Dear Santa,
All I want for Christmas is to skip church!
I’m too old for fairy tales.
That’s a billboard along I-49 in Springdale, Ark., paid for by the nonprofit group American Atheist. The message is targeted at closeted atheists and not meant as an attack on churches. No matter. Time to fire up the culture war, right?
Nope.
One local church didn’t take it as an attack, but an invitation: “It’s a great opportunity for us to respond in love,” says Devon Walker, a pastor at Grace Church in Alma, Ark.
Grace Church raised funds to display a billboard response:
For once it’s refreshing to see the atheist/Christian conflict turning towards conversation instead of potshots, like we saw in 2010 with a billboard war between American Atheist and the Catholic Church.
A Billboard Is Not Persecution
While we’re eager to celebrate Christmas and invite our neighbors to church this year, let’s remember that not everyone wants to celebrate Christmas. That’s OK. Someone wanting to skip Christmas or even saying “Happy Holidays” is not persecution (Rachel Held Evans has a helpful flowchart).
Steve Simms
December 16, 2014
Perhaps some people want to “skip church” because we have programmed it from the beginning to the end and allowed no time for spontaneous participation and interaction. After all, who would want to go to a football game that had where the outcome of every play was pre-planned and printed in a bulletin?
Tom
December 18, 2014
Too old for fairy tales, she writes. To Santa.
Eric Dye
December 19, 2014
Well said, Kevin. Thanks, man. :)
Guy
December 2, 2015
I’m sorry but i really find it hard to believe that this and other signs put up by the atheists were not an attack on the church. The timing and the event they used are quite obvious proof of that. Why use Christmas to draw out their “closet brethren” ? It can be done any other time of the year.