Atheist billboard on Billy Graham Parkway ...

This morning I saw a news item in the religious news service I subscribe to, with the headline 'Atheists erect billboard on Billy Graham Parkway'. Billy Graham Parkway is in Charlotte, North Carolina and leads from the airport into town. It's named after US evangelist Billy Graham. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) has its headquarters on the Parkway - in fact it was the association between the BGEA and the city of Charlotte that led to the naming. I've driven along the Parkway and spent some time at the BGEA offices and associated memorial library shooting footage for 'Remembering '59'.
You can see why the news item caught my attention. It took a while to actually find a picture of the offending billboard and when I did see it, I wondered as an Aussie what all the fuss was about (see pic). Apparently the problem with the statement on the billboard is not what it says, but what it doesn't say. The organisation responsible has left off the words 'under God'. The phrase is a paraphrase of the US pledge of allegiance which reads: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Leaving 'under God' off is what has caused the billboard to become a news story. From: http://is.gd/d6ZUP
"The billboard features an American flag background and quotes the original phrase from the Pledge of Allegiance, before “under God” was inserted after “one nation,” in 1954. That was at the height of the Cold War and the addition was meant to distinguish the United States from the Soviet Union, which officially embraced atheism.
Set to be up for four weeks, the billboards – costing a total of $15,000 – are a July 4 project of the N.C. Secular Association, a coalition of groups such as Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics, the Ethical Humanist Society of the Triangle and Western North Carolina Atheists.
Their message: non-religious North Carolinians are patriots, too."

As an Australian, I wonder what all the fuss is about - especially given what we've gone through this past week with change of Prime Minister. Certainly I can see why the Billy Graham organisation decided not to comment. Storm in a teacup I reckon.