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Heart and Soul: America’s atheist street pirates

America’s Atheist Street Pirates

21/07/2023 GMT

America’s atheist street pirates

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, America’s atheist street pirates

The American atheists removing illegal religious signs from streets across the states

On a busy street in Los Angeles a group of people in yellow vests are holding a ladder against a lamppost. Up the ladder, 34-year-old Evan Clark is ripping down a sign that is nailed to the post. It reads “Jesus: The way, the truth, the life”. These are members of the Atheist Street Pirates, local activists who track and remove religious signs affixed to public property.

“Jesus Saves”. “Repent”. “Bible or Hell”. It’s not uncommon to see signs like this whilst sitting in Los Angeles’ notorious traffic, whether on placards stapled to telephone posts or on large banners draped across freeways. And whilst the First Amendment of the US Constitution allows freedom of expression and religion, this groups says that there are laws that forbid the erection of religious messages on public property.

In 2020 the American non-profit group Atheists United started tracking these signs in Los Angeles and realised that, with the help of volunteers, they could legally remove them. They also launched an interactive map tracking sightings of signs across the US. One pirate in Texas even recently went on an eight-state tour,  tracking and removing such signs. There are even interfaith leaders and progressive Christian pastors who have joined the pirates to remove signs, as they believe they interfere with creating a pluralistic society.

Nastaran Tavakoli-Far travels to Los Angeles and joins the Atheist Street Pirates out on a hunt for religious signs to find out more. 

Producer/presenter: Nastaran Tavakoli-Far
Production Co-ordinator: Mica Nepomuceno

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