Atheist groups' Pa. billboard defaced, replaced

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A billboard put up in a Harrisburg neighborhood to protest a recent state House of Representatives vote declaring 2012 as the “Year of the Bible” in Pennsylvania has been replaced after someone tore down much of it.

The Patriot-News said the billboard that depicts a slave wearing an iron neck shackle was replaced today by Lamar Advertising.

The sign was sponsored by American Atheists and Pennsylvania Nonbelievers and had been erected Tuesday. It had said, “Slaves, obey your masters,” a verse from the Bible that it called an example of “Bronze-age ethics.”