220 in North Carolina

These are photos taken traveling on 220 north of Greensboro, NC but south of the Virginia border

This was a cool looking church...looks new age.

Church...that has talking murals!

If god is my GPS, where will god lead me?

This was on the other side of that Jesus Saves sign. This is message has a different tone than the other...

If you can read the sign on the church, it has the declarative statement: God Can. Glad they cleared that up for me.

North Carolina

I am proud of myself here. To the untrained eye, one might not immediately regconize this as a religious billboard. But, I told Sabrina to whip out the camera and snapped. Sure enough, unfulfilled.org is a Christian ministry. I skimmed through the site and they have a lot of testimonials that begin like this:

"I was searching for fulfillment, acceptance and security. I desperately wanted to be loved and no man could fill the void in my heart. Deep down, I still believed in God but decided to do my own thing. Drinking, partying and men became a way of life."

and end like this:

"On that miraculous day, I received an answer to my prayers and began a relationship with my father. I still have a relationship with him but more importantly through Jesus Christ, I have a relationship with my Heavenly Father. The emptiness inside me is gone because God has filled that void in my life with Himself."

This picture was taken around Winston-Salem North Carolina

Items in West Viriginia

Some pictures we snapped in West Virginia:

These cross displays were all over the place in West Virginia.

Pro-life message right next to the Shoney's display. I wonder if they endorse it?

What does Jesus need with my vital organs?

Also, lets enjoy the fact that Bob Jones University can be shortened to BJU...or...BJ University.

This was my favorite in West Virginia. Do I buy the crosses or the false idols?

What this blog is all about!

Hi gang! Welcome to the first post in this blog and introduction to what we (Sabrina and Robert) want to make of this little corner of the interwebs. Very simply, this will be a photo blog of public displays of religion that you might encounter when driving around, or on a trip. So, car license plates would be one example. Just tonight we saw a vanity plate that said "Only1God." This would be something that, had we had a camera with us, we would have taken a picture of and put up here. Other things include billboards, bumper-stickers, religious signs, church signs, and religious merchandise one might find in a gas station, truck stop, tourist gift shop, or vacation stop. We stopped on a trip to West Virginia to be mentioned later in this post, at a cave. And at the cave's gift shop, the shop sells a number of different rocks and fossils, and of course, dolomite Christian crosses (there will be pictures of these in a future post). These cross's at the gift shop would be something we would love to put on the blog (and we will in a few days). Or, I was just sent this link when telling a few friends about the blog, and ideas they might have for it. Go, check out the huge cross and waterfront Jesus there. It really is quite extraordinary.

This blog was conceived of on a very recent trip to West Virginia. There were, shockingly, not a huge amount of religious billboards on our route, though there were a lot of crosses on the roadway. And these were not crosses marking where people had died, but were there for religious reasons. We thought though, that we do enjoy looking at public displays of religion, and other people must do also, so why not create a photo blog?

We are both atheists. That means we do not hold an active belief in any god. And we do at times, offensively make fun of various religious people. That is not the primary purpose of this blog though. At times we may poke some fun at some of the more extreme religious items that we post (such as the image linked to above), or point out the irony in a message, or placement of items (the south is known for having religious billboards next to strip club billboards along the interstate, for example).

The primary purpose is for people to come and see what other people have found, religious wise, while traveling. And in that vain this is also designed to be, in part, a reader driven blog. We would love submissions of photos of any and all religious things that you find in your travels. You can email drivebyreligion@gmail.com to share them. Please also include the name you wish to go by, a website you would like us to link to (if any) and the location that you took the photo. You do not have to provide us with an exact location, the state or province you took the picture in would be enough.

And one other thing. We do want pictures that you (or a close friend) have personally taken. Ie, we want that personal touch of you taking the picture. Which means, we do not want to take photo's that others have already taken from the internet and posting them here (though, do use the internet for idea's of places to stop and take pictures!)

So, snap those photos, and happy traveling!