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I'm visiting NC, this week. I can't believe how many (really bad) Christian music stations and "Jesus" bill boards we've seen! It feels really oppressive. My kids and I made the billboards a car ride game. "Got Jesus?!"or ""I've found the Lord" So, at least we had a good laugh...
For people that live in similar areas, is it alienating, living outside the normative, here? I live in a rural, conservative area, but not to this extreme.

BJANINE 6 July 15
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0

I find it suffocating! I never appreciated all that Jesus stuff, when I was part the religious community! But, now that I have been out for long time, it seems bazaar! It is like being immersed in a kind of fog...and liking it, for the people of these religious areas! It is sad, as these people will have a difficult time, evolving to a higher level of understanding of the nature of life and their place in it.

I'm with you. Even when I was involved in the church, I never felt right pestering people. If they approached me and asked I would reply with whatever "knowledge" I had at the moment. I didn't ever fully believe it anyway so how was I supposed to "witness" to people?

I can mostly tune out the church billboards, except one that loudly declares, "When you die, you WILL meet God". Like seriously? No scripture or anything. Just a number to call. That one really gets on my nerves.

4

Think lack of proper education where their Religious Beliefs are beyond science or cognitive thought. The Civil War never ended and they voted to make sure that it will "Rise Again" Now factor in the fact that they have never traveled anywhere beyond their borders and lived in such abject poverty and without any prospect to retire with comfort, or ever receive proper medical treatment in any form because they are told from their respective religious communities that it is "God's Will" and just accept it along with all of the other discomforts of life that could be provided to you through a proper education. Religion is the Opium of the Masses and always has been since the Council of Nicea.

3

Here in Michigan, there were several billboards that said, "When you die, you WILL see Jesus." it had a number at the bottom and I really wanted to call that number and ask them how do they know. Have they had anyone die and then come back and tell them about their time being died and who they saw? I so wanted to do that, but never did.

2

I had a friend who moved his family to NC in the 90's for job, and moved them back to Texas in less than a year for that very reason.

@Bobby9 Not any more. It is getting more purple. Austin is very liberal and open minded. What Texas isn't, is bat shit crazy when it comes to religion like the South East.

2

Christians are taught from early on that it is their duty to preach the gospel whenever and wherever they can. For many in the mega-churches, that means putting up billboards with their devotions. Some well-designed, some hand painted. I ignore them as much as possible in rural Missouri.

What I cannot ignore are the fools that tell me that Jesus loves me while I am at work and then persist be adding the question "You know that, right?" It is rude, inappropriate and puts me in a bad position of being a representative of the business. I try to walk away but some are persistent and want to follow you through the business until they get an answer.

2

Hi, Socrates said There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

2

I'm in the Charlotte, NC area, where one of the main roads through the city is Billy Graham Parkway. When I was admitted to the hospital they didn't ask my religion, they asked how important my faith in Jesus is.

What an insult, especially if you are sick!

@Freedompath welcome to North Carolina.

@geist171 yes, my daughter and son-in-law live there and she works in Brovard! I hear their stories!

2

I live in NC. I've lived here all my life. I'm happy you and your children were able to make a game out of the billboards, however, some of the billboards genuinely scare me. Most claim evidence for their god, when there is none. Especially if you're the type of individual who calls the 1800 numbers on these billboards and asks questions. ( they get rather agitated when you ask questions) Please be cautious in the south. It can often get crazy here.

2

I’m in MN so there aren’t a ton of religious billboards but when I do see one, they tend to make me a little angry.

2

I remember driving down to Florida via Atlanta a few years ago and there’s one barren stretch of the interstate that is one billboard after another, alternating advertising for gun shops, adult XXX shops, and Jesus. I thought it was hilarious at the time, now I’m not so entertained.

PenLOP Level 7 July 16, 2018

Funny how they go together, isn't it?

2

I live in SW Virginia on the NC border and everything you said...

2

I live in Texas and yes, it's that extreme!

1

Here in San Diego we have massive crosses erected on several prominent hilltops in the area. Oppressive is a good descriptor for how their presence strikes me.

1

Bjannie message me if you want to chat

1

I used to travel to Lancaster County, PA with my bridge partner who is a presbyterian minister. He found the jesus signs as offensive as I did.

1

Yes, it is annoying until you learn to tune it out

1

So jealous! Our boy focuses on the tablet in the car and I can't get him to be an active participant in road trips, but you've got giant, roadside comic strips. So lucky! Saw some of those in northern California recently and had a good laugh.

It's 100% not funny. It's indicative of the perception and a motivating part of cultural identity and it presents in a lot of scary ways like Amendment One, where the state government quietly stripped a bunch of benefits and legal rights from parents of children who weren't married by eliminating common law marriage policies which would allow children of non married parents access to the father''s insurance and stripped them of things like hospital visitation. And they did it by fronting it as a ban on gay marriage by defining marriage as a man and a woman posessing a valid marriage license. A lot of low-income straight people with kids who had supported the Amendment for religious reasons only realized after the fact what had actually happened when they couldn't use the guy's insurance anymore or couldn't see his kids in the hospital.

1

If you stick to the cities and towns that have universities in them, or high tech companies, things are moderately better. But it is extremely depressing, by and large. NEPA is no box of chocolates either, but NC is a different dimension.

zeuser Level 9 July 16, 2018
1

Thankfully in the UK, we’re spared the billboard approach. Maybe a twee poster outside a church with some pun or other alluding to a “better” way of life but certainly not fed fois-gras style.
Mind you even the twee posters make me want to heave so not sure how I’d cope with the big screen messages.
I saw a movie lately about 3 billboards...... maybe her approach....... ?

Just Level 4 July 16, 2018

The money spent putting up those billboards could be better spent on more useful purposes! But, it was donated money, so spend it to promote ideology, instead of helping in a concrete manner. Like the cost of nursing home care for the elderly and disabled!

@Freedompath I’m a nurse. Completely agree that the could be better spent. To go further, I’m appalled by much of the excess that so called shepherds of their flocks spend on lavish forms of transport and accommodation. It’s every kind of wrong

@Freedompath If you notice the phone numbers on the billboards, they are there for a reason: to get rubes to donate money, just like all the signs for South of The Border for miles on both sides are to get you to stop and spend money.

1

Sounds dreadful!

1

Oppressed? By a billboard...?

1

Sounds like you’re on , to quote Chris Rea.....the Highway to Hell!

1

I feel so fortunate to live where I live... We have none of that.

0

Carolinastan, alabamastan, virginiastan, texasstan,....

Sad we live so close to middle eastern theocracies. And the degree of their mental illness affects us.

JacarC Level 8 July 17, 2018
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I live in that kinda place too...whare ya find those things ya also find extreme exhibitions of patriotic symbolism , flags everywhere , red , white and blue business signs , companies named patriot this and liberty that ... Its all pollution to me.

0

They have money to burn.

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