Religion Kills Free Speech

A billboard with the message "Imagine No Religion" is no more. Sign company General Outdoor removed the sign by the Freedom From Religion Foundation on Thursday after it received a request by the city to do so. According to Redevelopment Director Linda Daniels, City Hall had received 90 calls of complaint since Wednesday. "We contacted the sign company and asked if there was a way to get it removed," Daniels said. The billboard - which went up last week on the southwest corner of Archibald Avenue and Foothill Boulevard - is part of a national billboard campaign by the Wisconsin-based group advocating the separation of church and state. The foundation's co-president, Annie Laurie Gaylor, said the billboard is meant to encourage a debate on religion by using the John Lennon-inspired message. Gaylor was shocked over the city's role in the billboard's demise. "The city has no business suggesting our billboard be censored," Gaylor said. "They're not allowed to interfere over religious controversy." It was the second billboard to come down following city request. In September, the city asked a different sign company to take down an advertisement on Foothill Boulevard advertising a vagina rejuvenation procedure. Daniels said the city did not demand General Outdoor take down the "Imagine No Religion" sign. "We didn't say they had to (take it down), but they respected the Advertisement concerns of residents," Daniels said. The sign was the first in California for the foundation, whose members are atheists and agnostics. Gaylor said sign companies have declined business before, but no company has taken down a sign after it went up. The group currently has signs in Atlanta, Phoenix and Seattle. "My gosh, we have a billboard in Colorado Springs right now, about a mile from Focus on the Family," said Gaylor, referring to the evangelical organization headquartered in Colorado Springs. "If we can have it in Colorado Springs, why not in Rancho Cucamonga? It doesn't speak well for the state of tolerance if you have to stifle you