Monday, July 25, 2005
Billboards part of trend of more casual relationship with God
You might remember those startling billboard messages back in 1999-2000 ...
"We need to talk. — God."
"Have you read My #1 best-seller? There will be a test. — God."
"Loved the wedding, invite Me to the marriage. — God."
"That 'Love Thy Neighbor' thing — I meant it. — God."
"Let's meet at My house Sunday before the game. — God."
The "God Speaks" billboard series (about 20 divine "quotes" in all) was a national campaign of public service announcements sparked by an anonymous Florida donor to remind people of God's presence in their lives. It won awards. It got people talking. It displayed a creative flair for boiling down theology to a few words.
The campaign ended in 2001 — before 9/11. Now it's back — a new slate of messages for a changed world preoccupied with terrorism, war, political slugfests and reality shows.
Handling the campaign this time around is The DeMoss Group, a public relations firm in Atlanta. "We think the timing is right," president Mark DeMoss told AgapePress this past spring.
Nine new God quotes will be featured. I haven't seen any in Nashville yet, but published reports have disclosed at least three of the messages. It seems the Almighty has been following the culture wars and watching prime-time TV:
"The real Supreme Court meets up here. — God."
"As my apprentice, you're never fired. — God."
"It's a small world ... I know ... I made it. — God."
Will the new campaign work? Did the old campaign?
Few would deny the billboards are fresh, clever, even thought-provoking — a welcome relief on the cluttered landscape of roadside commercial signs.
They are, in fact, a sign of the times.
A generation or two ago, no one would have thought (or dared) to create a slate of divine quips for an outdoor ad crusade. It was enough to read the Bible as the Word of God and find divine messages there. Traditional worship tones were reverential, respectful of silence, looking back to the theology and music of old Europe. God was considered mysterious, fearsome, if not remote. The traditionalist motto might come from Psalm 99: "The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!"
The climate has changed. Spirituality is far more brashly public than it was 30 years ago, far more the subject of news, movies, talk radio, novels, jewelry and roadside displays of piety such as memorial crosses and sanctified billboards.
Religion penetrates pop culture, and pop culture invades religion. This has a side effect. Religious expression has become more informal, conversational, marketable, less technical, less somber. "Casual" has been the surging trend in contemporary worship for 25 years. A theological revolution is afoot: The message is God is not inscrutable but accessible, approachable, relatable. Old formality gets swept away. The "God Speaks" billboard campaign fits with this market-friendly outlook and younger demographic.
Do the billboards make a difference? It's hard to find hard numbers that measure the direct impact of the "God Speaks" campaign. Did belief in God rise? Did worship increase? Last summer, two researchers at Michigan State University tried to assess the ad campaign. The results were inconclusive. They noted that the campaign was widely popular (more than 10,000 billboard displays), yet no discernable increase in belief in God was reported by Harris Polls or other surveys taken between 1999-2001, when "God Speaks" was in full swing.
By RAY WADDLE
Permalink
