Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the battle between two national atheist organizations:
A war has broken out between the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) and American Atheists. It’s over money. Both are appealing to the same small pool of angry nonbelievers, and there is only so much dough to go around. FFRF pulled the trigger.
American Atheists sought to put its vile message on billboards in Tampa and Charlotte, home of the two political conventions. It got shut out of Tampa, and recently said it was pulling its billboards in Charlotte, allegedly because of threats. Enter FFRF: it succeeded in getting its billboards posted in both cities.
So what’s the problem? FFRF is furious that many are mistakenly attributing its billboards to American Atheists. FFRF says, “Please do not confuse FFRF’s billboard message with that of another atheist group, which tried unsuccessfully to place a very different message in Tampa, and which has voluntarily removed its billboards in Charlotte.” In other words, FFRF wants the credit, and the cash that goes with it.
FFRF is right about one thing: the messages are not identical. American Atheists sought to dump on Mormons and Christians, saving its most vicious comments for the latter (notice it didn’t rip on Jews or Muslims). The Christian God, it said, was “Sadistic,” the product of a “Useless Savior” who “Promotes Hate.” Well, they would certainly know something about hate. By contrast FFRF’s message is not hate-filled: it simply says, “God Fixation Won’t Fix This Nation.” This may be moronic, but it is not negative; it is vintage fare from the hapless ones.
How effective are these ads? The Republicans are largely composed of the faithful, and the Democrats are largely populated by secularists; the former won’t convert and the latter already have. So why bother? To insult the Republicans and loot Dems. Believe it.
