According to a report by CBS Los Angeles, the upcoming Day of Solidarity for Black Non-Believers is ruffling some feathers:
The event set for Feb. 26 is part of an ad campaign by African Americans For Humanism (AAH) planned in Los Angeles and five other major U.S. cities targeting African-Americans who have privately or openly questioned their faith.
The ads are already fueling controversy in Dallas as the campaign made its debut Monday with a billboard reading, “Doubts about religion? You’re one of many.” erected within one mile of several area churches.
(continues after the jump, of course:)
How dare they! Within a mile of several churches?
So I wondered. What sort of area are we looking at there. So, thanks to Google maps, a taste of Dallas:
Click to embiggen, of course; the red dots are hundreds of places of worship. The scale, in the lower left, gives you a rough idea of how many miles are between them (or, in most places, how many churches per mile there are). Take your own look around Dallas; this shot is just a small part.
When the campaign moves to Los Angeles, what then?
There is no reason to complain about a billboard within a mile of your house of worship, if you tolerate 2 or 3 other churches within that radius.
It looks like you couldn’t swing a cat without hitting a church! If that were the criteria I bet the AAH would never be able to put up a billboard in any metropolitan area in the U.S.
Hmmm, I wonder if that’s the idea?
Nicely done, Cuttlefish.
We aim to please, Brownian!
It’s hardly specific to large cities. I come from a town of ~12000 people, and just under 9 square miles. Currently there are 26 churches. Better than 1 church/500 citizens, and one church shy of three per square mile.
Now, if you want to be an angry atheist, you should check out the similar density maps of schools. You want to be an enraged one, cut out the bullshit schools: faith schools, sunday schools, all the crap where the teachers are uncertified and likely unqualified. When I do this for my hometown, the first criteria has fifteen red dots. Cut out the bullshit, it drops to five.
Even better? In the last decade, with no significant change in population or age distribution of said population, the number of churches has gone up by three, and the number of non-bullshit schools has dropped by two.
Raise your hand if you thought this was going to be an anti-vaxxer rant…
I fail to understand what the objection is to a billboard being within a mile of a church. Should MacDonalds be chastised for erecting billboards within a mile of a Burger King?
Of course the real objection is to atheist billboards existing at all. But since the objectors realize freedom of speech supports atheists having billboards, the goddists are manufacturing an emotional argument, based on religious privilege, to protest the billboards.
Just made my comment on that page. Worried I might look like a Christian in it now however. Oh well. I made my point I think either way.
Well done. Linking.
(Yes, I did think anti-vax for a minute there, but this is actually much more scary – next strategy for silencing non-religious people?)
Looks like you could put billboards in the middle of a park or two and in a lake. What more could you ask for?
Perhaps the African Americans for Humanism chose their billboard location specifically for proximity to churches – much as our local Humanist Society did for its street-cleaning road adoption.
The CBS LA website has a feedback form for comments. I suggested that they vett postings that touch on atheism/humanism carefully and to see if they apply the same standards for all groups. I’m having trouble thinking of any group that intentionally avoids ‘offensive’ placement of a billboard advertisement. The usual goal is maximum target population eyeballs for the allotted spend.
@5. LeftSidePositive :
Raises hand.