.

“I think everyone has the right to express what they feel and believe,” said Tyrone Jones, pastor of Zion Hill Praise Center. “To ask the atheist to take down their signs would be like asking believers to take down their signs. Just as the atheists try to convince others that they are right, so do believers. As a believer, I am confident that God can fight his own battles. There is no need to sign petitions or go out in the middle of the night to tear the billboards down, unless God told me to. God will show himself strong and eventually every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.”

The United Coalition of Reason, a partnership with the Houston Freethought Alliance, experienced scenarios that were severe enough to banish any type of religious ads to be advertised on public transportation in Fort Worth, Texas. Prior to the Coalition of Reason’s ad, Fort Worth buses frequently ran religious ads on public transportation.

“During the Christmas season, the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason paid for ads that read, ‘Millions of people are good without God,’” stated the Americans United for Separation of Church and State on their website. “The ads incited a harsh reaction from some Christians who called for a boycott of the buses. In addition, a group of local businesses paid for a van to follow the buses with a sign that said, ‘I still love you. – God.’”

Well-known pastor, T.D. Jakes’ ministry “The Potters House” also responded to the atheist ads by advertising its own ads on six Fort Worth city buses that read “He [God] Still Reigns!”

Derick Faison, campus pastor of The Potter’s House in Fort Worth, appears on the ad alongside Jakes.

“I felt like they [atheists] were perfectly within their rights to express their beliefs or disbeliefs,” Faison states on www.christianpost.com. “Our reaction is to take the same constitutional rights and share with people their need for God. Everyone needs God and we felt it was important to put that message out.”

The Fort Worth case serves as a model for examining freedom of speech or freedom of religion versus paid advertising.

“Billboard advertisements are placed through private companies,” said Ashley Packard, professor of communication and digital media studies. “You can express any religious or nonreligious message on a billboard that the billboard company is willing to carry. The First Amendment has nothing to do with it. Public transit systems are operated by government entities. Generally, they will not accept religious messages because doing so would suggest that they were endorsing a particular religious view, which would violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”

Lindsay said religious ads are projected to be placed on public transportation; however, it depends on the rules of each transportation system.

“If the transit system accepts ads from religious organizations and other nonprofit organizations, it can’t exclude ads from secular nonprofit organizations,” Lindsay said.

In the future, Americans will be able to find atheist billboards in Portland, Ore. and Grand Rapids, Mich., placed by local groups that are associated with the Center for Inquiry.

“The billboards are a very high-profile way to find people who share the same beliefs and informs the public that folks like us exist,” said Fred Edwords, president of the United Coalition of Reason. “We are your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers. We are everywhere; we have a right to be here, and it’s time we got our place at the table.”