A billboard campaign recently unveiled by Catholic League may have taken aim at Christian persecution but nonbelievers were not left far behind as they prepared their own response to the former’s controversial message.
“Not all Christian haters are equal: Abroad we’re beheaded. At home we’re bashed,” reads the Catholic League billboard. “The differences are profound; so are the similarities. Have a peaceful and joyous Christmas.”
Instead of installing the billboard in the heart of New York City, where Catholic League typically places its message every holiday season, the organization decided to place it near Hollywood in Los Angeles, California. The message on the illuminated billboard, which will be on display until December 28, says that even though there are various forms and degrees of anti-Christian persecution, the overall sentiment is driven by the same emotion, which is hatred.
“No, the Hollywood moguls who disrespect Christians are not the same as radical Muslims who behead us, but both are full of hate. Moreover, both need to be challenged,” read a Catholic League statement. “Christians are fed up with the barbarians abroad and the bigots at home. It’s time all these bullies learned to practice the virtue of tolerance and the meaning of diversity.”
Over the last four years, Christian organization Catholic League has inevitably ended up in a war of words and a battle of billboards with secular organization American Atheists, and this year will be no different.
Danielle Muscato from American Atheists told the media that his organization would respond to Catholic League’s billboard campaign with the help of a meme and hashtag campaign.
“It will be a series of memes to parody their billboard, using the same design, with the green and red, something along the line of, ‘Not all religious extremists are equal, abroad they use the law to force their beliefs on everyone, and then here … oh, wait,” Muscato said.
American Atheists has already started a billboard campaign in a number of Midwestern and southern cities, in an attempt to take aim at Christmas.
Photo Credits: Patheos
