Phoenix, Arizona is the latest city to be targeted for the display of billboards touting freedom from religion and the separation of church and state.   A group based in Wisconsin, known as “The Freedom From Religion Foundation,” is funding the month-long project, just as it has in other cities.

A spokesperson of the group, which claims some 12,000 agnostics and atheists as adherents, expects minimal resistance to the effort.  An Arizona state senator thinks Christians will find the billboards “offensive.”

Honestly, does anyone care?  I can’t see such billboards shaping a person's opinion or faith.  Those who agree with the sentiment will agree, and those who don’t appreciate it can drive on by.  If “believers” become hostile, belligerent, or otherwise negatively respond they simply will show their true colors.  Perhaps they can align themselves officially with the Religious Right, if they haven’t previously done so.

I remember years ago when the film, “The Last Temptation of Christ” was released, and  some folks became very agitated because the story of Jesus in the movie was different from their tightly-held version.  When visiting a church on a Sunday during that period, I watched as one of the faithful stood up during the announcement time in worship and read portions of the script, apparently trying to rouse the Soldiers of Christ into a battle-ready frenzy.  The minister finally told the guy to sit down.

Who cares if a film like the “The Last Temptation of Christ” (which I never watched) puts a different spin on things?  Some probably didn’t like “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Godspell,” or other movies of that ilk. 

Under some moderate pressure, I went with a group to see the movie Mel Gibson came out with a few years ago in which Jesus got a two-hour whipping.  I found it ridiculous and absurd.  It meant nothing to me, other than a waste of time and money.  In the group discussion that followed, someone told me I “had to read The DaVinci Code,” which also was in vogue at the time.  I don’t always do as I’m told.

My faith isn’t affected by any movie, t-shirt, book, political idolatry, billboard, or anything else that runs counter to it, or claims to present a new or overlooked truth.  And I know that God’s authority, freedom, and ability to make all things new are not threatened in any way.

My suggestion to people of faith that become so worked up over such things is to “chill.”  I think it would be better to save your spiritual indignation and righteous anger for something important, like poverty and hunger, racism, homophobia, cultural idolatry, pre-emptive war, consumerism and greed, and other offenses to God’s love and grace.