Religion foes' billboard sparks discussion, shrugs
(Hat Tip: Meeks inCA)
(All embedded links added by BabbaZee)
By Electa Draper The Denver Post
Denver's secularists wanting freedom from religion have taken over one corner in the public square to make the point.
They've emblazoned a billboard six blocks from the state Capitol with the message, inscribed over faux stained glass, "Imagine No Religion."
More than 2,000 religions have fueled division and rancor among peoples and hindered scientific and social progress, said Michael Lee Smith, local spokesman for the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The world would be better off without organized religion, he said.
The billboard, part of a national ad campaign, is scheduled to stand above West 14th Avenue and Fox Street through June and July. It will come down before the Democratic National Convention because the rate for that period was prohibitively high, Smith said. The Fox Street billboard will cost local foundation supporters almost $3,000, Smith said.
"The religious right is not a majority, but it has a strong voice and a lot of influence," Smith said. "We want to uphold the separation of church and state."
A construction worker on the block, 37-year-old David Rodriguez, said his religion has been an important help in raising his family, yet he respects differing views. Passer-by Joseph Sanchez, 23, said the billboard didn't upset him but that he doesn't agree with it.
"I'm not really big on organized religion, but I love religion," Sanchez said. "It's important for people to keep religion somewhere in the back of their mind but not to take it too seriously."
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, the nation's largest association of agnostics, atheists and devout secularists, has been active in Denver courts for many years.
Denver lawyer Robert Tiernan and the foundation worked to halt city sponsorship of a day of prayer promoted by the mayor's office when Wellington Webb held the post.
In 1990, Tiernan and the foundation threatened a lawsuit and ended a city subsidy for the Council of Colorado Churches' annual Easter sunrise services at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
"I always support their freedom of speech," council director Jim Ryan said of the foundation. "But the foundation is failing to acknowledge all the moral values and work for the common good that has grown out of faith traditions."
The foundation also tried, unsuccessfully, to litigate removal of the Ten Commandments marker on the Capitol grounds.
"The court said it was historical, not religious," Tiernan said. "The courts are so inclined toward religion it's disgusting."
Tiernan filed a lawsuit last fall, still pending, to end what he calls Cherry Creek School District's promotion of religion. He said the district lists developmental goals for students that include weekly participation in religious services or activities.
"There's another point of view besides the religious," Tiernan said. "We live here, too. There are a lot more atheists and agnostics than people admit. They need to come out of the closet."
Welcome to the Soviet Colorado, proles.
As of the time of this posting these were the results showing on their story poll:
Post Poll - Religion Billboard
Do you think the religious right exerts too big an influence over public policy?
Total Votes
Yes 88.76 %
No 10.55 %
Not Sure 0.677 %
Related:
Telluride wins right to seize land
Colorado Legislation Tramples Religious Freedom: All 'public accommodations,' including restrooms, would be opened to men, women, bisexuals, transsexuals and transgendered individuals.
RE: Robert Tiernan:
1998: COLORADO ATHEISTS CHALLENGING CHRISTIAN CROSS IN LARIMER COUNTY PARK
2000: Colorado Asks: Is 'In God We Trust' a Religious Statement?
2005: Tiernan wrote a letter this month to the Downtown Denver Partnership arguing that a "winter solstice" float should be chosen instead of a Christian one in 2005.
2006: "The Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofitcorporationwith its principal office in Madison, Wisconsin. The Foundation, which has more than 5,000 members, promotes the constitutional separation of church and state. The Foundation submits that “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance violates both the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the United States Constitution. It, therefore, urges this Court to affirm the decision of the District Court below as argued in the brief filed by Plaintiffs-Appellees."
XTC ~ Dear God
2 Timothy 3
Godlessness in the Last Days
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Have nothing to do with them.
They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone
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