The controversial atheist billboard ad that sparked protests and an attempted arson last holiday season won't be coming back to Pitman this year. Clear Channel, which owns the billboard along with several others in town, told the Freedom From Religion Foundation it would not run the ad a second time because several people tried to vandalize it last year.

The sign at the intersection of Lambs Road and Holly Avenue was originally posted to protest Pitman's longstanding tradition of hanging a "Keep Christ In Christmas" banner over its historic business district. It featured a picture of the planet Saturn with the slogan "Keep Saturn in Saturnalia," a tongue-in-cheek reference to an ancient Roman holiday that was held around the winter solstice.

Representatives from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a national organization dedicated to the separation of church and state, had previously promised a "surprise" for the town when interviewed on the Dom Giordano CBS radio show.

"I didn't know what to expect," said Pitman Mayor Russ Johnson, who added that he was relieved there wouldn't be any controversy this Christmas. "I'd just rather not stir the pot this year, not that I ever wanted to stir it before. I think our residents are weary of the back and forth and the bickering."

Pitman's Knights of Columbus have flown the Christmas banner between a privately-owned building and a utility pole over Broadway for at least 35 years. The FFRF first began campaigning against it in 2011, saying it was hung without the proper permits.

Johnson said the town only requires permits for flying banners over borough roads, and that because Broadway sits along County Route 553, officials would not ask for a sign permit from any of the various organizations that hang banners in that spot throughout the year. Furthermore, he said, he considered the banner a reflection of his town's Christian roots as a Methodist summer retreat.

The FFRF had planned to outdo itself this Christmas by taking out three billboards in town. In addition to a reprise of last year's Saturnalia sign, the group wanted to add another billboard depicting a wrapped gift alongside the words "Heathen's Greetings" and a third showing St. Nick himself over the phrase "Yes Virginia, there is no God."

Just before Thanksgiving, however, representatives from Clear Channel, which owns all three billboards, said they wouldn't rent the space to FFRF because of last year's repeated attempts to destroy the sign.

In December 2013, an off-duty police officer at a restaurant across the street from the ad spotted two men trying to set it on fire, just a few days after law enforcement stopped a family with an extension ladder from pasting a picture of the Nativity over the Saturn image. The two men who tried to torch the sign were never apprehended.

Andrew Seidel, an attorney with the FFRF, criticized the move.

"The most disappointing thing about it is that it rewards illegal behavior. The people who tried to burn down that billboard now feel justified," he said. "What they're doing is saying if you damage billboards you disagree with, they won't put them up anymore. It's a sad example of people thinking the rights of the non-religious matter less, except this time instead of a town government, it's a corporation."

Barbara Bridge, a vice president of public affairs at Clear Channel, declined to comment directly on the Pitman billboards, but confirmed that the company had pulled the plug on FFRF's ads. She also said Clear Channel had stopped putting posting on billboards in other situations, such as incidences of repeated vandalism.

"I can say that when people graffiti our signs a thousand times we tend to take them down," Bridge said. "It's not cost effective."

Seidel said FFRF did not "consider the issue dead," and expressed frustration that Clear Channel hadn't alerted the foundation to its decision sooner.

"One frustrating thing is they knew about this all year long," he said of the company. "We could've taken a different approach, like a newspaper ad or a spot on TV, if we had known. We're not going to halt until Pitman stops giving Christians preferential treatment."

Johnson, meanwhile, said the downtown banner represented the "spirit of Pitman."

"That's what it was for 40 years before this happened," he said. "And I hope that's what it is for another 40 years."

Andy Polhamus may be reached at apolhamus@southjerseymedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ajpolhamus. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.