Posters like this one recently began appearing around Manhattan:
Pray in mind a few minut a day
Go church
Mary Mary Mary beautiful gorgeous Mary
The Devil makes bats of 2 million people children every year. In America
You must keep the Ten Commandments
Listen Christ Radio 56 AM and Christ will protect yous
Religious crackpottery is hardly new to the subways and sidewalks of New York, of course. But is this the…
legitimate work of a lone anti-bat prophet? A few quick Google searches reveals that similar posters have appeared in Philadelphia:
…and Chicago:
Were the posters simple black-and-white photocopies, I would have no problem accepting them as legitimate paranoid ravings, proof that somebody out there really believes Satan kidnaps children and turns them into bats. But the combination of their wide geographic dispersal and the amount of care taken to make each poster unique makes me question their authenticity.
It seems more likely these are a new street art project—a spiritual heir of Andre the Giant’s posse:
…and Neckface:
…infused with some of the satirical edge of Banksy:
Then again, it could just be a remarkably strange advertising campaign for Christian talk radio.
