A billboard promoting the movie “God’s Not Dead 2” will not appear at the Republican National Convention.
The proposed billboard would have featured a picture of actress Melissa Joan Hart, who plays a teacher threatened with termination after invoking scripture in the classroom, along with the text: “I’d rather stand with God and be judged by the world than stand with the world and be judged by God.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, billboard company Orange Barrel rejected the advertisement after emailing the film’s distributor Pure Flix that the message was “too political” and “way too incendiary.” Anonymous insiders further claimed there were concerns that the title of the film was also problematic.
“I’m perplexed. They dragged us along for weeks. Now, right up against the convention date, they say we aren’t approved, and they give us no logical rationale,” Pure Flix CEO Steve Fedyski told The Hollywood Reporter. “My speculation is that someone, somewhere didn’t want our message out. It’s hard to understand, considering we’ve used the same marketing on CNN and other national networks.”
Though one of the concerns Orange Barrel cited was that the Republican National Committee bars “scandalous” signage, Pure Flix argued that the message was consistent with the party’s values. Pure Flix and the GOP are cosponsors of a worship service followed by a screening of the film the night before the beginning of the convention.
Instead, it appears convention attendees will be greeted by a message from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which features a quote from Republican former president Ronald Reagan on a Clear Channel billboard: “We establish no religion in this country. … Church and state are, and must remain, separate.”
“It’s near the airport, right after the ‘Welcome to Cleveland’ sign,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, a representative for the group told The Hollywood Reporter. “The idea was that people flying in to the convention couldn’t miss it.”
