Huh? (Originally posted 10/10/2013)

While on my way to my doctor appointment in New York City, we drove through Times Square. To me, it seems so compact and so small in person as compared to watching television on New Year's Eve as Dick Clark broadcasted (and now Ryan Seacrest broadcasts) live from Times Square as the ball drops at the stroke of midnight. As much as I am impressed with the lights and glitter, by now, Times Square is a familiar sight to me and many times I barely notice what goes on around me when I am stuck in traffic waiting to get through. 

But today, something caught my eye on one of the billboards. I immediately posted the following Facebook status at 11:00 am this morning when I saw it:

"Sitting in Times Square traffic, I saw an LED billboard for the Answers In Genesis website that said "To all our atheist friends: Thank God you're wrong." That has to be the worst way to ever have a conversation about the existence of God or the lack thereof with anyone. I may be a Christian, but I would find some other way to open the dialog than that."
I really was quite surprised to find that billboard, so tonight after I got home, I started doing some research on Answers in Genesis. I'm just starting to scratch the surface of what Answers in Genesis is all about, but what makes me scratch my head is the way both Christian/creation science supporters and atheist groups have resorted to billboards to start a conversation and, more importantly, point fingers at each other and debate in ways that put people on the defensive and prevent respectful conversations from happening. A billboard like this one might turn heads, but that is not always how Jesus started conversations with others when He knew the person didn't believe in him. I think one of the few times He'd actually talked to people with what could be thought of as an insult is when he called the legalistic religious leaders of His day whitewashed tombs and a brood of vipers in Matthew 23:13-36. 

In contrast, when Jesus spoke with a Samaritan woman at a well in John chapter 4, He had the exact opposite approach. At first, Jesus asked her for a drink of water and she was shocked because she had been discriminated against by the Jews of her day for being a "half-breed" and a woman who had been married five times and was now living with her boyfriend. But Jesus simply involved her in a conversation and eventually revealed He is the Messiah that both Jews and Samaritans had been waiting for. When Jesus told her she could have the life-giving water He had, she was amazed that when she asked for it, Jesus knew her life story but still wanted to offer her hope and forgiveness and a chance to start over, which would quench her spiritual thirst forever even though the well water would quench her physical thirst for a short time before she needed another drink. On her own, she believed that Jesus was the Messiah and ran back to her village to bring others to him.

I can't really comment on why the creators of Answers in Genesis felt the need to put up the billboard in New York City as well as in other large cities in the US, but seeing it made me cringe at the times I said things like "Thank God you're wrong" when trying to prove my point about the Bible. Instead of saying that, I hope now approach questions and viewpoints different from my own Christian beliefs about creation and God in a well thought out manner. Maybe by asking a person to consider a viewpoint from another angle and being kind but firm in explaining my own views will get some respect from others, and maybe it won't. But at least I can show respect or others who may have differing viewpoints even if I don't get the respect in return. After all, I may believe in God, but I also believe God gave us a brain to think about something before we say it, that He gave us two ears to listen attentively to others before we speak, and only one mouth to say what's on our minds, so we might as well bite our tongues if we can't agree or even disagree in a respectful manner. 

CNN's article on the billboards is at this link: 
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/09/creationists-battle-atheists-in-latest-billboard-war/