Christian Witness, Current Events

What if you posted a sign

…and nobody ‘got it’? From today’s Albany Times Union, the Columbia County (NY) Quakers have posted a billboard for peace. Here’s an excerpt from Village’s sign of troubled times: Billboard touting peace causes reactions from surprise to confusion:

CHATHAM — The idea was to solicit designs for a “Billboard for Peace.”

The picture a group of Columbia County Quakers chose is about as far as can be from your typical peace symbol.

Since last month, drivers on the busiest road in the village of Chatham have passed a billboard that evokes the imagery of Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib.

The sign on County Route 66 shows a hooded man with no shirt and his hands tied. It cites the biblical injunction to “love your enemies.”

And it asks, in big red letters, “Is This Love?”

An Old Chatham Quaker Meeting committee chose the image over a half-dozen milder submissions, such as a yellow ribbon with the slogan: “Peace. The Ultimate Support.”

“These are not mild times,” said Jens Braun, 48, a committee member who teaches peace studies at Berkshire Community College. “These are times when we are doing some things which I think historically we will look back on and really regret.”

Amen to that.