Atheists, church vie on billboard

Messages cycle in Springdale

An electronic billboard in Springdale features a message from Grace Church in Alma (shown). The billboard is a response to an ad on the same display from the Cranford, N.J.-based American Atheists.
An electronic billboard in Springdale features a message from Grace Church in Alma (shown). The billboard is a response to an ad on the same display from the Cranford, N.J.-based American Atheists.

A digital billboard on Interstate 49 in Springdale flashes an advertisement about skipping church this Christmas.

photo

NWA Media

An electronic billboard in Springdale features a message from Grace Church in Alma. The billboard is a response to an ad (shown) on the same display from the Cranford, N.J.-based American Atheists encouraging people to skip church this Christmas.

The ad depicts a little girl wearing a red stocking cap writing a note.

"Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is to skip church," the ad reads. "I'm too old for fairy tales."

Seconds later, the message is followed by one from Grace Church in Alma that reads "Questions, Doubts, Curiosity? All Welcome at Grace Church, Alma."

American Atheists, a nonprofit organization based in Cranford, N.J., has had its electronic billboard up in Springdale since Dec. 1. It's part of a campaign to promote the organization's national convention, which will be held April 2-5 in Memphis, and to encourage atheists to talk to family members instead of feeling pressured to go to church around Christmas, which falls on a Thursday this year.

"Our target audience is explicitly in-the-closet atheists -- people who don't believe in God and need encouragement to talk about this topic with their family," said Danielle Muscato, a spokesman for the American Atheists.

Similar billboards have gone up in Memphis, Nashville, Tenn., St. Louis and Milwaukee. The Springdale billboard is the only one American Atheists has in Arkansas, said Muscato.

The Grace Church counter message began being displayed on the same digital billboard face as the atheist ad very early Wednesday morning. It is one of seven ads that are shown in succession. Each ad remains up for about eight seconds before changing to the next one.

Devon Walker, executive pastor of Grace Church, said the congregation raised about $900 to pay for its message on the Clear Channel Outdoor billboard. It will be shown for 14 days. He said donations came in from as far away as Texas and Florida.

Walker said he did some Internet research on American Atheists and read that its desire is to start a conversation.

"We wanted to express respect and a desire to sit down and listen," Walker said. "We actually love that discussion. We support that."

Walker said Wednesday the response had been good.

"Since it went up last night, we've had phone calls and emails from atheists to express how grateful they were that we responded with respect and love," he said. "It's not really a common situation where you see Christians and atheists sitting down to talk to each other, to have a dialogue. Normally, it's pretty hostile between the two groups."

The church's ad doesn't immediately follow the atheists' ad in the digital rotation. It appears 16 seconds later. In between are ads for Downstream Casino and a Valentine's Day event sponsored by the Center for Healthy Relationships at John Brown University. Grace Church's ad is followed by one encouraging people to be on the lookout for the FBI's 10 most-wanted criminals.

Muscato said there are no plans for more billboards before Christmas. The organizations' ad will run on the five billboards through Dec. 24.

Muscato said the billboards are primarily in cities within driving distance of Memphis to help promote the convention. The billboards are also in areas with lots of schools and churches, Muscato said.

Muscato didn't know that Rev. Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is senior pastor at Cross Church in Springdale. Floyd couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

The atheist ads aren't an attempt to spoil Christmas for kids who believe in Santa Claus, Muscato said.

"She's writing to Santa Claus," Muscato said of the girl in the ad, who is the daughter of a member of American Atheists. "I think she's saying she finds God less believable than Santa."

Muscato said the ads on all five billboards were the same, but American Atheists recently changed its billboards in Memphis and Nashville because of "parody" billboards put up by a group of Christians in Memphis.

In Memphis, the counter billboards read: "Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is to keep it sacred and to celebrate without being bullied. Peace, dignity and respect for all."

Muscato took issue with the term "bullied," describing it as hypocritical.

"We're not bullying anybody," Muscato said. "Bullying is things like forcing your children to attend church or sending them to bed without meals."

American Atheists' digital billboards in Memphis and Nashville were changed Saturday. They show the same little girl, but the message now reads: "Dear Christians, I share my toys. Why won't you share the season? Happy holidays for all!"

Muscato said American Atheists has been putting up provocative billboards since 2010. The group had one in New York City's Times Square last year that read "Who needs Christ in Christmas? Nobody." In 2012, the organization's Times Square billboard read "Keep the Merry" alongside a picture of Santa Claus, and "Dump the Myth" alongside a painting of Jesus Christ.

Muscato said Walker's billboard response was "great."

"I think that's admirable," Muscato said. "The only thing I want to say about that is, don't just talk about atheism to your pastor. That would be like talking to a faith healer about surgery. Of course they're going to have some kind of bias about that sort of thing."

NW News on 12/11/2014

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