The American Humanist Association is expanding its “Godless Holiday” advertising campaign to five major American cities this Christmas — taking its message of a holiday season without religion nationwide for the first time.
The ads read: “No God — no problem! Be good for goodness’ sake. Humanism is the idea that you can be good without a belief in God” and feature several people in red and white Santa hats. The new ads come on the heels of an AHA campaign last year which asked “Why believe in a God?” and featured ads on public transit in Washington, D.C.
Previously, the atheist campaign had been confined to the Washington, D.C., area, with signs and advertisements featured prominently on the city’s Metro subway trains and buses.
The expansion to four new cities – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco – marks the first-ever national atheist advertising campaign and the first time the Humanist group has taken its anti-religious holiday message outside of the nation’s capitol. . . .
A pro-Christian conservative group, meanwhile, told CNSNews.com that despite the AHA’s anti-holy day message, religious Americans shouldn’t be intimidated – and have every right to continue to celebrate Christmas proudly. But Christians also shouldn’t treat the atheist campaign with contempt.
“People of faith should view the Humanist displays at this special — even holy — time of year, with compassion,” said Kristi Hamrick, president of the Campaign for Working Families and spokeswoman for Gary Bauer’s American Values.
“Because of the blessings of liberty we enjoy as Americans, they certainly have the right to their strident displays of antagonism to faith. But at this time of year when so many of us are thanking God for our blessings, especially the blessing of his only Son come to earth for us, we need to pray for them.”
Hamrick pointed out that the “eternal truths” of Christianity do not require validation by atheists and Christians especially should feel “empowered” to celebrate the Christmas holiday openly and proudly.
“I hope people will take a moment to pray for others when they see the (Humanist) displays,” Hamrick said. “Eternal truths are not dependent on the permission of the Humanists to be (true.) And I hope that people of faith will feel equally empowered at this time of year to express their own beliefs.”
If atheists can forthrightly express their beliefs at Christmas time, then surely Christians can too! And praying for our adversaries and expressing compassion for them is surely a more Biblical response than just ranting and raving and trying to ban the other side. This shows a maturity that may eventually start bearing cultural fruit.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In