Billboard provokes questions about religion
A billboard reading Imagine No Religion, sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, went up in the city of Seattle. The billboard is in a space at the base of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, near downtown. Not exactly the church-going center of the city, but Mike Christensen the man who paid for the ad, doesn't care.
His idea behind the controversial billboard is not to judge religion or people with religious beliefs, but to provoke people to question religion's role in government. A similar billboard went up near the Democratic Convention that read Keep Religion Out of Politics. The Wisconsin-based foundation has been actively promoting the separation of church and state since 1978.
In Seattle the billboard has had an overall positive effect, with FFRF gaining new and prospective new members. But in some cities where the billboard has also appeared, the group has received hate mail.
I've seen the billboard myself, and I found it intriguing enough to find out who and why it was put up. Has anyone else seen this billboard? Is this just more anti-God propaganda?
Comments
It seems that the FFRF and
It seems that the FFRF and organizations of that tenure do not seem to realize what we mean by the First Amendment, which states that the government should not interfere with our religious beliefs and practices. It does not state that politics should be free of religion or the other way around. The concept of the separation of church and state does not preclude the governments involvement in religion, but rather that it cannot dictate what we as individuals can believe in and that governmnet is not allowed to advocate a religion (state religion being one of the concepts implied here). Also, as a side note, the statement of separation of church and state is not explicitly stated in the First Admendment. One could argue that Jesus himself was the first proponent of the separation, though, when he said to "render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar's and render unto God was is God's".
We also should remember that this country was based upon our right to religious practice and the freedom from religious persecution from anyone against anyone, even if we choose not to believe. It is sad that the very purpose of our Constitution has been subverted by the very religious groups that it protects. It would be very interesting to ponder what would happen if there were no religion, though. But what does that mean anyway?