Atheist Billboard Removed From Church Land In Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A billboard supporting atheism has been taken down from property owned by an Ohio church after the pastor complained.

The ad put up in Columbus by the Freedom From Religion Foundation featured the beaming face of a local nonbeliever and the man's message: "I can be good without God."

The sign had upset Rev. Waymon Malone of Christ Cathedral Church. The church owns the land where the billboard went up. Malone was unavailable for comment, but his mother-in-law told The Columbus Dispatch on Tuesday that the pastor ordered the ad be removed.

Account executive Jay Schmidt with Matrix Media Services calls the billboard's placement "an unfortunate oversight." The ad agency says the sign came down days after it was installed last week and is back up at another site.

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Comments

[Jack Gotney]

01:43 PM on 07/20/2011

I am also an Atheist but that is not why I am good. I am good because that is just how I am. I live in reality and daily am faced with choices and I just pick the best choice I can. I use my better juddgement. I don't see the point in making a point of what I don't believe in - the list might be longer than your life and god is tooth faires are on it but why belabor the study of things that don't exist that we don't believe in? I am more a product of my DNA, my environment and what I know and have experienced.

[Rgo]

11:00 PM on 07/04/2011

Thanks, Rev. Waymon Malone of Christ Cathedral Church!
The Freedom From Religion Foundation just got a ton of free advertising.

[Wonder Woman2]

07:00 PM on 07/04/2011

So if a church put up a billboard on my land I could have it removed? Bet they would be hollering for 30 years!!

[peterz]

06:00 AM on 07/02/2011

voodoo

Voodoo is part of our culture, and when one of us, in a civil way, points out that we don't need this stuff - don't need to make a cult of personality out of a non-exixtent entity, the natives get restless.....

[Nic in daytona]

08:40 AM on 07/01/2011

Top ten billboard all time.

[Mark2100]

12:14 PM on 06/30/2011

Why do the rest of us have to make up the property taxes that churches do not have to pay on the vast numbers of idle acres they own across the country? This church is making a profit on taxpayer subsidized land from a billboard company and I'll bet not paying a dime of tax on that either. Tea Partiers - help me out here, lets put a stop to this.

[MissMel10]

11:55 AM on 06/30/2011

Why is this a story? Would anyone really expect a religious organization to allow an anti-religion advertisement on their property? Or vice versa?

The billboard is back up elsewhere. No story here.

[Wonder Woman2]

07:06 PM on 07/04/2011

Its called free speech.

[cloud567]

09:57 PM on 07/04/2011

Free speech? You gonna go with that one?

Instead of arguing with you, I'm going to allow you to elaborate on how this is a violation of Free Speech. Please, I'm legitimately interested.

[MissMel10]

09:19 AM on 07/06/2011

No reeeaaally?? It is?! Thank you so much for the lesson! (dripping with sarcasm in case ya missed that.)

It's the Church's property. They can decide what is or is not allowed there. PERIOD. No one is denying anyone the right to free speech. They can do that on their OWN property or the property of someone who allows it all they want.

[MCJanes]

08:40 AM on 06/30/2011

There are ways of advocating atheism OTHER than being a d**k. I, for one, support the owners of the church.

Signed,

A respectful atheist.

[Freedomaphile]

09:53 AM on 07/04/2011

What about this sign constitutes being a d**k?

The church is renting the land for the sign to a commercial company.

Having rented the land they should have no say in the contents of the sign.

I see refusal of allowing the sign as a violation of free speech and the freedom to practice whatever religion you want.

[Kmuzu]

04:13 AM on 06/30/2011

God has thin skin.

[icstars]

03:32 AM on 06/30/2011

The lack of outrage from the right must mean they actually do understand more about the First Amendment than they let on. That, or they are only willing to argue for a person's rights when that person is like them.

[Smirk]

02:15 AM on 06/30/2011

I wouldn't fault a religious landowner for objecting to a billboard on his land promoting atheism any more than I would fault an atheist landowner for objecting to a billboard on his land promoting religion. The company acted properly when it relocated the billboard.

[jhnnxn]

08:33 AM on 06/30/2011

+1.

[Freedomaphile]

09:56 AM on 07/04/2011

But I doubt the atheist owner would get away with it.

Between the lawsuits and the death threats, the sign would stay.

I doubt there is a contract between the land owner and the sign company that would allow the land owner to censor the sign.

[Smirk]

08:07 PM on 07/04/2011

It would very much depend on where the land was located (in the middle of a big, blue city there probably wouldn't be much of an uproar or, at least, significantly less than there would be in some place red and rural) and on the wording of the contract. If the land is in a location the owners of the sign company regard as very desirable, they may well opt to move it just to stay on good terms with the landowner.

[WoollyMittens]

01:40 AM on 06/30/2011

A nice example of Christian tolerance.

[Bluesman2008]

05:13 AM on 06/30/2011

Tolerant like Archie Bunker...

[Aurealeus]

08:14 AM on 06/30/2011

Hmm... some people just don't get it.

[jhnnxn]

08:36 AM on 06/30/2011

Unless the landowner tries to sue the billboard company he is indeed showing tolerance. I wouldn't allow a pro-god message on my property.

[Freedomaphile]

09:58 AM on 07/04/2011

Do you have land rented to a sign company?

[Wonder Woman2]

07:03 PM on 07/04/2011

Sorry but if your contract with the sign company said you had no right of refusal than yes you would- AND what about that free speech thing.