Pitman's Knights of Columbus have flown the Christmas banner between a privately-owned building and a utility pole over Broadway for at least 35 years. The FFRF first began campaigning against it in 2011, saying it was hung without the proper permits.

Johnson said the town only requires permits for flying banners over borough roads, and that because Broadway sits along County Route 553, officials would not ask for a sign permit from any of the various organizations that hang banners in that spot throughout the year. Furthermore, he said, he considered the banner a reflection of his town's Christian roots as a Methodist summer retreat.

The FFRF had planned to outdo itself this Christmas by taking out three billboards in town. In addition to a reprise of last year's Saturnalia sign, the group wanted to add another billboard depicting a wrapped gift alongside the words "Heathen's Greetings" and a third showing St. Nick himself over the phrase "Yes Virginia, there is no God."

Just before Thanksgiving, however, representatives from Clear Channel, which owns all three billboards, said they wouldn't rent the space to FFRF because of last year's repeated attempts to destroy the sign.

In December 2013, an off-duty police officer at a restaurant across the street from the ad spotted two men trying to set it on fire, just a few days after law enforcement stopped a family with an extension ladder from pasting a picture of the Nativity over the Saturn image. The two men who tried to torch the sign were never apprehended.

Andrew Seidel, an attorney with the FFRF, criticized the move.

"The most disappointing thing about it is that it rewards illegal behavior. The people who tried to burn down that billboard now feel justified," he said. "What they're doing is saying if you damage billboards you disagree with, they won't put them up anymore. It's a sad example of people thinking the rights of the non-religious matter less, except this time instead of a town government, it's a corporation."

Barbara Bridge, a vice president of public affairs at Clear Channel, declined to comment directly on the Pitman billboards, but confirmed that the company had pulled the plug on FFRF's ads. She also said Clear Channel had stopped putting posting on billboards in other situations, such as incidences of repeated vandalism.

"I can say that when people graffiti our signs a thousand times we tend to take them down," Bridge said. "It's not cost effective."

Seidel said FFRF did not "consider the issue dead," and expressed frustration that Clear Channel hadn't alerted the foundation to its decision sooner.

"One frustrating thing is they knew about this all year long," he said of the company. "We could've taken a different approach, like a newspaper ad or a spot on TV, if we had known. We're not going to halt until Pitman stops giving Christians preferential treatment."

Johnson, meanwhile, said the downtown banner represented the "spirit of Pitman."

"That's what it was for 40 years before this happened," he said. "And I hope that's what it is for another 40 years."

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So the Christians are now blading the other cheek at 45...


Good for them.

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Probably some of them doing it trying to make  Christians look bad. Or some other people

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*facepalm* at the idea of anti-Christmas billboards in general, and the vandalization of said billboards.

- an atheist.

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Christians need to stop being pushovers, good for them and anti-theists can be butt hurt all they want.  Christians can only be fed to the lions so many times before they start fighting back against the haters, because they want to burn the churches next.

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Their billboard, their rules.

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http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2014/12/silent_night_atheist_billboard_wont_return_to_pitman_this_year.html

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Let's see. Atheists put up some billboards.

Christians repeatedly attempt to vandalize.

Owner says Nope, we won't rent them because Christians keep vandalizing.


Something to be proud of there, for sure.

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How do you know it was a Christian who vandalized the billboards? Answer: You Do Not. You make an assumption it was because it suits your atheist narrative.

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How do you know it was a Christian who vandalized the billboards? Answer: You Do Not. You make an assumption it was because it suits your atheist narrative.

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Christians need to stop being pushovers, good for them and anti-theists can be butt hurt all they want.  Christians can only be fed to the lions so many times before they start fighting back against the haters, because they want to burn the churches next.

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There's a difference between a conspiracy and a tacitly accepted pattern of behavior.
 

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Atheist are worse than Liberals.

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Christians need to stop being pushovers, good for them and anti-theists can be butt hurt all they want.  Christians can only be fed to the lions so many times before they start fighting back against the haters, because they want to burn the churches next.

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Atheist are worse than Liberals.