Saturday, November 24, 2012

NATIVITY SCENES ON PUBLIC PROPERTY: Not so fast...




































































Glad to see that the War on Christmas has begun in earnest; seems to be getting bigger and better every year.

 In the past, there was really no war on Christmas and many people of all religions celebrated this time of year as they saw fit after all the Winter Solstice is a “natural” and “earthly” occurrence to be celebrated by all of mankind.

But Christians have always tried to claim the “holiday” for themselves as they have tried to claim the whole country for themselves and felt a right or even an obligation to cram their version of the December celebration down our throats.

I am referring to the issue of placing Nativity Scenes on public property. Let me make this point clear; there are absolutely no restrictions on exhibiting Nativity Scenes on your own property or property held by individuals that give permission for the Nativity Scene to be displayed on their property.

What our Constitution says about the separation of Church and State is that our government cannot endorse one religion over another and if Nativity Scenes are permitted on government (taxpayer’s) property, it is tantamount to promoting a specific religion; Christianity.

But many small towns have had a Christmas tradition where they would allow Christian Christmas displays on public land such as city halls, town libraries, court houses and other tax payer supported governmental institutions…why not be satisfied displaying religious symbols on church property?

Anyway, this year AMERICAN AETHEISTS are using a different tactic than just objecting to the unconstitutionality of such displays; they have mounted their own displays, in some cases, right next to the Christian displays…why not!

This all started in Santa Monica, CA where an atheist group put up a simple sign right next to a Nativity display that quoted Thomas Jefferson saying “Religions are all alike – founded on fables and mythologies” so much for the Christianity of our Founding Fathers and on the other side “Happy Solstice”.

The principle here is simple, practice your religion on private land do not use public land that belongs to all, even non-religious folks and if you persist, they will too.

I love some of the “imaginative” anti-religion displays being erected.

As for our family, we will have a Nativity Scene under our Christmas tree as always…its tradition.



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