Riders pissed off at TTC ads that ask “Does God care if I’m gay?”
It must have seemed like such a good idea at the time. After last year’s brouhaha over atheist ads on the TTC—“There’s probably no God”—the pro-deity people thought they’d respond in kind. Bus Stop Bible Studies (BSBS—no, really, that’s the acronym) has put out a smattering of God-infused marketing messages on the sides of streetcars and buses. The ads feature attractive people with thoughtful expressions as they wonder “What is hell?” the same way they might wonder “Why can’t I get real modelling work?” The ads urge Torontonians to go to a Web site to find answers to the questions, and that’s where the good idea turned troublesome. Some TTC riders who went on-line to find the answer to “Does God care if I’m gay?” didn’t like what they found.
The [BSBS ad] that’s drawing ire is “Does God care if I’m gay?” The photo of a tattooed young man directs transit riders to the page www.answerme.com/doesgodcare. The long answer to the question reads, in part, “We know from passages throughout Scripture that God hates homosexual acts BUT no more than any other sinful act.”
That’s an important distinction to the folks at BSBS, though it appears to be lost on the people who have been calling the TTC to complain (as if the TTC didn’t have enough complaints to wade through). The exact number of complaints isn’t known, but it was enough to prompt a review by the commission’s ad committee.
While we do wonder how BSBS thought this ad would fly in a city that welcomes one of the largest Pride festivals in the world, we’re more interested in seeing what hilarious graffiti will turn up if the ads are still running by the time the parade kicks off in June.
• ‘Does God care if I’m gay?’ ads irks TTC riders [Toronto Star]
“Does God care if I’m gay?”
No.
You would think that GOD, in His wisdom and omnipotence, would be just a bit more media-savvy in this day and age. I mean, we’re talking about the God that caused the Great Deluge, parted the Red Sea, and came back to life after having assumed room temperature for three days. Why does He insist on taking such a hands-off approach? We have one Book which has been translated and re-translated, interpreted and re-interpreted, until hardly anyone can agree on what it means. We have dozens of Christian denominations, each with its own unique take on what God expects of us. Wouldn’t God be a little more effective in getting us to behave decently toward one another if He would just put together a website or a television channel or at the very least a 1-800 number? There are a lot of contemporary issues that I sure would like to get His opinion on.
Whatever God we believe in would not give a hoot- about one’s socio economic, financial or sexual preference…the idea is to be a good person whilst on the planet…that’s the bottom line.
Therefore, those who are producing all this “substandard” advertising just did not get the instruction book/ manual given at birth – ” How to be a good person whilst on the planet”. Maybe they did and ripped out the pages?
It’s not worth sweating this advertising because that’s the idea. REACTION. No reaction might suggest that they reread their own personal copy of the manual.