Threats and Intimidation, Go Religion!

[Faith No More]

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Regarding the OP:

If I was a pilot, I'd still fly them in a heartbeat.

Although I do despise the hypocrisy of god's tolerance and love, threats more often than not are just that - threats.

Yeah, christians are assholes but it's a tiny and rare percent that are actually going to kill anyone (referencing the bullet proof vest comment in the article) over a banner. Not to say that religious nut-jobs don't exist, but most christians just want to make noise and come off looking like devout defenders of the faith in front of their own people.

#1. One would have to hang out at an airfield all day just to find out who the pilot actually is and than follow him home in his ford. Very suspicious and unlikely.
#2. Also very unlikely - someone is going to be willing to take a pot-shot from the ground with a rifle. It's very likely these planes would be flying over populated areas and the risk of getting caught would be too great.
#3. Anyone who actually knows the pilots is also going to know that they're just doing a job for a client and that any offense against them is a pointless waste of effort.

All these factors combined would make the odds of a pilot getting killed or even harmed over such a matter EXTREMELY low. Not impossible ... but low.

I'd chalk this particular pilot's concerns over his personal safety up to an exaggeration of his plight. (no pun intended ) As much as I hate Christians, I still think the whole thing seems a little over-dramatic. Yeah, bible thumpers are assholes, but only nut-jobs are randomly killing people.

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Right, I think the pilots, however, were afraid of religious nut-jobs. What you have posted makes sense if one is being rational. When have theists ever been known to act rational, especially when their monopoly on religious messages is threatened? Sure, they only have a few nut-jobs to worry about, but people can do dangerous and crazy things in defense of their god, so just a few nut-jobs is scary enough. I'm not saying the pilots were right by not flying, but the reasons you have posted for why it would not be dangerous assume that everyone offended by the message would put rational thought into their reaction.

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I am all for people standing up to bullies, but I'm sure most of the pilots who refused to fly saw it that way. A lot of them were probably Christian and didn't see the risk being worth the reward. Next time, we should get all atheist pilots who agree to fly ahead of time in full knowledge of the threats that might come.