For Want of Quotation Marks, the Message Was Lost
Recently a church in Ohio put up this billboard:
The Mid Ohio Atheists organization responded with this note on their website:
Members of Mid Ohio Atheists have had people contact them and congratulate them on putting up our first billboard.
While we certainly do agree with the sentiment expressed on the billboard- that there is no god, and that people should not believe everything they hear, we want to clarify that this is not our billboard. It was not paid for by us in part or in the whole. Nether were we involved in the design of the billboard.
We do want to thank the McElroy Rd. Church of Christ for advertising our thoughts on this important subject. But, frankly, it puzzles us that McElroy Rd. Church of Christ paid to put up this sign, aren’t they afraid to lose church members?
It could have even been a better design to get their originally intended message across. (I started to say “same message” — but I’m not sure they want to get out the same message.) Just… bless.
Maybe something like this:
“There is no God.” (small letters)
Don’t believe everything you hear! (large, bold letters)
Yes, as it is (with the large, all-caps letters), the focus is on the first part. It does, indeed, sound like a message from the local atheist group.
Well-intentioned, though.
It really is goofy. The first questions is always, “Who is the audience?” and the second is, “What do we want to communicate?” This fails on both accounts.
Ohmygoodness. I’d have been so fired for posting something like that.
Just a word to someone who might have wound up here from hearing one of the radio interviews about Megan’s Secrets today: thanks for dropping by! (I didn’t really mean to mention this website, but when asked where people could find out more about me, it kinda belted out.)
If you go to the categories drop-down box in the right column, you can find “Megan.” That will lead you to some early posts about my daughter.
Reminds me of a church sign some time ago in Ohio that said (xxx Church of Christ, non-Christian)
I get it. Think it is great! So many people especially Christians are pretty quick to believe everything they hear. We need to think for ourselves and not be afraid to question practices, religion, faith, doctrines, politics, and other life issues, including God. The sign is definately an attention grabber.
It’s funny, the other billboard has the message “Don’t Believe in God? He Believes in you.” and no one is talking about it. It’s funny that this one billboard, worded in an ambiguious way to make you think, has more said about it then the other. The reason is the “Don’t Believe in God? He Believes in you.” billboard has Aethists saying “Boo!” and Christians saying “Yay!”. This billboard makes you go “Yay!” or “Boo!” then “Hey, wait a minute…. what do they mean?” More people are talking about God this week then they were last week. Always a good thing in my opinion.
I’m hoping you are the Mike Cope whos wife spoke at Pepperdine back in the late 1980′s about angels and your daughter Megan. I was there and was so touched.
I have been searching for a copy of her talk and if you could please give me any information on how to obtain this I would be ever so grateful. God Bless you
I live in Ohio, one town over from where the church is and I see this billboard all the time. It did prompt me to visit the church’s website and try to learn more about them. We live in an area where the church of Christ is declining – and not slowly. I applaud McElroy for doing something to grab attention, both for God, and for the ministry and church family they have there. I think both of their billboards do what they intended: make people stop and think, and hopefully, look them up.