NJ atheists’ billboard: Skip church this Christmas season

Be good for goodness sake? Sure, but don't be godly, says a New Jersey-based atheist group.

American Atheists says it's "continuing a holiday season tradition" by launched a series of billboards throughout the country telling viewers "Go ahead and skip church! Just be good for goodness' sake!" A jolly-looking Santa smiles alongside the message.

According to the Cranford-based group, the billboard is a continuation of a campaign it began last holiday season.

“Last year’s billboard showed a child writing a letter to Santa, telling him that all she wanted for Christmas was to skip church. This year, Santa wrote back,” Silverman added.

The group says its billboards — up in the Winston-Salem, N.C. and Colorado Springs, Colo. areas — are "Designed to reach the millions of people who still attend church occasionally and call themselves religious, but have doubts about their beliefs."

“We want people to know that going to church has absolutely nothing to do with being a good person,” David Silverman, president of American Atheists, said in a statement from the group. “The things that are most important during the holiday season—spending time with loved ones, charity, and being merry—have nothing to do with religion.”

American Atheists' national programming director, Nick Fish, said in the statement people who are on the fence about their beliefs should know "they can take that first big step and leave church."

"There are tens of millions of atheists in this country," he said. "We’re everywhere. And we don’t need church or gods to tell us how to be good people."

Previous billboards from the group have taken the same overall message. One in Times Square in 2013 asked "Who needs Christ during Christmas?" and answered: "Nobody."

In 2012, its billboards featured a jolly Santa and Jesus suffering on the cross, telling viewers "Keep the Merry! Dump the Myth!"

WSPA in Colorado asked local residents what they thought of the new billboard.

“I think it’s a little offensive. When I first saw it I thought ‘what did they mean by that?’" Alexis Esselman told the station.

“I think their intentions are good, but maybe they could have worded it differently,” said Damara Metrick.