Religious
ads too intrusive
Yellow signs conveniently placed around
campus read “we are not” in small type and
“Atheist” in big type. Whoever designed
these should be given a raise because they
sure fooled me into thinking this wasn’t
an ad for some God-fearing Holy-Roller group
telling me to come to a meeting where I’ll
find out I’m wrong about everything.
Oh wait, after further inspection it turns
out I am wrong. These yellow signs are ads
telling me to come to some boring meeting
where fruit punch is sure to be served and
boring white people with bland names like
Ted and Joe get together to tell me where
I’m spending eternity.
Why is it Christians are the only ones who
put up signs like these? I don’t see Muslims
or Buddhists telling me to come to their
meetings, and I definitely don’t see atheists
congregating to talk about how wrong they
think Christians are.
Why do I get those annoying newsletters
on my windshield? I play in a band and promotion
is key. I suppose flyering every car on
campus sounds like a good idea, but it’s
not. It’s ridiculous for me think all 30,000-plus
people on campus want to know about my band.
So why do these groups think we need to
know about them?
Why do Christian groups advertise in the
first place? I would never want to be part
of an organization that has to recruit people.
I’m 22 years old and if I haven’t found
God yet, chances are I never will. If people
show up at their own free will, that means
they really want to be there. By advertising,
religions are saying, “Hey, we know you
aren’t thinking about joining us, so we’ll
plant the idea. That way the seed can grow
and maybe you’ll show up.”
Why are there so many different Christian
groups on campus? I hate giving away free
advertising, but here goes. Go to csulb.net,
their “let’s take a page from the porn industry
and own a website similar to an existing
legitimate site so we can create more traffic”
is another clever way Christians get people
to accidentally stumble across their beliefs.
Couldn’t they just form one mega-group and
conquer the world that way?
I wrote a story last semester about a religious
diversity symposium on campus. I spoke to
the head of a Christian group at Cal State
Long Beach and quoted this person. They
e-mailed about the story and had issues
with my facts. First, I spelled their name
wrong and I admit I should have checked
proofread. The irony is when this person
e-mailed the Forty-Niner editor, they misspelled
her name.
But the bigger issue was me saying religious
tolerance was important to this person.
This apparently upset them because they
said they never said that, nor did they
imply it. Yes, religious tolerance is important
to you, no matter how hard you try to stay
blind to the fact. This person said something
along the lines of being tolerant of other
religions implies they believe other religions
and this would belittle their faith. Wrong
again. Without religious tolerance, you
wouldn’t have the opportunity to believe
what you believe.
Believing in a deity is fine, but let’s
face it - admitting you think God exists
is a sign of gullibility. They don’t know
and neither do I. Putting that much blind
faith in something would never fly in another
situation. Imagine if people still assumed
the world was flat. Wouldn’t that seem a
bit naive?
Back to my original point: Leave people
alone. This isn’t strictly for Christians,
it’s for everyone. Who cares if someone
believes differently than you? It’s not
your job or mission in life to convert everyone
to become you. I think religions have a
long way to go before they finally get it,
but you don’t see me putting up signs telling
people to come hear my beliefs. Besides,
who am I to think people want to hear me
anyway? I don’t assume anyone reads these
columns. Before I graduate, I may write
an article full of the f-word just to see
if anyone notices.
I let people do as they please and whoever
puts up these signs should do the same.
Ryan Ritchie is a senior journalism major
at Cal State Long Beach.
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