Atheist Billboard Offends Some African-Americans

http://www.wgal.com/news/30624435/detail.html

Click on the link to view the original billboard. Disgusting, imo.


A billboard designed to criticize the Bible instead offended many African-Americans in the Harrisburg area. The sign was vandalized overnight, and the president of one of the groups that funded it issued an apology.

On Wednesday morning, a Harrisburg Symphony billboard replaced the controversial atheist sign. Lamar Advertising officials said they had to replace the original billboard because of the vandalism.


Porcha Johnson
This Harrisburg Symphony billboard replaced the controversial atheist sign on Wednesday morning.


"I take the concerns of the community seriously. However, we also have to support the First Amendment right for advertisers," Lamar's general manager said.

People at the billboard site on Wednesday said they are happy it has been replaced. But they said the message the atheist sign left behind was so offensive to African-Americans that they are protesting to send a message to everyone that it was a hate crime and is not acceptable.

Original Billboard Showed Slave

The original billboard at 13th and Paxton streets showed a black slave in a metal collar along with a quote from the Bible, "Slaves, obey your masters." The billboard is in an area of Harrisburg with a large African-American population.


This is the original billboard.


The sign was paid for by two groups -- American Atheists and Pa. Nonbelievers. Organizers said the sign was their way to criticize the state Legislature for making 2012 the "Year of the Bible."

Some who saw the sign only saw the picture, not the message. About a half-dozen people confronted the Pennsylvania director of American Atheists.

"The message that we want to send, obviously -- slavery is brought to you by the Bible and the House of Representatives," said Ernest Perce V, of the American Atheists.

Perce said the message shows the Bible promotes slavery, and that the state House should not have voted to make 2012 the "Year of the Bible" in Pennsylvania.

Martha Brown, of Harrisburg, said she disagreed with the message of the billboard. "That's not true," Brown said. "I believe the Bible. I read the Bible and I'm not racist."

Brown said she drove to see the billboard for herself after work, as did some members of Harrisburg City Council.

"I thought we were a whole lot further along than that in this society that people want to express themselves in such a derogatory way," said council member Eugenia Smith.

"There are plenty of places that they could have made their point," said council member Sandra Reid. "They chose to use a very negative image from our past and put it in our neighborhood."

So far, it is not the reaction anticipated, Perce said.

"The reaction that I wanted is these people to get upset and help me repeal the 'Year of the Bible,'" Perce said. "That's the reaction I need."

People React To Billboard

Many people in Harrisburg who saw the sign, expressed their opinion about the billboard.

"It outraged me as far as being an African-American living in the city," said one Harrisburg resident. "I felt violated."

Some went as far as to call the sign a "hate crime."

"For him to have the audacity, to come into this neighborhood and to put up a billboard such as that, to me, that was intimidation, harassment. It was a form of a hate crime," said Linda Singh of Harrisburg.

Within hours, someone vandalized the billboard. Police said they will be looking into who damaged the billboard.

Some people felt Lamar Advertising should be more selective in the ads it does for clients.

"They need to be accountable for the things they put up," Singh said. "Everything is not about making money."

"I'm classifying it as unintelligent people making unintelligent decisions," said Stephen Fordham of Harrisburg.

"The message that I would like to get out is that you can't do this, it is unacceptable. This behavior is unacceptable," Singh said. "I don't care if it is the year 2012 or the year 212, it's unacceptable."

Lamar officials said the atheist group paid $1,200 for the advertisement for 28 days. The company's general manager defended the first amendment rights of its clients.

The company said it's allowing the atheist advertiser to put up another sign, but with a different message.

Group Issues Apology

Brian Fields, the president of Pa. Nonbelievers, issued the following statement on Wednesday morning.

"I want to say that I'm truly sorry that many people have misunderstood this billboard. It was never our intention to use 'race' as our message itself -- The point of our billboard was:

The bible is NOT holy or moral as promoted by the Pa. House of Representatives in the 'Year of the Bible.'

The bible was used as an excuse for many very bad things, including American slavery.


Pa. Nonbelievers
This is a contributed photo of the vandalized billboard.


We would have hoped this message was clearer to observers. In any case, the point is currently moot. The billboard was destroyed by vandals overnight. Attached is an image, submitted by one of our members who discovered it, of the destruction.

The irony of course is that in what they destroyed: they left the bible verse that supports slavery, one of many missed opportunities in the bible for the authors to actually say 'Slavery is bad.' They removed the entire point of the billboard, the criticism, and left the actual ignorant and savage part."

Read more: http://www.wgal.com/news/30624435/detail.html#ixzz1odRDP9pu

 

It's actually telling the truth. The Bible DOES endorse slavery and during the West African slave trade, it was used to reinforce a level of dominance over African slaves as a false means of security. Just because you don't accept slavery doesn't mean it didn't exist historically especially when speaking on matters of control.

