Atheists advertise on digital billboard

Church counters with a welcome

A digital billboard on Interstate 49 in Springdale flashes an advertisement about skipping church this Christmas.

The ad depicts a little girl wearing a red stocking cap writing a note.

“Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is to skip church,” the ad reads. “I’m too old for fairy tales.”

Seconds later, the message is followed by one from Grace Church in Alma that reads, “Questions, Doubts, Curiosity? All Welcome at Grace Church, Alma.”

American Atheists, a nonprofit organization based in Cranford, N.J., has had its electronic billboard up in Springdale since Dec. 1. It’s part of a campaign to promote the organization’s national convention, which will be held April 2-5 in Memphis, and to encourage atheists to talk to family members instead of feeling pressured to go to church around Christmas, which falls on a Thursday this year.

“Our target audience is explicitly in-the-closet atheists — people who don’t believe in God and need encouragement to talk about this topic with their family,” said Danielle Muscato, a spokesman for the American Atheists.

Similar billboards have gone up in Memphis; Nashville, Tenn.; St. Louis; and Milwaukee. The Springdale billboard is the only one American Atheists has in Arkansas, Muscato said.

The Grace Church counter message began being displayed on the same digital billboard face as the atheist ad very early Wednesday morning. It is one of seven ads that are shown in succession. Each ad remains up for about eight seconds before changing to the next one.

Devon Walker, executive pastor of Grace Church, said the congregation raised about $900 to pay for its message on the Clear Channel Outdoor billboard. It will be shown for 14 days. He said donations came in from as far away as Florida.

Walker said he did some Internet research on American Atheists and read that its desire is to start a conversation.

“We wanted to express respect and a desire to sit down and listen,” Walker said. “We actually love that discussion. We support that.”

Walker said Wednesday that the response had been good.

“Since it went up last night, we’ve had phone calls and emails from atheists to express how grateful they were that we responded with respect and love,” he said. “It’s not really a common situation where you see Christians and atheists sitting down to talk to each other, to have a dialogue. Normally, it’s pretty hostile between the two groups.”

The church’s ad doesn’t immediately follow the atheists’ ad in the digital rotation. It appears 16 seconds later. In between are ads for Downstream Casino and a Valentine’s Day event sponsored by the Center for Healthy Relationships at John Brown University. Grace Church’s ad is followed by one encouraging people to be on the lookout for the FBI’s 10 most-wanted criminals.b

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