Lessons From The Billboard Campaign

I have learned a few lessons the hard way, which seems to be the only way I am able to learn anything. The billboard that we put up in Charlotte on Billy Graham Parkway was one of those hard-lessons-learned. I found out some depressing, interesting, and wonderful things about our fair city, which can be described as having one foot in 2030 and one foot (and the brain) in 1330. The city seems to want to march towards the future, destroying all of its old landmarks to make way for the new. The religious, however, are stuck. Their religion doesn’t change. It doesn’t progress. It feeds on the hopes of good people and turns them in to scared, irrational, and hate-filled pawns. So, I guess you could say the first thing I learned was resolve. I will wear my atheism on my sleeve and will not let anyone scare me back into hiding.

The people of Charlotte had always seemed a mixed bag to me. I knew that there was a huge religious population here, but I also knew that there were some very loving and understanding people. I thought, somewhat naively, that our message would be seen for what it was: a positive message to let the city know that we, the Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics, are here. However, our mere presence in this city is seen as an affront to all religious people, which brings up the same old question of “What is it about atheist that people hate so much?” So, my second lesson that I learned is that people don’t often act as we hope, they are more likely to act as we fear.

There were some horrible things said during this billboard campaign. We were told that we weren’t real Americans; we were told that we should leave this country and go to Russia, as if that were some sort of utopia to strive for; we were told that we were bad people, not because of our actions but because of our existence; and we were told by others in the atheist community that we had brought this one ourselves by being vociferous with our obviously offensive sign. Some of our members received death threats of a nature too brutal to mention in detail. Their security was threatened and their children were threatened. My third lesson is that people are depraved and willing to kill over belief and that which scares them. Not fear in a tangible sense, like having your family’s life threatened, but in the sense that everything they believe could be wrong.

There were some wonderful messages from across the country in support of our message. Christians, Hindus, even one case of a man who described himself as a devout Muslim, came out and said “We agree with your message and it needs to be said.” The support from the religious community has been surprising and welcome. My fourth lesson is that there are a surprising number of religious people who understand the issue of church-state separation. The people that understand this issue need to grab the reins of power from the god-fearing, hate mongering leaders of their community if they wish to be taken seriously. Living in a 1330 mindset is going to do nothing more than expose the frauds of the religious community to be nothing more than rabble-rousers, inciting good people to do terrible things.

Our community here has grown tremendously since the message went out that there are atheists in North Carolina. Membership in the Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics has grown to over 800 members. I have heard countless stories of the “I thought I was alone” or the “I couldn’t imagine other freethinkers living in North Carolina” type. When you hear the relief in the voice of someone who knows that there is a community of people who will accept them, it makes the whole campaign worthwhile. There are people who had given up on finding others like themselves, feeling forced to smile and nod at the religions that were foisted on them every day. They now know that there is a place for them to vent, and place to be happy, and a place to find support when dealing with the mega-church that is Charlotte. My final lesson is that hiding our true nature leads to a solitary life, which is no way to live. People need to be comfortable with who they are without someone in a pointy hat telling them they are bad for thinking, or some guy in a turban telling them they need to cover themselves, or someone in a suit and tie telling them they are going to burn in hell for being human.

This campaign was a success. It was worth every bit of hate-mail, every late-night call from some 13 year old girl reciting the pledge of allegiance, every death threat, and every bit of vandalism. We have made it through an interesting time and are stronger for it.

We are atheists, agnostics, humanists, secularists, and freethinkers. We are here to stay.

Godless Billboard Vandalized In Charlotte, NC

In what can only be called an act of hatred and cowardice, the "One Nation Indivisible" billboard on Billy Graham Parkway has been vandalized. Who would have guessed that Christians could have enough hatred, or time, in them to do this? I mean, we are talking about the group of people responsible for the Crusades.




I can't wrap my head around this. What is so horrible about the billboard; the unity part or the patriotism part? I suppose that we could expect no less from a group of dullards that need to have the word "god" written on everything they see. I was also surprised to see a lack of creativity. That was the best the vandals could come up with? What a sad state of affairs the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System must be in.

I think that this makes the point of the billboard. Just the very act of letting the public know you exist is enough to draw their scorn and their mentally damaged vandals. The message is needed, so I am going to reiterate it here:

ATHEISTS LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA
WE WILL NOT BE BULLIED

The billboard will be fixed and so will our resolve. We will continue to promote our positive messages that we are one country and you can be good without that figment of the imagination that some call god. I think this really proves our point: obviously Christianity doesn't make you a good person. How many church billboards get defaced in the name of atheism?


This shit happens all of the time. Christians constantly rail against all things immoral, but when someone does something like this, there is a wink and a nod. Obviously we atheists were asking for it, what with wanting to be treated like everyone else. I am so glad that atheists aren't discriminated against, otherwise we would see billboards like this:

Stay classy Charlotte.

WBT Radio: Full Of Ignorance

I have recently found myself in the public eye, promoting the billboards that have recently gone up across North Carolina for the Fourth of July holiday. It has been interesting and fun talking to the media and the people of North Carolina about what we are doing. As with anything, there are people that love it, people that are indifferent, and people that hate it. I think watching Glenn Beck for so long has made me impervious to the rantings of the ultra-religious and people on the political right.

