[StBernard] Atheist Billboards Placed Across New Orleans

[Westley Annis]

Atheist Billboards Placed Across New Orleans 
Campaign One Of Several Targeting Southern U.S.
WDSU.com 

A national atheist organization is taking its message to the streets of New
Orleans with a campaign that is likely to both turn heads and raise some
temperatures. 

The first of five billboards went up at Canal and Rampart streets Tuesday
morning. It reads: "Imagine No Religion." 

The line, reminiscent of a song by the late John Lennon, is embossed in a
stained glass motif resembling that of a cathedral. 

The 48-foot-wide billboard is the largest of the signs placed around the
city. The other billboards offer different anti-religion messages, such as
"In Reason We Trust" and a quote from the atheist actress Butterfly McQueen,
comparing religion to slavery. 

"We are trying to reach out to free thinkers in the South," said Dan Barker,
co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. "Just as there are
indeed atheists in foxholes, there are many nonbelievers in the so-called
Bible Belt." 

Barker's group plans to keep the New Orleans billboards in place for about a
month. A larger effort is planned for Atlanta and Louisville in the near
future. 

Signs went up in the Tampa Bay area last week. 

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is based in Wisconsin and claims to
have 16,000 members. It began its roadside campaign in 2007, but this is the
first time it has bought ad space in Louisiana.