Secular Life Billboard Brings Out the Kooks
The organization Secular Life has been making waves over the last couple of weeks with its Green Hills billboard advertisement featuring the following: "Not Religious? You're not alone." The brainchild of Nashvillian Thaddeus Schwartz, the group seeks to provide community for folks who are nonreligious. Secular Life's credo can be summed up in this one sentence from its website: "We embrace a life free of superstition and full of inquiry." Inquiry? (Gasp!) No superstition? (Gadzooks!)
The above YouTube video, posted last Thursday, features sample voicemail messages from angry Nashvillians. As the video makes hilariously clear, some folks don't take kindly to free thinkers here in the buckle of the Bible Belt. Among the highlights:
"I think that it's ridiculous that you need to post a sign in the Nashville area that you're not religious. Christians don't post signs saying 'You're going to burn in hell,' do we?" (Um, actually, yes they do.)Just as amusing is a Channel 2 news report, which seems like it could have run on the Christian Broadcasting Network. (You can see it here.) In the teaser, Bob Mueller says, "A sign meant to drum up attention raises a few eyebrows--the advertisement against religion expected to spark a conversation among the faithful." Well the advertisement is no more against religion than a sign for a church is against Judaism. But let's not confuse the situation with facts."Boy, I can't believe you people. Yeah, in this town we are religious, and you need to take that billboard down and get out of this town."
"They're gonna be running you bitches out of town. And when they do I hope they run you bitches to hell."
"Yes, I'm just a concerned citizen. I've seen your sign and we really don't appreciate it, and we're gonna push and shove and demand that that sign comes down. Maybe it looks like your corporation or your business or whatever who is responsible for putting that sign up there, maybe it's you people who don't believe." (Bingo!)
Later in the report, Channel 2 reporter Jamey Tucker says, "But Sunday morning, someone's going to flip a switch, and this sign is going to advertise the belief, "There is no God." Actually, Jamey, you're wrong. Nowhere does it say, "There is no God"--it merely provides contact info for people who aren't religious and would like to meet other like-minded folks. Besides, some nonreligious people believe in God.
Perhaps most entertaining is this bit near the end:
Mueller: Recent surveys show the number of nonreligious people in America is growing faster than every religious group and denomination. LifeWay researcher Scott McConnell says the numbers are growing rapidly even in the Bible Belt.LifeWay researcher? Mueller introduces McConnell like he's an impartial observer from the Pew Research Center, for, um, God's sake. It's kind of like seeking comment on health-care reform from researcher Glenn Beck. And aren't Christians and other religious groups just as proactive in trying to get nonbelievers to share their beliefs?
McConnell: Some folks are going to be proactive in those beliefs and they're going to try to get others to share that belief with them and they're going to be proactive in trying to have their beliefs respected, as we've heard from this group.
From the sound of it, you'd think religious people were an embattled minority under attack by nonbelievers. If anything, it's the other way around. If you don't believe that, just imagine what would happen if a nonreligious person, particularly an avowed atheist, tried to run for president.
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