Billboards depicting US evangelist Greg Laurie holding up a Bible – used to advertise an upcoming SoCal Harvest outreach event – have been removed from a shopping mall in southern California.
CBN News reports that the ads, which featured an image of Laurie holding up the Bible – which has no words or a cross upon it, were removed after the Irvine Company – the real estate company which oversees advertising at Orange County’s Fashion Island mall, claimed the religious imagery in the ads had provoked multiple complaints.
After initially requiring that the billboards be modified, new artwork was submitted but didn’t resolve the situation with Irvine then pulling the ads altogether.
John Collins, Harvest executive director, told CBN News there was nothing “overtly religious” about the billboards.
“We changed it to a more simplified ad that simply said ‘Harvest,’ giving the dates and some of the musical artists that are going to be with us,” he said. “Then they came back and said they just wanted the ads completely removed and they refunded us.”
CBN News attempted to contact the Irvine Company but wasn’t able to get a response prior to publication.
Laurie, in an entry on his blog, said “everybody needs to just relax a little bit”.
“I see images on billboards and displays in stores that I find offensive all the time,” he wrote. “I do not complain or boycott. I just think as Christians we ought to have ‘equal time’ and a voice in the marketplace.”
The SoCal Harvest event takes place at Angel Stadium on 17th to 19th August.
