Throughout the summer, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has been placing billboards around the country reading “Imagine No Religion”
As the FFRF explains it:
The Foundation is taking its irreverent message to what it calls the “unmassed masses” state-by-state. The billboard carries the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s name and its website, ffrf.org.
“Wherever you go, our roadsides of full of religion and religious symbols,” said Foundation copresident Annie Laurie Gaylor. “We think it’s time to advertise an alternative.” The Foundation has placed a second billboard message, with the same stained-glass motif, warning: “Beware of Dogma,” in several states.
The Foundation’s goal is to place billboards in every state. Currently, its “Imagine No Religion” message appears near the State Capitol in Denver. Billboards have appeared in Madison, Wis., Atlanta, Ga., Columbus, Ohio, and rural Pennsylvania and will be going up in Harrisburg, Pa., in September.
The ad has now gone up in Denver, though The Denver Post reports that “it will come down before the Democratic National Convention because the rate for that period was prohibitively high.” But that hasn’t stopped a Virginia group called In God We Trust from trying to capitalize on it by sending a letter to Barack Obama telling him that he has an obligation to publicly denounce it and that failure to do so “will permanently damage your message of hope and inclusion with the American people”:
By placing their billboard in Denver, the FFRF hopes to ride your coattails to the Democratic National Convention and claim your success somehow validates their anti-religious views. The presence of this hate-filled message in a prominent location in the city where you will be nominated in just a few weeks has already garnered much media attention. Its message damages the Democratic Party’s image with the 92% of Americans who believe in God. I urge you to publicly reject the stance of the FFRF. Failing to publicly denounce this attack on religion will permanently damage your message of hope and inclusion with the American people. Your silence will only show Americans that attacks on their beliefs will go unchallenged in an Obama administration.
