Standing atop an approximately 8-foot-high ladder, Evan Clark tugged at a sign tightly nailed to a utility pole on the intersection of Echo Park and Bellevue avenues, just beyond the 101 freeway ramps.
The sign quoted John 14:6, and as Clark spun and pulled it to loosen it from the pole, a man in a car shouted, “The way. The truth. The life!,” quoting the words from the Bible verse emblazoned on the placard Clark was trying to take down. The man, Clark said, likely assumed he was placing the sign, not removing it.
“People put a lot of passion behind these signs and their messages and ideas about Jesus and God,” Clark said. “I don’t like to be confrontational about any of that. I just wanted to do this as a casual thing to keep our streets secular.”
Religion in Southern California is being reinvented “as religious ‘nones’ create new forms of purposeful community.”
Thanks to @alemolina for referencing @usccrcc sociologists @richardflory @shindostreet @naligee & Andrew Jackson in this @RNS piece. https://t.co/B4YJmKR5nP
— USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture (@usccrcc) March 17, 2022