You all know atheists have been putting up a lot of billboards lately.
What do you do if you led a church and you thought those ads sent an awful message? (What? Atheists think they’re good without god? Never!)
Well, the absolutely worst thing you could do is try to “fight back.”
If you put up your own billboard in response, or complain about the atheists’ message to the media, you’re playing right into our hands. We get more media attention, we get more chances to get out message across, we get to keep the conversation going, we get more eyeballs/donors/members. If Christians respond, it’s a win for us.
In Ohio, where the Freedom From Religion Foundation recently put up a number of ads as part of their “Out of the Closet” campaign, one church is responding in a way that makes you wonder: What the hell were they thinking?
Seriously. That’s what it says.
Bravo, McElroy Road Church of Christ. I know what you were getting at, but you inadvertently did our work for us. (Thanks for the free ad!)Not only are they telling us that god doesn’t exist (in a large font, no less), they’re also telling us to be skeptical of what we hear! I couldn’t have said it better myself 🙂
In fact, the Mid Ohio Atheists group — a group that has nothing to do with this billboard — is getting credit for it:
Members of Mid Ohio Atheists have had people contact them and congratulate them on putting up our first billboard.
While we certainly do agree with the sentiment expressed on the billboard- that there is no god, and that people should not believe everything they hear, we want to clarify that this is not our billboard. It was not paid for by us in part or in the whole. Nether were we involved in the design of the billboard.
I don’t know who the church paid to design the ad, but my hunch is that it’s the same person who designs all those funny-and-they-even-know-why church message boards:
(Thanks to Edward for the link!)
