The Atheist Street Pirates are a crew of non-believers who tirelessly tear down illegally-placed religious signs and banners on the streets of Los Angeles. From Religion News:
The idea for the street pirates first emerged as a joke during an Atheists United meeting where members bantered about what to do with religious signage they encountered across the city. Calling it "religious rubbish removal," the alliteration inspired the Atheist Street Pirates. That led to [Evan] Clark creating a public Google map database where they upload photos and locations of the signage they encounter during their commutes. The map currently shows about 70 signs across LA County, including material taken down by the pirates or others.[…]
Street pirates don't mind paid billboards or signage on church property since that's within separation of church and state, Clark said. It's the explicitly religious signs on public land that they take issue with. There's a difference, Clark notes, between people standing on a highway overpass holding a sign and posters left behind as public nuisance[…]To Clark, it's not about getting "into an arms race over religious signage." If that were the case, they'd place atheism signs to counter religious posters. The point, Clark said, is "to reinforce our commitment to a secular society."
Amen.
image: kevin brine/Shutterstock.com