On Thursday, June 24, I was invited on the Tara Servatius radio show to discuss the billboard that we put up. I had never listened to her show. Hell, I thought she was relegated to the mid-pages of Creative Loafing. I had a few people warn me that she was the local Rush Limbaugh/Glenn Beck/Ann Coulter clone and she would be there only to argue. That made me very excited (in a good way), which probably says something about the masochistic nature of my personality.

The interview was what I expected it to be. She asked a lot of questions, changed the subject about 16 times in 10 minutes, then hung up on me in the end before I could thank her for being on her show. None of that bothered me. It actually made me pretty happy that the right-wing media hosts are such a group of clones that you can pretty much predict how any interview they do is going to turn out. What concerned me was the accusation that atheists that are afraid of coming out of the closet are somehow cowards and that since there are laws to protect people who hold certain beliefs (or hold no beliefs), that atheists aren't being discriminated against.

Let me break this down for people. On the first point about closeted atheists being cowards, what is cowardly about people being afraid of losing their families? If someone comes from a religious family or have a religious romantic partner or religious friends, what is so cowardly about fearing the loss of those relationships? The reason that people are afraid to say they are atheists is because the term has been so toxic over time that people automatically associate atheism with the horrors of the world, as if nothing bad has ever been done in the name of religion. When you tell a stranger you are an atheist (which happens in the south because everyone wants to know what church you go to), you either get the “I-will-cry-for-your-soul” look or a rude comment. When you tell friends and family that you are an atheist, you can almost guarantee an argument and the loss of a few relationships.

This is before you get to the work force! There are people that have jobs full of religious people that are allowed to say anything they want about religion. When they are challenged, the work environment becomes very uncomfortable, very fast. The person who challenges the religious could find a new job, but why should they have to? If religious conversation is allowed at work (which it shouldn't be), then an atheist has just as much valuable opinion as the religious people. When the religious make the work environment uncomfortable for the people that don't subscribe to their particular brand of fantasy, then harassment is occurring. Make no mistake, people are fired for their beliefs. When someone comes out as an atheist, then they are put under more scrutiny by those in management that are religious.

This brings me to my second point. Just because there are laws against discrimination doesn't mean it doesn't happen. We have laws against murder, rape, theft and speeding, but it happens every day. The point that Tara Servatius was trying to make about laws protecting beliefs had nothing to do with it actually happening. If someone is harassed at work until they are either forced to quit or are fired, the damage is done. That person no longer has a job. The years of litigation that will ensue aren't going to put food on the table while the case is being settled.

I thought it was interesting when I brought up the case of Cecil Bothwell in Asheville, NC. When I made a point about a case being made against him because he was an atheist and the North Carolina State Constitution says you have to believe in God (thats Yahweh, not just any god), then you can't serve in office. Now, the US Constitution overrides the State Constitution when it comes to issues like this. The fact that the case against Cecil was dropped has nothing to do with the real issue. The case should have never been taken against him because the State Constitution should have never said anything about religion at all! The fact that this language is still in the state constitution is appalling and discriminatory. Imagine if there was language in the State Constitution that said you have to be “White, Male” to serve in public office in North Carolina. It doesn't matter that the US Constitution overrides that State Constitution. What matters is that the language is discriminatory to everyone who is not a white male. You would think that Tara Servatius would be able to understand the danger in that, since she is a woman in a male-dominated field.

Overall, I thought the questions that she asked were extremely juvenile, short-sighted, and bigoted. She said a few times that she didn't care, but she is the one that invited me on the show. If she didn't care, why did it seem to bother her so much? As for the rest of the North Carolina citizens, do a Google News search for our billboard and see how many people care.

The problem that I see with Tara Servatius is that, like most of the right-wing blabber machine, she is uneducated, bigoted, and hateful. She pretends she doesn't care about things that obviously bother the hell out of her. I, as well as the rest of the PR contacts in the North Carolina Secular Association, spent a lot of time preparing and educating ourselves to be able to speak with some degree of intelligence about the issues that the billboard campaign is attempting to raise. I would expect that the people asking the questions would have taken the same amount of care as educating themselves. Most of the press has done this, but when it comes to the WBT noise machine, they simply can't wrap their minds around learning something that is outside of their belief structure, whether its Tara Servatius and her ignorant comments about “victimization” or Keith Larson trying to somehow tie atheism to Socialism, WBT has made themselves clear: they are the station of bigots and liars.

So I would like to say what I was going to say before Tara Servatius hung up on me: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I hope we can do it again one day when you can interview someone without prejudging the subject before you talk to someone, which makes you sound extremely rude and ignorant.

Godless Billboard Above Billy Graham Parkway

The Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics are pleased to announce their sponsorship of the new "One Nation Indivisible" billboard that now stands tall above Billy Graham Parkway and Boyer St.

The billboard will be up for four weeks and is part of a larger state-wide campaign that has billboards in Asheville, Greensboro, Wilmington, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem.

"This is a positive message of unity and inclusion for all Americans," said Joseph McDaniel Stewart, vice president of FreeThoughtAction. "It is designed to bring atheists and theists together as patriots in a shared society."

Stewart added: "When the words 'under God' were inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance between 'one nation' and 'indivisible,' they made a lie out of both those ideals because you can’t have an indivisible nation if you draw a line between the godly and godless. We all belong here."

It is about time we have a billboard in Charlotte that isn't peddling some bronze-age superstition. Find out more by visiting the North Carolina Secular Association.