The non-profit group Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers (WCAF) has a digital billboard up on I-70 Business Loop in front of Hobby Lobby and Chick-Fil-A for Christmas that says “Make Christmas great again. Skip church!”
The sign is a reminder that the holiday focus should be more on kindness, humanity and ethical treatment of others than on organized religion, which has been proving problematic lately, and to a horrific degree.
The sign went up on December 19, coincidentally on the same day a New York Times story revealed the Catholic Church in Illinois withheld the names of at least 500 priests accused of sexual abuse of minors. A Pennsylvania grand jury issued another devastating report last August that described over 1,000 cases of sexual abuse perpetrated by 300 priests over a span of 50 years in Pennsylvania alone, and reporting that the bishops covered up the crimes. These two reports covered only the Catholic Church is Illinois and Pennsylvania, but sexual abuse has also been exposed in the Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religions. Federal prosecutors are considering charging the Catholic Church under organized crime statutes like the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which are used to prosecute organized criminal groups like the Mafia.
The billboard is also a reminder that the western slope’s population is no longer monolithic in it’s religious beliefs, and that a growing segment of Mesa County residents are not just secular, but proud of it too.
The sign will be up through December 25, so get photos of it now before it’s gone.
To donate to Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers go here.
A perfect reminder that often “going to church” does not represent peace & love nor an acceptance of equality and civil rights for all. Happy New Year.
If you don’t believe in Jesus or going to church for Christmas than why celebrate Christmas you idiots. It’s literally the birth of Christ .. please make your own idiotic holidays to ruin and stop trying to take out the CHRIST of Christmas! Bc he ain’t going anywhere
Christmas is a made-up celebration of a made-up person, it’s fine if you want to “worship” a work of fiction, but don’t get all butt-hurt about it when other people don’t. What did you Messiah say about judging other people?
Dear “Brandy” –
nice mall perm, BTW.
You have been told What to believe.
You do not know How to see.
Jesus is a symbol, and has nothing to do with a separate savior elsewhere. The symbol is a reference to You, to point people in a direction, like a road sign. You are not in Vegas while standing in front of a sign reading ‘Vegas 300 miles’. Stop worshipping the sign. YOU ARE THE REFERENCE TO WHICH THE SIGN IS POINTING – MEANING – YOU SAVE YOURSELF.
December 25 is a reference to the equinox, of the birth of light from the shortest day, as we transform into light from darkness inside. Its a reference to the NATURE of the human.
Wait until you hear the virgin birth has nothing to do with biology either.
Try reading some Joseph Campbell, for starters.
Happy Holidays.
You are NOT a very good ally! Your line of attack is very problematic and what you are doing could very well be labeled as anti-Christian hatred and bigotry. You endanger everything we’ve been trying to accomplish and your privilege is showing! As a pseudo-progressive white woman you are very out of touch with the times we are living in. Maybe it’s because you moved to a very red area and you’ve started to pick up toxic ways of thinking. This is along the lines of Quran burning “protests” and white supremacists using hate symbols under the guise of “free speech”. You empower the hateful alt-right to repeat your tactics against vulnerable religions and people of color. As a member of Western Colorado Atheists and Free-thinkers you should be labeled as belonging to a hate group! The atheist community (especially online) is a bastion for racism and misogyny. You make matters worse by only targeting Christians (Satanic invocations in City Hall and Satanic Coloring books). You give the conservative right power to undermine REAL liberal progressive causes.
Instead you think a white woman’s discomfort of having a Jehovah’s Witness knock on her door is the most pressing issue ever!
You arrogantly injected your privilege into your local media and laughably said that you were afraid your employer would find out. Your Linkedin is viewable to anyone and everyone with an internet connection. When one of your comments literally says “F-ing Terrorists” you should really question what you’re doing here. This wouldn’t be out of place on many alt-right hate sites against muslims and Islam.
You could be fighting for people of color and other vulnerable individuals but instead this is what you WASTE your time on! Religious bigotry should be against the law! We don’t want Jews, Muslims, and other religions to be targeted so don’t target Christians. You are opening pandora’s box. You are a useless “ally”.
Oh, *please,* Lizzy, relax a little, will ya? It’s just a fun billboard meant to appeal to non-believers and let them know there’s an atheist group around to support them. No one ever claimed to be any ally of yours, whoever you are.
I think this is hilarious! Anne this is the brave new world you’re fighting for! Once all of your enemies are gone you will be stuck with the blue haired feminists like Liz! I use to live in the Grand Junction, Colorado area and I live in Denver Now. I’m a center left Christian. It is your choice to believe or not but I really don’t see the point in bullying Christians. You thought it was tough living around Christian moralists just wait until all of your neighbors are extremist Liz style feminists. Oh god thats a nightmare! lol
All you are reporting is that you are indoctrinated.
Congrats on thinking your identity is that salvation lies elsewhere in a literalized gaseous vertebrate. That’s appropriate for a 2 year old. You literalized it, and so you are ignorant of consciousness of your own nature.
These belief systems are archaic. They propose stories of certainty. Certainty is the absence of options. The absense of options is helplessness. The quest for certainty always results in helplessness.
Love the billboard. I hope makes people think before they automatically condemn it.
Its heresy to think, remember?!!
Its even tribal like than in recovery from alcoholism. Alcoholism is not a disease, but belief in a disease. Massive difference.
WE ARE BORN WITH NATURE’S APPROVAL. When we see that, we can be that. (Eg. Tah dah! No need for guns, drugs, etc…)
No one is born a sick sinner. What a lifelong gaslit skillset to otherwise go around denying and negating life itself!
I just watched a Jehovah’s Witness special on their rampant and in depth culture of child abuse by elders starting at very young ages. It is in-grained in the “religious” culture according to this special. based on the supremacy of men. Women hold NO authority in ANY form at all. AND
Did you hear the breaking news??!!?? Latter Day Saints female missionaries can now wear pants while on their mission. This is only acceptable while on a mission. WOW!!
Yes, those f****s are terrorists. It can be extremely difficult to extricate oneself from belief systems held at the cellular level. It is JUST a belief system. The good news is the psyche and body always know what the mind does not. And so it is always possible for an impulse to be made conscious. It requires a training of attention so that one is not asleep when it happens. A rigid fundamentalism is not a replacement for a missing imagination.
You could LITERALLY place this comment on any alt-right anti-Islamic hate group site and it would fit right in. Anne Landman you really need to so some soul searching! You belong to a hate group!
Really, Liz? Has Anne called for any legal action to be taken against Christians, just for being Christians? Would you prefer everyone just keep quiet about Christian pedophiles who are using their church as both a hunting ground and a shield from their crimes? One would think a Christian would be against such behavior, not a staunch defender of it.
OMG, Lizzy, come on girl. Take your xanax, eat some cinnamon toast and relax, will ya?
Oh shit Anne! You just crossed another line! You are now an ableist in addition to a Nazi and a woman hater!
@Seamus yeah but there is a huge problem with Pedophiles in public schools too but they don’t want to bring that up because many of them are white women.
On a more serious note I would watch out Anne these crazy feminists have a history of using Linkedin to contact your employer to try and get your fired. Its something I don’t agree with even if we don’t see eye to eye on this issue. Feminists don’t care though.
Empty threats from babbling psychos haven’t worked so far, CalvinrDenn(is)