And on another note, I DO feel that there's an heir of mental slavery in the black American community (more so than the rest of the populace) especially since the condition they are in, there's a psychological feeling of WANTING retain some level of victimization. When black Americans drop their crosses, Bibles, and read some actual books on the basis of bettering themselves, then perhaps the problems we face will be lessened by a large margin.

 

I disagree that the Bible endorses slavery. But I have often wondered why slavery even existed in biblical times. I went to a Christian source that I have found to be pretty trustworthy in their explanations: www.gotquestions.org. They research and post answers from a variety of sources. I found this article which, imo, truly explains the Bible's position on slavery:

Question: "Does the Bible condone slavery?"

Answer: There is a tendency to look at slavery as something of the past. But it is estimated that there are today over 12 million people in the world who are subject to slavery: forced labor, sex trade, inheritable property, etc. As those who have been redeemed from the slavery of sin, followers of Jesus Christ should be the foremost champions of ending human slavery in the world today. The question arises, though, why does the Bible not speak out strongly against slavery? Why does the Bible, in fact, seem to support the practice of human slavery?

The Bible does not specifically condemn the practice of slavery. It gives instructions on how slaves should be treated (Deuteronomy 15:12-15; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:1), but does not outlaw slavery altogether. Many see this as the Bible condoning all forms of slavery. What many fail to understand is that slavery in biblical times was very different from the slavery that was practiced in the past few centuries in many parts of the world. The slavery in the Bible was not based exclusively on race. People were not enslaved because of their nationality or the color of their skin. In Bible times, slavery was more a matter of social status. People sold themselves as slaves when they could not pay their debts or provide for their families. In New Testament times, sometimes doctors, lawyers, and even politicians were slaves of someone else. Some people actually chose to be slaves so as to have all their needs provided for by their masters.

The slavery of the past few centuries was often based exclusively on skin color. In the United States, many black people were considered slaves because of their nationality; many slave owners truly believed black people to be inferior human beings. The Bible most definitely does condemn race-based slavery. Consider the slavery the Hebrews experienced when they were in Egypt. The Hebrews were slaves, not by choice, but because they were Hebrews (Exodus 13:14). The plagues God poured out on Egypt demonstrate how God feels about racial slavery (Exodus 7-11). So, yes, the Bible does condemn some forms of slavery. At the same time, the Bible does seem to allow for other forms. The key issue is that the slavery the Bible allowed for in no way resembled the racial slavery that plagued our world in the past few centuries.

In addition, both the Old and New Testaments condemn the practice of “man-stealing” which is what happened in Africa in the 19th century. Africans were rounded up by slave-hunters, who sold them to slave-traders, who brought them to the New World to work on plantations and farms. This practice is abhorrent to God. In fact, the penalty for such a crime in the Mosaic Law was death: “Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to death” (Exodus 21:16). Similarly, in the New Testament, slave-traders are listed among those who are “ungodly and sinful” and are in the same category as those who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, adulterers and perverts, and liars and perjurers (1 Timothy 1:8-10).

Another crucial point is that the purpose of the Bible is to point the way to salvation, not to reform society. The Bible often approaches issues from the inside out. If a person experiences the love, mercy, and grace of God by receiving His salvation, God will reform his soul, changing the way he thinks and acts. A person who has experienced God’s gift of salvation and freedom from the slavery of sin, as God reforms his soul, will realize that enslaving another human being is wrong. A person who has truly experienced God’s grace will in turn be gracious towards others. That would be the Bible’s prescription for ending slavery.

Recommended Resource: Hard Sayings of the Bible by Kaiser, Davids, & Brauch.

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Well said. Here is another verse that I always had a huge problem with,


From Ephesians -


Slaves and Masters
5Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
9And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.



A friend of mine is a professor at the seminary school at Biola University and asked his classes if this verse meant that slaves should not have fought to escape/lobby against/overthrow slavery, and most of his students said yes. I was speechless when he told me that. To me this is a classic example of what I believe not to be the word of God but the word of men in power attempting to attach divine approval to their evil, immoral, money making, brutal enslavement of other human beings.

 

Christian apologists often like to justify or even "make sense" of the Bible through some sort of claim and picking and choosing. The clear thing is that slavery has been used as a means of control and if you want to get technical, it doesn't solely have to be physical. There's a mental component as well, which is more prevalent and survived in the psyche of humans and religion to this day. After all, why justify something as unpopular as physical harm when you can manipulate people through mental means? That's what institutions like Christianity and many of its Abrahamic brethrens relish completely.

