The Advertising Standards Authority has received a complaint from an atheist who was offended by this billboard on Zambezi Avenue in Pretoria. (Lisa Hnatowicz, Beeld)
May a Christian put a Bible verse on a billboard saying that people are fools if they deny the existence of God?
The Advertising Standards Authority was confronted with this question on Tuesday, after they received a complaint about such a billboard alongside the busy Zambezi Avenue in Pretoria.
The billboard quotes the first sentence of Psalm 14: “The fool says in his heart: ‘There is no God’.”
The billboard was placed there by Pastor David Grobler from Unite 180, the youth ministry of the Pentecostal Church’s Shalom centre.
‘Implies atheists are stupid’
Danie Hamman found the message on the board so offensive that he submitted a complaint.
In his complaint he says the board implies that anyone who doesn’t believe in God is “silly, stupid, a madman” etc.
Hamman is a successful businessman and pilot. He doesn’t believe in the existence of God but he doesn’t consider himself to be “foolish” or “stupid”.
Grobler’s defence was based on the rights to freedom of religion and freedom of speech entrenched in the Constitution.
Other examples
If he is not allowed to proclaim this Bible verse in public, he wants to know why and how his case is any different from other religious slogans such as “Real men follow Jesus” and “Repent and you will be saved”.
The implications of the above slogans are, after all, that men who don’t follow Jesus are not real men, and that people who do not repent will go to hell.
The two parties had to deliver their final arguments to the commission of the advertising standards authority on Tuesday so that the finding could be made.
After the sitting of the commission, Grobler said he hopes the verdict is decided in his favour for the sake of religious freedom, but nonetheless, he is slightly worried.
A spokesperson for the Advertising Standards Authority said the decision will be announced in a week’s time or later.
Beeld
No news yet about the outcome, but it certainly would be interesting…
i think its silly to get all huffy over it. i wouldnt have even thought about the billboard further than 500m down the road. they could just as well have said, atheists are going to burn in hell, and any atheist worth his salt, would just have rolled his eyes and ignored it.
maybe this particular Danie Hamman, has still got a bit of a hang-up about what the bible says. or a bit insecure about his non-belief.
if a non-believer were to put up a billboard that says "believers in god is naive’. xtians would go apeshit. showing us what we expect. that they are so busy hanging onto any little vestige of belief, that any threat to it (or their blind belief in it), is such a thing.
in my opinion, we are giving them what they wanted. attention. if a xtian society/church/group paid good money for that sign, then they wanted a reaction. so they can go to church on sunday and yell 'i told you so, satan is everywhere!!"
leave it be, is say ignore them. let them waste money on ad campaigns. i prefer to spend my cash on drugs and booze, thank you very please.
Danie Hamman should have picked his battle better. Real men follow Jesus implies that you can not be a real man if you don’t follow Jesus; but the fool says there is no God only comments on fools. To take that to heart means you found a shoe that fit.
Ahem, they’ve already demonstrated exactly how they feel about censorship, and thus deserve to have some applied to themselves in due course, they’ve gleefully flogged that right. Live by the sword…
I salute Danie Hamman for actually doing something about an “in-your-face” religious billboard. If more of us did the same, then these asshole Christians might get some of their own medicine.
I would LOVE to put a sticker on my car that says, “Real men follow no imaginary gods”. Let the slogan wars begin … can we come up with some more?
Here’s another one: “Africa turn to truth” and at the bottom of the sign put “Freedom From Religion”
Or how about we all start putting the Darwin fish on the back of our cars (looks like the Christian one but says “Darwin” inside and the fish has little feet). See one here http://www.evolvefish.com/fish/rrs.html#734
I also don’t think its worth getting so riled-up about it. Although I must admit, the whole ‘SA turn2god’ campaign has me throwing up just a little bit in the back of my throat every time I drive past a billboard or flag or whatever. What gets me is: Those billboards cost a shitload of money. Money that these churches get from their congregation (people who have already ‘turned to god’) Should churches not be using that money to feed the poor, educate the less fortunate, build some houses, etc etc? I’ve read the bible, and it just doesn’t seem ‘christian’ to go around shouting at people what they should do and condemning them (does the bible not say something about judgement somewhere…) I dunno, I think the churches money could be much better spent than on billboards and lawsuits.
