The “Under God” spray-painted by vandals onto an atheist billboard on Billy Graham Parkway over the weekend won’t be gone until just before July 4, a spokesman for Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics said today.That’s how long it will take the billboard company to restore the sign, which featured an American flag background and quoted the original phrase from the Pledge of Allegiance – “One Nation indivisible” – before “under God” was inserted after “one nation” in 1954.
“They have to print an entirely new vinyl and then schedule a crane,” said William Warren. He added that his group has reported the vandalism to Charlotte police and spoken with a nearby Shell station about letting investigators inspect video from security cameras in hopes of identifying those who defaced the billboard.
The sign, which went up a week ago, was controversial for its message and for its location along a road named for Graham, a Charlotte-born evangelist who preached to hundreds of millions worldwide.
A state coalition of atheist, agnostic and free thinker groups is putting up the same billboard in five other cities in North Carolina. None of them had been defaced as of Monday morning, Warren said.
“A concerned citizen,” Warren said, emailed the group Saturday to report that the sign had been vandalized.
To spray-paint graffiti onto the billboard, the vandals had to get up and then climb a ladder that didn’t reach to the ground.
“Either it was two very tall people or they had a ladder to get to the ladder,” Warren said. “It looks like you’d have to do gymnastics to get up there.”
He said his group considered the vandalism an isolated act and not indicative of Charlotte’s religious community.
“It was done by one or two people off on their own who decided their only recourse was vandalism rather than having a conversation.” Warren said. “It does show how needed our message is. As atheists, we want to let people know we exist and that there’s a community here.”
Other than the vandalism, Warren said his group has received “mostly positive” responses to its billboard, including from some self-described Christians.
Plus, he credited publicity surrounding the sign with uptick in membership: “We have 58 new members.”
The Pledge of Allegiance, long recited by schoolchildren in their classrooms, was written in 1892 by a Baptist minister. But it included no religious language until “under God” was inserted by an act of Congress at the height of the Cold War. The addition was meant to distinguish the United States from the Soviet Union, which officially embraced atheism.
Just like in 1954, wannabe theocrats add the words illegitimately, without regard for the rights of atheists.
ReplyDeleteSo, if you don't agree with atheists, and you're a Christian, then it's perfectly A-OK if you *break the law* to express your disagreement with the atheist? It's just fine to vandalize their property? And us uppity atheists should just sit down and shut up and take it (if we know what's good for us)?
ReplyDeleteAh. I see. Well, goodness me. I'll just move to the back of the bus until my Christian betters tell me what I can and cannot do in my own country. I guess I should have known better. Christians are just "more equal" than everyone else.
Nope, I don't endorse vandalism at all.
ReplyDeleteSeems a little silly to spend so much money for a sign just to try prove a point. I saw this sign before the words "under God" were added and I knew right then what would happen. You should have suspected it too.
This country is just as much yours as it is mine or any other American's. You certainly have the right to believe what you want to believe. Quite frankly, I am sick of other religious groups and nonreligious groups getting their panties in a wad everytime God is mentioned.
Stop making it sound like YOU have been threatened.
So, because you're "sick of it", I should just shut my mouth. Gotcha. I wouldn't want to upset the ruling mob. I "should have suspected" as much. Oh, and that rape victim? She deserved it because she was dressed so provocatively.
ReplyDeleteTell you what - you folks give us back the wording to the original Pledge and you'll get as much respect as you can handle. (Not that that will ever happen. "Screw the atheists!" seems to be the mob's catch phrase.)
Kind Sir, if you have come here to argue I must tell you that you will be wasting your time.
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be a situation where most people agree to disagree. Keep in mind, that I am not the pulpit pounding Christian that gets all faint at the words atheist or agnostic. I do, however, very much believe in God and it is the basis of what this great country was founded upon............you know the story.
Please try to have a pleasant day and try to believe that not all Christians hate atheists. They don't. Believe me. I happen to know a few and a few agnostics to go along with it. However, when this topic somes up we agree to disagree and remain friends.