The Atheists’ Christmas Billboard: Just Plain Rude

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:54 pm by Kathy Schiffer

The Atheists’ Christmas Billboard: Just Plain Rude 2016-09-30T15:54:56-05:00 Kathy Schiffer

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Y’know, this is really getting tiresome.

The American Atheists are once again spitting at the Christians, as our high holy day nears. Not content to simply roll over in bed on Christmas morning, snagging a few more minutes of sleep that church-attending Christians don’t have time to enjoy, they have to hurl stones at their believing neighbors.

American Atheists, the activist group which posts controversial messages at every opportunity on billboards across the nation, has just unveiled its latest anti-Christian message. They again used America’s digital blackboard—New York City’s Times Square—to belittle the faith of Christians. Their 40’ by 40’ display asks, “Who needs Christ during Christmas?”

According to The Blaze,

After asking “Who needs Christ,” the digital billboard shows a hand crossing out Jesus’ name with a marker and text that answers the curiosity with a one word answer — “Nobody.” The next graphic tells viewers to “Celebrate the true meaning of XMAS.”

This “true meaning,” according to the billboard, includes charity, family, friends and food — all secular elements that are associated with Christmas. It concludes with the more general “Happy Holidays” greeting.

[Eyeroll]

I have a message for the perpetrators of this tasteless stunt:

GO HOME. GROW UP. LEAVE ME ALONE.

I am reminded of a kid I knew, the neighborhood bully, who lived down the block from my house when I was in elementary school. Even as a child, I understood why he had become the local troublemaker: From his house on any given day, one could hear his father cursing, his mother screaming, dishes breaking, children crying…. Hailing as he did from such a tumultous environment, he might well have savored his time with the kids on the block, enjoying the respite before returning to the bedlam of family life for dinner. But his volatile upbringing hadn’t prepared him to fit in easily. Instead of joining our games of Cowboys and Indians and frozen tag, he did the only thing he knew: he made trouble.

The American Atheists could choose another path: Don’t believe in God? Then don’t pray. Go about your business.

Instead they feel a need to poke and prod, sticking out a foot to trip hapless passersby with their scornful message.

Imagine if one were to undertake a public campaign to denounce the faith of Jews. I mean, Hitler did that—but the only approach to Jewish/Christian relations that is acceptable in polite society is cooperation and mutual respect. Why it should be any different for atheists and Christians—why atheists feel entitled to poke a stick in my eye, without being charged with a hate crime—I honestly don’t know.

I do know this: It’s ugly. It’s unbecoming. It’s juvenile.

Atheism

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