Divine signs - billboards with religious messages may merely comfort the credulous in the U.S

New Internationalist, July, 1999

Ad-writers are being asked to play God in Dallas, US. For weeks the `God Speaks' campaign has been creating billboard messages alongside the city's highways such as: `Keep using my name in vain, I'll make rush hour longer - God' and `What part of "Thou Shalt Not" did you not understand? - God'. But, according to a Gallup poll, the campaign may just be preaching to the converted: 63 per cent of Americans said they believe religion can solve the vast majority of today's financial problems, a percentage that has remained stable for 30 years.

Over 70 per cent of Americans are members of a church or synagogue and 40 per cent attend regularly. So it is perhaps not surprising that the `God Speaks' campaign is going international. Its organizers say the messages are non-denominational and should be meaningful to anyone who believes in a Supreme Being.