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Jewish World Review June 6, 2000 / 3 Sivan, 5760
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
TEN YEARS AGO, Kristopher Okwedy fled Nigeria, hoping to escape the
persecution imposed on Christians there. "The wonderful thing about this
country," he explains about his new home in America, "is the freedom to
express yourself." But this year, Mr. Okwedy found out that freedom was not
as absolute as he had thought.
Mr. Okwedy and his Keyword Ministry leased space on two billboards on New
York's Staten Island. Each one cited four translations of Leviticus 18:22,
which in the Living Torah translation by Rabbi Arye Kaplan reads: "Do not lie with a male as as you would with a woman, since this is a disgusting perversion." A few days after the billboards went
up, the president of PNE Media, the company that owns the billboards,
called. He told the pastor that the messages were going to be taken down
because they were too offensive.
PNE Media gave Mr. Okwedy a full refund, but he's not satisfied and has
retained a lawyer. He told the New York Times: "This is the land of the
free and the home of the brave. You are supposed to protect the rights of
free speech and I did not violate any city laws." Moreover, Mr. Okwedy says
that these billboards were supposed to be part of a larger "Word on the
Street" campaign, with a new billboard every month. But "PNE has a monopoly
on Staten Island's billboards."
The Catholic Church is also vulnerable to billboard controversy. It
recently began Project Rachel, a nationwide campaign encouraging women who
have had abortions to return to the fold. The billboard ads use the slogan,
"Something inside dies after an abortion." Planned Parenthood
representatives have objected because they believe the message is
political, not religious. The billboard companies, in this case, have not
interfered.
Another billboard campaign is perhaps a little more surprising. Last year,
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) began their "Jesus Was a
Vegetarian Campaign." Bruce Friedrich says the idea came to him a few years
ago when a cardinal proposed a reaffirmation of meatless Fridays for
Catholics. "I thought to myself, `Gracious! Catholics shouldn't be eating
meat at all.'" When a letter to the Catholic bishops had no effect, PETA
bought billboard space.
The ads feature pictures of what is supposed to be Jesus and use slogans like, "I said
`Thou shalt not kill.' Go Vegetarian." Not surprisingly, they have
generated criticism from religious leaders. "It's just another example of
the disrespect for the Catholic faith and the insensitivity toward
religious values and beliefs in this country," says U.S. Ambassador to the
Vatican Raymond L. Flynn.
PETA's claims are "theological nonsense and they know it," says C.J. Doyle
of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts. "We know from scripture
that our Lord ate the Paschal lamb." In a staff editorial titled "The
Prince of Peas?" the (Louisville, Ky.) Courier Journal asks, "remember the
multiplying of the loaves and fishes when Jesus spoke to crowds?" PETA
attempts -- perhaps not convincingly -- to address these questions on its
Web site, JesusVeg.com, by noting that the Bible never directly says that
the Christian Messiah himself consumed the fish or lamb.
While there is certainly some truth to the claims of PETA's critics, there
is no law against biblical misinterpretation on billboards. And if those
critics want the freedom to put up their own billboards, it is probably in
their best interests to accept the presence of billboards that they oppose,
even those as silly as PETA's.
The fact is, it's very hard to find an ad mentioning G-d that doesn't spark
some kind of objection. Smithagency.com, the creators of "G-d Speaks" -- a
billboard campaign that features fairly innocuous slogans like, "Think I
planted stuff down there for you to smoke?" and "What part of `Thou shalt
not' didn't you understand?" -- tried to get their ads on MTV. According to
the agency's creative director, Shelly Isaacs, the network wanted a
disclaimer making it clear that the note wasn't actually from
G-d.
And There Shall Be a Sign
By Naomi Schaefer
Mr. Okwedy is not alone in his fight. In the past several months, large
billboards have become a common medium for religious messages -- messages
deemed offensive by one party or another. Maryclare Flynn, executive
director of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, was told by AK Media, which
owns most of the state's billboards, that her organization's antiabortion
message was "too controversial." (AK Media had not long before rented her
space, but then changed its policy.)
JWR contributor Naomi Schaefer is assistant editor of
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