What pisses me off is that the SA woo woos are merely importing the same shite from teh USA. Pre evangelicals in the old drie suster kerke and the RCC and Methodist variety days, one never heard of these dweebs.
I remember as a woo woo I had a fish on my car and my brother asked me if I was now an I&J rep ;D
To be honest, I do not see many fish on cars anymore. Putting a darwin fish or the better version of the evolved fish bonking the xian one is looking for crap. In my business, some clients are xian albeit not the woo woo variety and having that displayed, just asks for shit and confrontation.
My daughter finishes high school this year and luckily there has not been too much religion, assembly once a week with a bible reading.
As a kid in the then Rhodesia, we had daily assemblies and hymn singing. Back then if you were atheist and your parents gave you a letter, you were allowed to skip the religious part of assemblies. We had a few Jewish kids with us and this is what they did. Problem is that the kids stood out like sore thumbs.
At least in schools there, evolution was taught not creationism, we did real science not pseudo science. If these frigging woo woos try to teach religion in public schools, I will participate in any petitions and protests.
I agree that avoiding conflict in order to make a living is important. I certainly don’t mention my atheism at gigs - well, not all the time, unless I find someone interested in my book in which case I talk to them privately. But there are a growing number of atheists/agnostics in SA and I think it’s time for us to start being more outspoken in our protests against the woo-woos.
This is why I started Religion-Free Africa - once we have the funds, we are going to start some kind of campaign ourselves - it’s time to become evangelical in our cause and I am volunteering for the gig - it’s gonna get rough but it’s gonna be fun.
What pisses me off is that the SA woo woos are merely importing the same shite from teh USA.
You have NO idea. My car radio does this weird thing when it can’t find good reception for the station I was listening to before shutting the car down… Upon starting it up again, it just randomly hops to a station it CAN find that’s in the nearby vicinity (on the radio band). There’s one spot I park in weekly that’s got NO reception of my favourite station, and ALWAYS jumps to some christian station when I start the car back up. Sometimes I’m intrigued by what is going on, on this station, so I listen a bit (yes it’s hard but I’m curious and listen anyway)
They have LOTS of american evangelists doing essentially “infomercials” spouting about some miracle that happened to some random person, and usually there’s a lot of pimping of the individual that had this great “moment” with god or whatever… AND YOU SHOULD BUY HIS CD/DVD/BOOK! Call now! In typical style MOST of the show is made up of what numbers you must call to get this wonderful product, and not so much content…
That’s not the surprising part. The surprising part is that bits of these are tailor made for south africa (And now we in south africa can also share in this wonderful X - spoken with american accent). That’s right, the american evangelist movement is setting up shop in SA bigtime, online stores, customised radio content, the whole 9 yards.
But that’s not all! If you call now and order, we will give you two full frontal lobotomies absolutely free! Yes, that’s two full frontal lobotomies absolutely free, one for you and another for a loved one!
Make use of this amazing offer by calling right now!
That is all good and well if your existence does not rely on customer’s first impressions. I am not really into the protesting angle unless the f-tards want to influence society in general. We probably need a forum where on-the-fence folk can come w/o being intimidated by pentagram, candle burning heathen, you know what I mean. Much of the religious BS is easily debunked and all it takes is some critical evaluation.
Even though we are pretty much secular in our society, I would caution against an affront that may affect you personally. I will be happy to contribute on the net and maybe as folk find the freedom to express doubt, we can help them make the transition to reality. Remember that most of us bought the kool-aid once upon a time. My biblical knowledge is excellent and I do not even have to use secular sources like Hitchens, Dawkins et al. the buybull is the best deconversion document we have at our disposal, folk just need to read/study it to see how screwed up it is.
Maybe we an go with a xian fish with the slogan, “something fisshy”, we may however get opposition from the franchise, OR they may endorse it for free advertising ;D
