MULTIMEDIA

The phrase "under God" is now on an atheist group's billboard along the Billy Graham Parkway. The billboard was vandalized over the weekend.

The billboard was erected last week, as part of a statewide campaign by The North Carolina Secular Association. It simply said "one nation, indivisible" and left out the "under God" language that many atheists find discriminatory.

"There's nothing in the billboard that says 'one nation indivisible' is an attack on anyone's religion," said Fred Edwords, speaking on behalf of the Secular Association. "It's a call for equality-an indivisible nation in which we are all on a level playing field."

But thanks to some vandals with a can of spray paint, there's now an arrow with the "under God" language. And it took planning. The ladder is set off the ground to discourage climbing. They needed a ladder to get to the ladder.

"I don't think somebody had a cherry picker," explains Edwords, "so somebody had to put in some significant effort here. That's pretty zealous vandalism."

But Edwords doesn't blame organized religion for the damage. He says, "We see these as acts by individual vandals, not as representative of the religious community."

The Pledge of Allegiance didn't always include "under God." Congress approved the phrase in 1954 as politicians were trying to differentiate the U.S. from communist countries that were officially atheist.

The Secular Association has put up signs in Winston Salem, Asheville, Greensboro, Raleigh and Wilmington. The Charlotte sign is the only one that has been vandalized. Edwords says it'll be replaced by Thursday, just in time for Fourth of July weekend.

It won't be long - the truth will be known to all and scripture says that "every knee will bow and that every tongue will confess.....that Jesus Christ is Lord." There WILL be a Second Coming and Jesus WILL rule the world in love and in peace. Maranatha!

If the government would remove all religious stuff from all government thing this there wouldn't be any government left.

Who's to say that the atheists didn't paint it themselves in order to stir up attention for their silly billboard?

PEOPLE ARE ALLOWED TO BELIEVE (or not believe) IN WHATEVER THEY WANT!!

Mike/SorryRus, In your responses, I think what you've inadvertently done is shown that bigotry is not simply a Christian phenomenon.

The billboard was a vandalism to begin with, the phrase is "One nation under God, indivisible" because that's the value this country was built on, should we next remove "Creator" from the The Declaration of Independence when teaching it in schools?

Sorry Rus, but it was surely a "jesus freak." How often do other monotheists pull bigoted shit like this? Look around Charlotte for a minute with a church every six feet and maybe your eyes will open to the obvious.

As a committed Christian who grew up repeating the original version in school, my reaction to the insertion of "under God" was that it violated the spirit of Matthew 6:5. Further, I find this act of vandalism by some counter productive to my looking for ways to act on the commission to the disciples in Matthew 28:16-20.

Mike, I find it interesting that you refer to the vandals as Jesus Freaks. Are you sure? There are many monotheistic religions that are represented in the Charlotte area.

I see method in the madness, imagine adding "under God" to those valiant words - then to vandalize a billboard in the same manner, the bigotry. It's a same upon this great nation. That has been so well highlighted - touché!

to speck3185...amen to that.

Do the Jesus freaks really think that God would vandalize a billboard? The vandal is insecure of their personal believes and so ignorant that they are not even aware of the hypocrisy in committing such an act. Maybe they should instead be Muslim and kill people who draw images of Mohammad ...

So embarrassed to be from Charlotte...

It is time the US realize we are a diverse and nonsectarian nation and to remove all religious references and oaths from government agencies : federal state and locally.