CHARLOTTE
A statewide coalition of atheists and agnostics has placed billboards in six cities, including Winston-Salem, to show that the nonreligious also are patriotic, including one along a parkway named for a famous evangelist.
The sign in Winston-Salem is on Business 40 near Kernersville.
The sign is sponsored by the Forsyth Area Critical Thinkers and the Forsyth County Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. It shows an American flag in the background and the words "One Nation Indivisible."
The words "Under God," are left out, organizers of the campaign say.
The Baptist minister who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892 didn't include any mention of religion. President Eisenhower signed the "under God" addition into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.
"A lot of people tend to think that those who adopt a view of the world that excludes the supernatural can't be patriotic or are somehow less moral," Richard Lawrence, the co-organizer of FACT, said yesterday. "It'll force people to start questioning."
Members of the local chapter of the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State are involved in a case opposing sectarian references in prayers at county government meetings.
The billboards, which all have the same message, are a July Fourth project of the N.C. Secular Association, a coalition of groups from across the state, including the Forsyth County group. The group bought the billboards for four weeks at a total cost of $15,000 for the signs in Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Wilmington and Winston-Salem.
In Charlotte, the billboard is on the Billy Graham Parkway. Placing the billboard along the parkway is not a criticism of the evangelist, a Charlotte native who now lives in Montreat, said William Warren with Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics. The Billy Graham Parkway was simply the most visible location the association could afford in Charlotte, Warren told The Charlotte Observer.
"It was basically an economic decision," Warren said. "We got more bang for our buck there."
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association would not comment.
"We're doing this to raise the consciousness of the people of North Carolina," said Warren, 29, an electronics technician who served in the Marines from 1999 to 2004.
"We want to let them know that not everybody here is religious. There are atheists in North Carolina, and we expect to be recognized and treated like everybody else."
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