I’ve been avoiding the free daily newspapers on my commute to work lately. Not really because I don’t want to be informed of current events, but more to encourage myself to do some reading of one of the five or so books I currently seem to be flopping between.
But, on my way headed home from work, the cover of Oct. 20th’s AM New York caught my eye — a picture of the NYC skyline, focused on the empire state building and surrounded by the big white words “GOT GOD?” I quickly grabbed myself a copy to further investigate. Thinking, albeit somewhat optimistically, maybe they were focusing on religion in New York. Then I read the subhead: “Atheism ads coming to subways rile some New Yorkers.”
I applaud AM New York for including reactions of both sides. In fact, their story shared the feelings of a handful of New Yorkers upset by the upcoming ad campaign that claims “A million New Yorkers are good without God.” Unlike this CNN article that focuses more on the atheist point of view.
As someone who works for a Christian (read: Catholic) organization that advertised on the NYC subways not too long ago, I debated how I felt about the atheist ad campaign. I recognize and respect the freedom of speech aspect; there is no reason they should not be allowed to advertise, but I mentally stacked up the purpose and motives between Holy Name Province’s ad campaign with this. HNP was advertising for vocations — reaching out to working men who might be feeling unfulfilled at their current job and challenging them to consider making a “life shift.”
The AM New York and CNN articles both are careful to say the atheist campaign is to raise awareness among fellow atheists that they aren’t alone — not as an attack on religion. But, this raises two questions in my mind: 1) Are there really NYC atheists who feel they are the only secular person here? Because honestly, I feel like it is probably just as easy to feel you are only the faithful person in the city; 2) Can you really assume that all 15 percent people who checked “none” for their selection of religion on the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey are truly “good without God”?
I guess I would like to know what the other options were. A growing number of people in my generation (and probably in the world in general) consider themselves spiritual but not religious. They might believe in a “superior being” or something greater than they are even if they don’t subscribe to or desire to participate in organized religion. It all just seems a bit … presumptuous?
And then there’s the question of how this campaign could impact those who are good with God. AM New York quoted a 37-year-old Bronx mother as saying, “I teach my children to believe in God and lead a life faithful to Him. If my children see these ads that say there is no God, they’ll think their mother is lying.” Or what about the person struggling with their faith?
But, the more I think about it … maybe this should just be a call to action for those who are good with God. Its an opportunity for the mother to explain to her children that some people don’t believe in God, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist. It’s all the more reason for the churches — meaning the faithful people that fill them every week, not just the leaders — to be that much more willing to speak out about their personal faith.
