Church/State Separation Billboard To Go Up in Rhode Island December 30, 2011

Church/State Separation Billboard To Go Up in Rhode Island

By Hemant Mehta
December 30, 2011

Beginning on Monday, the Freedom From Religion Foundation will sponsor their first billboard in Rhode Island (on Interstate 295 at Route 2 in Warwick):

Annie Laurie Gaylor, Foundation co-president, said it’s fitting that the campaign has expanded to Rhode Island, which was founded by Roger Williams, a strong advocate of keeping religion out of government and vice versa.

“Although Williams was a religious man, he believed deeply that civil and sectarian authorities should not intrude on each other, for the good of both,” Gaylor said.

She noted Williams’ famous statement that “forced worship stinks in the nostrils of God.”

Interesting sidenotes: This is the 695th billboard FFRF has put up and it’s the 34th state in which they’ve put up a billboard.

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  • Kevin_Of_Bangor

    I understand why Maine doesn’t allow billboards but I so wish we had them at times.

  • Anonymous

    Now who in their right mind would disagree with this?  Oh wait.

    I hope it’s high up enough to keep vandals from defacing it.

  • Noodlegeddon

    They’ll find a way. They always do.
    I’ll give it a week tops before someone tries something, and that’s being generous.

  • Ahh, good old sane New England,  I love thee

  • Blargendarg

    You know, I really like these folks and the message is the most important, but it’d be nice if one day they’d actually hire a designer for one of these things..

  • I actually like this one.  It’s simple and concise, and makes an excellent point.  Of course, I’ve always been more interested in words than pictures, so maybe I’m not the best judge.  I’m curious as to how you think it could be improved.

  • Blargendarg

    I like the message as well… not certain it’s intentional but the effect of the unfortunate (and horribly dated) gradient background against the Capitol makes it seem like the FFRF threatens dire, fiery consequences if their demands are not met. That’s just one silly thing… it’s not horrible, it just looks like somebody’s brother-in-law made it.

  • OK, I see your point.  The background color is a bit unfortunate.  

  • Rhode Island: the overwhelmingly Catholic state (with such egregious church-state-separation violations as the non-binding resolution to declare evergreen trees decorated by the government as “Christmas trees” and nothing else) residing within the armpit of the wonderfully liberal Massachusetts. Glad I live in the latter.

  • Anonymous

    You know, with a sign that looks like that, I almost couldn’t blame the vandals.

  • Anonymous

    A real designer would not have used the red/blue color combination. That’s a big no-no in the design world, because it looks bad.

  • Kaydenpat

    Williams sounds like a very smart man.  Historically, Baptists used to believe the same.

  • Pseudonym

    There’s a reason why the SBC is considering changing its name. There’s very little Baptist about it these days.

  • Eleanor O’Neill

    Sure, I’d love to see an FFRF billboard here in Maine, but then they’d have to allow others. GAACK! No thanks. So glad we have no billboards.

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