A controversial billboard has disappeared 24 hours after being posted.
The Pennsylvania sign, which was first vandalized and then taken down, bore a verse from Colossians 3:22: “Slaves, obey your masters.”
While intended as a message against Keystone State legislators who designated 2012 as the “Year of the Bible,” many felt the sign — which also featured a shackled black man — were racist.
via NY Daily News.
A Bible quote, and a historically accurate depiction of slavery as practiced by some in the pre-Civil War South. I have to agree with the critics. There’s tons of racism in that Bible quote and history lesson. Blaming the messenger doesn’t change the source of that racism though.
22 comments
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unbound
March 9, 2012 at 7:04 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Pfft. Next you’ll be telling us that the bible is full of misogyny too…
love moderately ॐ
March 9, 2012 at 7:04 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
American Atheists screwed this up, by not unambiguously communicating to this black neighborhood that “atheists are on your side.”
They had the opportunity to do much better.
Lou Jost
March 9, 2012 at 7:54 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
But this is unbelievably stupid. If you put up a billboard like that in a very religious place, most people will think that you want slaves to obey their masters. Especially with that drawing, it looks and reads like a hateful white supremacist billboard, and I cannot imagine how the designer could have thought this was a good way to get our message across. I suspect it has done a lot of damage to atheists’ image in that community.
davidct
March 9, 2012 at 8:23 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The image is so overtly racist that the most likely response would be to provoke an attack on the messenger. The message that christianity and the bible are not a good source of moral guidance needs to be in your face. When you mix the messages as in this billboard you risk not getting your primary message across.
pyrobryan
March 9, 2012 at 9:25 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think it could have done without the picture. To me, that seems a little antagonistic. The quote along would have sufficed to make the point.
Steve
March 9, 2012 at 10:54 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This the holy, eternal, unchanging word of their god! How dare they criticize it
sumdum
March 9, 2012 at 11:00 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Next they’ll blame Smokey the bear for pointing out that fire is hot and dangerous.
daveau
March 9, 2012 at 11:25 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, sure, if they show a picture of Bambi’s Mother burning to death.
Ysanne
March 9, 2012 at 8:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh yes, that would be absolutely shocking for every Bambi fan — after all, she was shot.
mikespeir
March 9, 2012 at 11:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I always suspected Smokey was a fire bug.
lordshipmayhem
March 10, 2012 at 7:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Smokey was a Volkswagen??
Happiestsadist
March 9, 2012 at 12:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s still fucked up of atheist orgs to only really give much of a shit about racism when it’s a useful attack on religionists.
Ms. Daisy Cutter, Gynofascist in a Spiffy Hugo Boss Uniform
March 10, 2012 at 1:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This. Just as it’s really fucked up that some atheists don’t give a shit about misogyny unless they can use it to attack xtians and Muslims.
Sqrat
March 9, 2012 at 12:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The Bible doesn’t say that you can only enslave black people. The slaves to whom Colossians 3:22 was addressed would, for the most part, have been white.
Put the sign back up, only this time make the guy in the slave collar a white man.
busterggi
March 9, 2012 at 12:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Once again believers show they only believe the cherry-picked parts of the bible they agree with.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
March 9, 2012 at 12:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I can’t remember who did it, but a few years ago there was a billboard campaign with a “the bible says | humanists say” dualism.
Taking from THAT example would have been a good use of a billboard. This one, I understand the point, but geeze, does AA have anyone good with graphic design at their org?
Buffy
March 9, 2012 at 8:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The sign reminds people of one of the most distasteful parts of American history, and the fact that the Bible (portrayed by Christians as a foundation of morality) supports the institution. People are freaking out because they don’t like being reminded of that reality. It seems the billboard was pretty effective.
blindrobin
March 10, 2012 at 8:14 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This billboard was an epic fail on behalf of those that designed it as they forgot the first rule of drive by advertising : “No one reads the fine print on a billboard”. All most people saw was the image and “Slaves obey your masters”. From that point on the remainder of the message made no impact on the interpretation of the first impression generated by that combination.
Tony Hoffman
March 10, 2012 at 11:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I work in this “business” (advertising). Rules are made to be broken, but this billboard violates 3 that you need very good reasons to ignore: first, say what you are, not what you are not (fail); second, use no more than 7 words on a billboard (fail); and third, don’t insult your intended market (fail).
The last violation might be okay, but the first two are signs of incompetence. This would have been so easy to fix — quotes like the above, or don’t eat shellfish, or any of the other stupidities, with a “Brought to you by the Bible and your tax dollars!” Get rid of the visual and small print.
The problem with most advertising is that it’s basically a craft show; the folks who make the stuff (the client) are also the ones who end up judging its value (I like what I made!).
Oh, well. Not the worst billboard I’ve ever seen. Not by a looong shot. And if we were to compare the worst atheist billboards with some of the church ones I’ve seen, well, there’s no contest.
saguhh00
March 11, 2012 at 11:17 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
They should’ve done something like this:
YEAR OF THE BIBLE: FROM BRONZE AGE GOATHERDERS TO THE 21ST CENTURY
Kill gays: Leviticus 20:13
Kill witches: Exodus 22:18
Kill adulterers: Leviticus 20:10
Kill false prophets: Deuteronomy 18:20
Kill blasphemers: Leviticus 24:13-16
Kill rape victims: Deuteronomy 22:23-24
Also since you dislike genocide, here’s a bible verse condoning it for good measure: 1 Samuel 15:2-3
I fail to see how this ad could be racist, it only shows that the Bible condones slavery and was used to justify racism and slavery.
StevoR
March 13, 2012 at 7:15 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A bit long but a big improvement over what they had.
Brian M
March 12, 2012 at 12:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This is a common skeptic/atheist meme which I don’t think is really completely true. The Bible (specifically the Talmud) is NOT the work of illiterate shepherds but of bureaucratic priests during the Bablyonian cpaitvity, I believe. They did compile oral traditions and rules, of course, but much of the Old Testament was intended more to lay down the history of the Jews as a distinct people.