Competing for Your Soul: Advertising Religion
Travel the New York subways, and you may come across advertisements encouraging atheism. When I traveled to Washington DC earlier this year, buses sported ads for whyIslam.org. The Church of Latter Day Saints have been running TV advertisements for years and the Church of Scientology kicked off an aggressive ad campaign several months ago.
Are we really so sure we want to peddle our spiritual beliefs like any other commodity?
Religion is an issue many of us feel strongly about. For many people, it is an issue of knowing the truth and feeling a moral obligation to share it with less enlightened neighbors. But is this really the way to do it?
Partly, this is a reaction to the centuries-old evangelizing campaigns of Christians, who are quick to quote Bible verses encouraging them to preach the good word. But Jesus also instructed believers not to throw pearls before swine in a sermon that included many references to keeping religion personal and not advertising its practice.
Religious knowledge is sacred, something to be discussed between believers and seekers. Plastering beliefs across billboards encourages the world to ridicule them and demotes sacred ideas to the status of common commodities.
I am Atheist and have been all of my life and aside from attending the occasional wedding I have never been in a church since childhood. I attended exactly 1 Baptist service with a Junior High friend but I found it imposable to believe that he and his family thought that it somehow made sense.
While I am always annoyed when anyone tries to push their religion, or make it part of the conversation for that matter, I don’t believe that I should be pushing my Atheism either. If one is asked about their faith then you should be straight forward and honest. I don’t tell anyone that I am “just not religious” or that I am Agnostic but I never bring up the topic.
Over the years I have seen ads for Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, Church of Christ, Catholic, and probably others, also.
I feel and think it’s a good thing that they let people know that they’re there and that they’re willing to share their beliefs/faith/understanding with others. It’s part of learning about others and other ways of thinking/believing, and gaining an understanding of them. We can’t make an informed decision if we aren’t informed.