WorldNetDaily started raising money for another Ten Commandments billboard campaign earlier this year, and editor Joseph Farah repeated his justification for doing so in his June 19 column:
More and more, it’s a lawless time in America.
It’s as if people never heard of God’s Ten Commandments. We’ve reached a zenith when they are “calling evil good and good evil.” If ever there were a time and place for reminding them of right and wrong, this would be it. After all, they have been taken down from schools, universities, government buildings, courtrooms, law schools, even churches and synagogues.
Instead, these precious words should be placed on billboards from coast to coast.
And that’s exactly what we are ready to do again – WND, a Christian, conservative news service. Why? Because America needs an urgent reminder of who we once were. We were once a Christian nation. Remember? A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. No one could have imagined what would transpire in America so rapidly and relentlessly.
The last time WND began such an endeavor was in 2013. But America had not been pushed so hopelessly off its moorings, its bearings. Think how America’s character has changed since then. I don’t have to tell this audience. Crime has skyrocketed in every way – especially in major cities. And even the government, which once held the line on it, now seems to embrace it – does its level best to ignore and inflame it.
In other words, Farah feels the need to force a religious view on people only when there’s a Democrat in the White House he can fearmonger about to raise money.
In his July 14 column, Farah declared that “We have our first Ten Commandments project almost ready to be unveiled. I’ll be ready to announce the spectacular new design and location soon. To say it’s timely would be an understatement. Keep watching for our announcement. We welcome your participation in this campaign to resurrect the most renowned statement of God on the His law at a times such as this.” We went on to do some all-purpose money begs amid playing victim, declaring that “We have been “canceled,” attacked, mocked, lied about, suppressed, demonetized and blacklisted by Big Tech and other entities, threatened with extinction because we try to follow God’s ways as a Christian news source.” We’re pretty sure spreading fake news — something WND loves to do — violates the commandment about bearing false witness and is in contradiction to following “God’s ways as a Christian news source.”
In between, Farah used a July 18 column to complain about an effort to remove a Ten Commandments monumente from the grounds of the state capitol in Arkansas: “A successful challenge to the Ten Commandments monument in Arkansas would represent a tidal blow to the nation and the historic heritage of its Judeo-Christian ideals. They want to REMOVE that heritage and all historical memory of God and His connection to our history.” Unsurprisingly, he took the opportunity to shill for his billboard campaign:
Some people have already responded to our appeals. And we’re now ready to begin with the billboards as promised. We have a new design – easier to see from a distance. We’re hoping that others will join with us. We need the help of like-minded and like-spirited partners – to erect Ten Commandments billboards across this nation, hopefully a great many of them. Can you imagine the effect that would have?
America has never needed a campaign like this as badly as it does right now.
It’s time to roll them out again – on highways and byways, in big cities and small towns, so that no one is without excuse as to the moral code God has given His children, and to bring this nation to repentance and, hopefully, to genuine revival and renewal.
WND finally put up a single billboard, and Farah gushed about it in his Aug. 14 column:
They are finally here! WND’s Ten Commandment campaign is up and running in Dallas!
That’s right. Take a look above – a gorgeous location. We just put that one up. And, if you’d like to see these billboards in America again, help make more possible with donations of any kind – large and small.
Farah did not explain why the billboard uses the British spelling of “neighbor” in the ninth commandment when the billboard is located in America (nor did he mention that his organization regularly violates that commandment). He did, however, provide his partisan reasoning for putting it up:
It’s not the first time we’ve put up these kinds of billboards. The last time WND began such an endeavor was in 2013 – when Barack Obama was president. We thought that was a bad time in America. The nation had not been pushed so hopelessly off its moorings, its bearings. Think how America’s character has changed since then. In 2020, many people believed we had an election STOLEN. Today that same president who supposedly won is daring to run again. President Donald Trump has been indicted four times now – for nothing! To keep him from running and winning.
In other words, Farah cares more about politics than religion, and with this billboard campaign, he’s using religion as an excuse to advance a partisan political agenda.
Farah’s wife, Elizabeth, made an appearance on far-right channel Real America’s voice to plug the campaign; the video of it is apparently no longer available.
Farah’s Aug. 30 column repeated a lot of his earlier promotion of the campaign (and related self-victimization). His column was reprinted on Sept. 6 without explanation.There has been no update on the billboard campaign since then.
Indeed, Farah’s archive indicates the Aug. 30 column was the last original column he wrote; there have been a few other reprints since then, and no explanation has been given for his absence. Remember that WND hid Farah’s stroke in 2019 until it was forced to disclose it (and then use it to play victim) when the Washington Post published an article exposing WND’s shady financial shenanigans (though WND to this day has never refuted anything in the article). It appears likely that Farah may have had another stroke (he has said he had a series of them in 2019, so that’s a likely possibility) or some other medical issue that WND will not inform readers about until he either gets better or gets worse — and even then, it’s likely such an announcement about his condition will be timed to achieve maximum political and business benefit.