FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- Community residents are protesting a billboard they call offensive to Christians. The recruitment billboard put up by the Florida Atheist and Secular Humanist Society stands just east of Interstate 95 on Sunrise Boulevard and 27th Avenue, next to a business owned by an African-American preacher.... Neighboring businesses have called to try to get the sign removed. "Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Christian, whoever you are, we all believe in a spiritual higher being. When you have something like this here, people don't want to come and patronize us anymore," said Theodore Hamilton, an employee at a nearby business. "We don't agree with this. We don't like this here in our community, and this is a spiritual based community."
I never cease to be amazed at the degree to which so many Christians feel threatened by the expression by any viewpoint that doesn't mesh in perfect symmetry with their own. It's as if their implicitly know that their beliefs are built on soft sand and incapable of withstanding being buffeted by dissent and disagreement. Of course, to protect good and decent (and apparently highly impressionable and suggestible) Christians, they're going to advocate the same thing they always do- censorship. Jesus demands blind obedience, not rational, critical thought. The idea that some people could actually find faith in Jesus Christ through rational consideration seems to be a risk most Christians are unwilling to take.
Christians are great at demanding freedom of speech and expression- as long as the speech and expression in question is something they approve of. Advocate something counter to what Christians believe...and be prepared for a firestorm of condemnation and demands that the offenders be muzzled. BURN THE WITCH!!!
If Christians are truly convinced that their belief system is the Truth, you'd think that they'd be willing to discuss, debate, and defend those beliefs. After all, isn't the Truth an unassailable, unalterable constant? Of course, that would require some actual thought and consideration. It's SO much easier when you can simply react and demand that the offending heathens be muzzled.
It's been said (often by me) that Fundamentalism is the sound of a mind slamming shut. That the controversy in Ft. Lauderdale is nothing new only serves to demonstrate just how true that is. When you're insecure in your beliefs to begin with, how are you going to make a convincing argument for them? Before long, you end up questioning yourself...and then it's a short, slippery slope to smoking weed, having illicit affairs with your sister-in-law, and cruising gay bars looking for anonymous, meaningless sex. THAT'S what happens when you start to think....
