Ad Campaign Promotes Ethics & Values Without Religion

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“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent,” says I Timothy, Chapter 2, Verse 12 of the New International Version of the Bible.

That’s the opening of a new advertising campaign at the start of this holiday season.

The campaign is called “Consider Humanism.”  It was launched on Nov. 9 by the American Humanist Association, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It promotes a secular ideology that uses reason, ethics and justice but rejects religious dogma as a basis of morality and decision-making. It has six chapters in New York. The closest to Syracuse is in Buffalo.

“This campaign would like to draw attention to the fact that morality is one of the most important elements of society and it’s able to exist without religion,” said Sarah Ameigh, the communications and policy assistant at the American Humanist Association.

The campaign’s ads features passages from the Bible and Quran that some have used to promote slavery, violence, and ignorance, along with passages that denounce homosexuality and gender equality. The ads juxtapose those with compassionate quotations from nonbelievers and humanists like Albert Einstein and Mark Twain.

The “Consider Humanism” commercial first aired on NBC on Nov. 12. In Syracuse, that’s WSTM-TV, Channel 3. The ad has also been placed in at least 10 newspapers like USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Seattle Times.  The organization has also produced billboards, bus tails, and film booth ads. None are appearing in Syracuse.

So far, the ads have generated little public protest or response. In Syracuse, for example, many religious  leader have not heard about the campaign. And, say legal experts, the ads are also protected under the First Amendment.

David Rubin, a professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with expertise in ethics and law, says the advertisements use the controversial passages to undermine religious dogma. “By linking things like slavery to quotes in the Bible what they’re trying to do is undermine the faith that people would have in the Bible,” Rubin said.

Which, he and other legal experts say, the organization has every right to do under the First Amendment.

Roy Gutterman, the director of Syracuse University’s Tully Center for Free Speech, said the ad is protected under four clauses within the First Amendment: the clauses on free speech and free press, and the two clauses barring government establishment of religion and protecting the exercise of religious faith.  Those are found in this part of First Amendment:  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…”

The First Amendment protects both the Christian symbols of Christmas and the humanist ad campaign’s message, said Gutterman.  “If we can have a Christmas decorations all over the place, and even in some governmental areas, then people who don’t want to believe in a higher order or religion or god or deity — well, they have the right to tell people that they don’t believe as well,” Gutterman said.

In Syracuse, the ads are drawing little attention so far. But one religious leader said he does find the advertisements hurtful. Pastor Daren Jaime of the People’s A.M.E. Zion Church in Syracuse said the ads are offensive to those who live by the “word of God.”

“Those of us who are in Christian circles and really believe in the word do take offense to the fact that anyone can turn around and misuse it,” he said. He is not surprised by the message of the ads, he said. “I think people will misquote the Bible,” said Jaime, “for their own personal use and their own personal gain.”

(Mojgan Sherkat is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism.)

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