| Religion, it's been said, like politics is a tricky subject,
prone to inflaming passions (and not always in a good way). My feelings on religion
are articulated elsewhere on this site, so I won't devolve into a discussion of the finer
points of religious fervor (or delusion). Instead, I'll just poke at it with a stick
from a safe distance . . . In 2000, an organized and dedicated group of Nebraska
citizens launched a ballot initiative to amend the Nebraska Constitution to "protect
marriage" (as the proponents put it) by prohibiting civil unions, domestic
partnerships and same-sex marriages. Hundreds of thousands of dollars was
spent. Opinions were voiced. People were lectured. And the initiative
passed. I was not amused. But let's go back to the lectures for a moment.
One of the big complaints I have about religion is the assumed superiority of those
with a certain degree of religious conviction. I'm sure they feel the same way about
me. Which is good (dissent is a healthy part of democracy). The difference (in
my opinion) being that I don't usually broach the subject, and when the subject does
come up I (usually) try to stick to debate rather than lecture. The lecturing part
annoys me. And there was no shortage of lecturing during the initiative drive.
The most "in your face" of those that I saw was a sign in front of a small
church that read, and I'm not exaggerating, "Christians will vote yes on
416" (emphasis theirs), a bold statement that did not invite thought or encourage
rational decision-making but instead simply issued a command, like a parent instructing a
child, and backed it up with an implied threat ("if you vote against it, you're not a
good person").
A few weeks later, this billboard went up down the street from where I work (and is
still there, three years later):
It's a private billboard, so I have no problem with the owner presenting such a message
(I did find it amusing, though, that it was situated on top of
a lounge that advertised "Live Go-Go Dancing" at the time; the arrow on
the side of the billboard also seems to imply that only the lounge itself is
"encompassed in the glory"). What really caught my attention, though, was
the typo in the ad. "THIS IS GODS LAND" is technically grammatical, but
it doesn't mean what the owner of the board thinks it means. "GODS" is
plural, not possessive (the correct form should be "THIS IS GOD'S
LAND"). So, in a brilliant display of ironic oversight, the board
actually becomes an endorsement of polytheism!
It reads, literally, "this is a land of many gods."
As though that were not embarrassing enough for the unfortunate and unobservant owner,
about a year ago (during the early days of the discussions of invading Iraq) someone went
to the trouble of climbing up onto the building and spray-painting some inappropriate
graffiti onto the billboard. Either no one who knows the owner has noticed the typo
in the previous years or the owner doesn't care that his billboard espouses the exact
opposite of his personal beliefs, because the billboard was repaired to its original
state, typo and all.
Final thought? I could say something cute like "God likes go-go dancing and
a good steak" or "I charge reasonable rates to proofread billboard ads *before*
they're put up - call me," but I get the same effect by just adding this sentence
with "I could" at the beginning of it, leaving me space at the bottom to give my
real final thought, which is: Stop lecturing and start discussing. |
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Wasteland of Wonders |
