CNN describes American Atheists as calling out religion; that term again.
American Atheists has a long history in using billboards to call out religion and get its message out. During the political conventions in August and September, the group put up billboards attacking Mormonism and Christianity, taking aim at the faith of both presidential candidates.
It’s such a standard idiom by now. I don’t think it can be seen as particularly ideological, let alone loony.
Anyway. The Mormons say it’s all a misunderstanding, of course.
The billboard, which American Atheists says will follow the Romney campaign for seven days, features two messages on Mormonism: “No Blacks Allowed (until 1978)” and “No Gays Allowed (Current).”
The first line is a reference to the church’s practice of denying lay priesthood to black male members until 1978.
Though the church did not allow black male members to be ordained before that year – when the church head says he received a revelation to reverse the policy – it did allow blacks and members of all racial and ethnic groups to be church members.
Ah yes but that sounds more liberal than it is, because all “worthy” white male members are lay priests, so excluding non-white males is pretty unmistakably racist.
This mobile billboard, however, is a departure from the standard American Atheist tactic of multiple billboards on multiple religions. According to Silverman, this is because Romney’s faith hasn’t been addressed enough in the 2012 election.
“We all understand the implications of having a Christian president. We do not understand the implications of having a Mormon president,” Silverman said. “We are not taking a position on the election, we are taking a stance on ignorance.”
Oh but we’re not supposed to decide on the basis of things like that. We’re supposed to figure out which one we want to have a beer with, and vote for him.