Ricky Davis 6/15/26 Ricky Davis 6/15/26

Religious Sign Series - Springfield, TN find…

Bizarre religious signs, anti abortion, pro life, southern gothic, cross, springfield tennessee — Sign found in Springfield, TN - Photograph taken by photographer Ricky Davis of TRD Photography on Kodak Tri X Film

As I’ve posted about previously I’ve been working on a religious sign series since last year. I stop at various signs I come across while traveling and take the photos in hopes that stopping and looking at how some of these come across, we think about the way we go about things.

I can’t remember if I took this shot early this year or late last year. I was up in Nashville and was out exploring. I was eating at Taco John’s in White House, TN and saw some signs about some antique stores in Springfield, TN, so I decided to go check them out. As I was driving over there I drove past a church that had this giant cross and signs about abortion out front. To be honest it kind of shocked me. Just the wording and terminology used. I had cars behind me and wasn’t able to pull over then and I wanted to kind of digest it a little bit to be honest. I took the photo on the way back from Springfield. As I did, apparently the church had a school or day care and I was being passed by carloads of young kids and families as I was taking this photo.

This sign I’ve been wondering ever since what to say about it. It’s not the typical bizarre religious sign. It’s definitely not one of the funny ones that makes you roll your eyes. A little about me, I grew up in a strict religious GOP home. As a kid I constantly heard religious radio talk show hosts talking about the horrors of abortion and it being made that basically people are out having unprotected sex and then just using abortions to get rid of the results of their behavior. Do I personally like the idea of babies being aborted? I don’t because I believe life is valuable HOWEVER abortion is way more complex than what is brainwashed in the Christian republican community. There is so many aspects of women’s health, rape, incest, and other issues that come into play. It’s very rarely I believe used as just a “get out of a kid free card” that we were taught to believe.

This sign really bothers me because I think of the women who pass it and may have had an abortion at one time. It already takes a mental toll and I know people whom have felt so ashamed because of what they are taught in Christian churches. Using such language as executed and such and then later seeing that many kids pass by this everyday. It just kind of hit me. I think it’s so incredibly important to think about the way we affect people with our words.

Ricky Davis 4/26/26 Ricky Davis 4/26/26

The Cross Garden - No Ice Water in Hell…

The Cross Garden - Prattville, Alabama. Photos by Ricky Davis of TRD Photography - Kodak Tri X Film Photography

As I travel a decent bit, I love keeping an eye out sites like Roadside America. Early this year I saw an article pop up somewhere about The Cross Garden in Prattville, Alabama. It caught my eye as I’ve been working on a series of photographs since last summer covering different religious based signs in the South and beyond.

The history of The Cross Garden is quite fascinating. I read a couple articles about it on Roadside America as well as some other sites that actually got to talk with W.C. Rice, who built this amazing site. Mr. Rice has since passed and it’s been upkept by his family. After my visit, I was contacted by a family friend who lives on the property and had seen my TikTok clip from taking photos. I enjoyed getting to talk with her a lot and she shared with me some more information.

Since Roadside America has their article with their interview with Mr. Rice, I’m going to share some of what I discussed in messages with the family friend who reached out. She told me that as a child, Mr. Rice and her granddaddy were family friends and she remembers listening to their conversations. “Mr. Rice was very well-read and quite intelligent.” She stated their are a lot of odd rumors about why he started The Cross Garden but it truly was built as an expression of his faith and a conversation started to witness to others.

So one of the things that struck me the most about The Cross Garden is the dedication to ones faith that one must have to undertake a project like this. Whether you agree with the sentiment or not, this was done by someone who truly believes and is trying to practice what they preach. It’s easy to put up a billboard sign on the road but never have to answer for the message in your personal life, but building something like this at your home and then being willing to talk and discuss things with people who visited, it’s definitely something that someone was following what they believed and I find that commendable. I was told that back in the 70’s and 80’s in the early stages of The Cross Garden, the visitors and interactions were quite memorable.

According to Roadside America, Mr. Rice passed away in 2004. When I found the place it was a lot smaller than what I had seen online from the past. The family friend I was talking with told me it has had a lot of vandalism issues, so it’s not to where it used to be.

As a photographer who enjoys traveling around America, the South in particular, I feel blessed to have gotten to visit and take these photos. I wish that I’d been able to to see more of the site, but there were some no trespassing signs up now, so I worked to stay basically from the road taking photos where I saw the signs. I always try to be respectful of things like that, especially with this being a private residence.

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