If you live in Tampa, FL as I do, and have driven on I-275 or I-75 in the past few weeks, no doubt you have seen the billboard offerings of this lovely revisionist theocratic outlet. Yay, theocracy!
Where is Troutfishing when you need him? Maybe I'll pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster that he gets the message soon.
More (absurdity) on the jump.
I mean, look.
I respect a person's right to worship as s/he chooses just as much as the next atheist. But please. Don't try to shove this bullshit and expect, if you wave a red flag in front of a bull, that you're NOT going to get gored:
Our Founding Fathers knew that America's government was made only for people who are moral and religious. It's not suited for governing anyone else.
But I digress. Following are a sampling of the billboards that NoSeparation.Org has paid with unquestionably big money with which to wallpaper the highways of my town:
Oh, yes. The sanctimonious (and false) disclaimer underneath the above set of billboard graphics on the NoSeparation.Org's Internets site doth piss the Boof off. Hence, I verily underlineth it in red.
Oh, I get it. So now, your fellow Americans who have different worldviews than you are suddenly "enemies within." Beautiful.
My supernatural reaction to this one:
Let's walk over to the other dimension for a moment, shall we? The one in which, ummm, thinking people tend to spend their time.
(Disclaimer: CommonDreams.org is a terribly centrist, Third-Way-esque type "middle ground" type of organization; and even THEY understand the roots of church/state separation in our pluralistic nation!)
From the CommonDreams.org link (from 2005, for context; bolding is mine):
The right-wing's multi-front war on American democracy now aims at our core belief in separation of church and state. It includes an attempt to say the founding fathers endorsed the idea that this is a "Christian nation," with an official religion.
But the founders---and a vast majority of Americans---repeatedly, vehemently and with stunning clarity denounced, rejected and despised such beliefs.
Nowhere in the Constitution they wrote does the word "Christian" or the name of Christ appear. The very first phrase of the First Amendment demands that "Congress shall make no law concerning an establishment of religion."
One major reason Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine, Ethan Allen and the vast majority of early Americans rejected the merger of church and state was the lingering stench of Puritan intolerance. The infamous theocratic murders of the Salem witch trials sickened the American soul...
With characteristic duplicity, the radical right is attempting to re-write another of this nation's most cherished beliefs.
And:
Twisting metaphors, changing meanings and ignoring Jefferson's Unitarianism, Schweikart conjures a completely fictitious endorsement for a Christian state.
Then comes the astonishing assertion that the incomparably urbane, tolerant and ever-eclectic Benjamin Franklin was somehow a Christian soldier. Never mind that in his Autobiography the Puritan-born Franklin, with his usual wry wit, laments having been dragged by a friend to church, from which he fled back to his books and experiments.
Never mind also that the legendary atheism of the wildly popular Tom Paine and Ethan Allen was embraced throughout a new nation that loved rational reason.
Guess the "founding fathers" of NoSeparation.Org didn't get the memo.
It is not surprising that this Tampa Bay-area theocratic organization wallpapering the city with its vitriol is allied with such right-wing organizations as Wall Builders, Tea Party Next Step (now THERE's a frightening grassroots voting bloc for ya), and Gary Bauer's innocuously-named Community Issues Council (CIC), a front group for more right-wing theocratic tomfoolery.
The CIC's Helpful Links page is almost too predictable in the right-wing asshattery it supports. Just a sampling of the Who's Who:
http://www.reclaimamerica.org/
The CENTER FOR RECLAIMING AMERICA
was founded by Dr. D. James Kennedy (Dr. Gary Cass is Exec. Director)
An outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries for the purpose of mobilizing America’s Christians at the grassroots level.
http://www.frc.org/
Family research Council - Tony Perkins
The (FRC) champions marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring
of society. FRC shapes public debate and formulates public policy that values human life and upholds the institutions
of marriage and the family. Believing that God is the author of life, liberty, and the family, FRC promotes the Judeo-
Christian worldview as the basis for a just, free and stable society.
http://www.focusaction.org/
Focus on the Family Action - Dr. James Dobson
A new cultural action organization that is completely separate from Focus on the Family, legally. It has been created by separating out of Focus on the Family those activities which constitute lobbying under the IRS code so that they can be expanded in scope. It will provide a platform for informing, inspiring and rallying those who care deeply about the family to greater involvement in the moral, cultural and political issues that threaten our nation.
http://www.family.org/...
Family News in Focus - A "Focus on the Family" website
Family news regarding family issues in policy and culture.
http://www.family.org/...
CitizenLink - A "Focus on the Family" website
Family issues in policy and culture
http://www.afa.net/
American Family Association - Donald E Wildmon
AFA is for people who are tired of cursing the darkness and who are ready to light a bonfire. They represent and stand for traditional family values, focusing primarily on the influence of television and other media – including pornography – on our society. They believe in holding accountable the companies which sponsor programs attacking traditional family values and also believe in commending those companies which act responsibly regarding programs they support.
http://www.cwfpac.com/
Campaign for Working Families - Gary Bauer
"Unapologetically Pro-Family, Pro-Life, and Pro-Growth" formed to represent the interests and values of America's traditional families in the political arena. CWF is a non-partisan political action committee (PAC) dedicated to electing pro-family, pro-life and pro-free enterprise candidates to federal and state offices.
http://www.wallbuilders.com/
Wallbuilders - David Barton
WallBuilders is an organization dedicated to presenting America's forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on the moral, religious, and constitutional foundation on which America was built—a foundation which, in recent years, has been seriously attacked and undermined. In accord with what was so accurately stated by George Washington, we believe that "the propitious (favorable) smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation which disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained."
So of course, I contacted the good people at Freedom from Religion Foundation to at least give them a heads-up about this ludicrous revisionism and display of billboards all over the frickin' city of Tampa. True, they might not be able to DO anything legally about the matter--after all, these ARE paid, for-profit billboard companies that just take the money and put whatever up there for all of Tampa to see--but, being that my husband and I are paying family members of FFRF, maybe we could find other Tampa/St. Pete-area freethinkers to fight back with freethought billboards.
After all, it takes money to fight big money, and it takes billboards to fight big billboards. :)