In essence, slavery is still practiced in the United States through the auspices of maintaining some level of subservience through an idea. And this is something people cannot deny.

 

I don't believe in Santa Clause, but I don't by ad space to tell other people.

If they don't believe in a higher power, why do they care if other people do?

It's almost like they are a bizzaro version of Jehovah's Witnesses, they seem to want to spread their message of "no-god" to every corner of the world and instead of being polite about it, they want to do it in the most abrasive way possible.

And I don't believe for a second, that they didn't know what kind of controversy that their message would stir up. As a matter of fact I'll bet they were counting on it.

.

 

Exactly. I never understood how anyone could try and defend the Bible. If you're a person who take the Bible literally then certainly you'd agree with it since it's meant to be a permanent etching because "it was written" through a divine source. The figurative interpreters I can somewhat understand their trying to defend it, but it's still utterly ridiculous.

 

It wouldn't be a problem at all if they weren't most prominent in politics. And remember, there is such a thing as a Bible Belt and many political figures down here are more likely to exercise their beliefs by instilling laws based on superstition.

Secondly, this is a secular nation since its inception and enforcing Biblical ideas in government would prove to diminish the very reason why the US was founded upon.

Third, perhaps you're too blind or too lackadaisical to see, but even in Bible Belt communities, they like to put religious billboards up, undermining other people's personal feelings. But if they are allowed to do that, then atheist organizations and other organizations should be allowed to exercise their right to post whatever they please.

 

So do atheists, my dear.

Just because man engages in the practice of slavery doesn't mean God or the Bible endorses it. We ruthlessly gun down innocent people - does God or the Bible endorse that?

 

It's not the same though, ches. When atheists, many who were former fundies themselves, often cite the Bible, they were taught under a literal understanding of interpretation.

And the Bible does endorse it, as you've shown in your response post. It's that since you're a devout Christian, you're willing to defend as though it's the perfect book of morality when it's anything but that. And God, through the Old Testament has shown to be a racist, sexist, homophobic, infanticide driven maniac hellbent on keeping people under control and as slaves.

Treating your faith like a two year old murderous step-child with severe mental problems won't disregard the fact that the Bible is just...an outdated piece of subservient platter of bullshit.

 

The Bible does not endorse slavery as we know it today. Sorry you see it that way.

As for the second bolded statement, you can tell him that. Because he might see it differently, considering that he sent his Son to the cross to die for all those who believe in him, and even those who don't, in the hope that they will. You can't stop at the end of the Old Testament. There's more to the Book.

 

Major props Big Brother Wise! What a real shame that these people rather focus on the image than the message. I also feel that the black community would be better off without the Bible.

 

Without Man, there wouldn't be a God. That's the first thing to recognize and come to terms with. We, the populace, created this monstrosity based on our complex emotions driven by an egoistical demeanor.

The fiction story of death and redemption is just a way to give people a false sense of hope and yet, retain a means of enslavement. Sorry that you cannot see this reality, but from what I observe...it's most noticeable.

P.S. I love you to bits, ches. You're like my perfect companion to stroll on the park and laugh with, but still, I really do hope you give your personal faith a critical analysis rather than just ignoring the bad parts. :smt052

 

Oh indeed. I feel we could do much better than occupying our minds with religious ideas. Secularism and reasoning helped ended slavery and brought about the Civil Rights Movement. Let alone women's rights and everything else.

 

Yes. Blacker than you'll ever be, velly.

 

Why do Athiest even have an organization? That sounds so bizarre to me. Why gather together to organize your lack of religious beliefs?

You know there is a word for a group of people who gather together to proselytize and are adamant that their beliefs are the only right beliefs.

 

And your self-hating ass espouse bullshit and questioning other people's identities? Please boy, don't even TRY and test my patience with you.

The same reason why there are race specific organizations, gender specific organizations, sexual orientation organizations...spread awareness and gain a better future for that particular group. I'm probably wasting my time giving you this little hindsight, but for the sake of reason and good nature, here's a fact for you to ingest.

Did you know that there are seven states currently that has laws which outlaws atheists from ever running for political office? If that's not one (good) indicator for an organization for atheists, then you might as well put a bullet between your eyes since you're too blind.

 

Utter bullshit and how old are you again? Better yet, the better question is...what kind of education did you get? The William P. Gale Foundation?

 

Dude, Why are you being so hostile? Did I offend you in some way? I'm just trying to have a discussion. I'm not trying to get personal.

 

Hostile isn't the right word. More like I'm infuriated that you're equating a legitimate organization with legitimate causes to the likes of a fringe group. That to me, is very dishonest characterization especially from a educated black man like yourself.

By your way of thinking, you could say that about black specific organizations or other minority groups based on ignorance of some sorts.