The ads have gotten extra attention thanks to one being placed on a billboard that was on a local church's property. The outdoor advertising company moved it to another location after the church objected, and then had to move it yet again after the property owner at the new location objected as well. Of course both moves brought more free advertising to the campaign with stories appearing each time in the news.
The news coverage sparked a just-what-you-might-expect run of dueling letters to the editor. A couple were reasonable and well thought out, but most either noted all the bad things done in the name of religion or accused atheist of being relativists who by definition had no set standard (God) to fall back on.
Certainly Christians should know full well that religion does frequently have its dark side. Our faith story features the execution of Jesus, brought about in part by religious leaders who wanted to squelch his message. And today's reading from the book of Acts begins with a note about believers being "scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen..." This persecution was a religious one, undertaken by religious people convinced that they were protecting the "true" worship of God.
Religious people can sometimes be the best possible advertisements for atheists. Granted, atheist often ignore the huge amount of good that religious people do in the world because of their beliefs, but religious people just as often ignore the how problematic religion can be when it is used to justify hate, intolerance, a particular political agenda, and so on.
I wonder if this would be the case for Christians if we truly embraced Jesus' command to love one another, even to love our enemies. I know plenty of Christians whose faith moves them to love others in ways that are truly remarkable. But I also know quite a few whose faith seems to drive them to hate those who disagree with them.
I think this is why I have found myself drawn to the "emergent church movement." Many of those in the movement have tried to move Christianity away from a "gospel of evacuation," faith that gets us into a heaven somewhere else, and move us toward preparing for the Kingdom Jesus proclaims is near. And I am absolutely convinced that a focus on the Kingdom, on the transformation of this world, would do much to improve our image, not to mention make us more faithful. Focusing on escape to heaven encourages us to see everyone in terms of in-or-out, to obsess about who is going to get promoted and who is not. But while Jesus does speak of judgment, his most vicious critiques are for religious people. And Jesus' last public teaching in the gospel of Matthew seems to depict a favorable judgment for non-religious folks who did the work of the Kingdom unawares (feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the prisoner, etc.).
One of the basic calling of all Christians is to be "witnesses." Our lives, actions, words, efforts, and such are supposed to give evidence of Jesus and his coming transformed community. In other words, we are supposed to be walking billboards for the faith and the Kingdom. And in that sense, billboards put up by atheists are not our real advertising problem. We need better ad campaigns broadcast by our lives.
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