Christmas is Over, But Public Display Battles Rage On
Usually the “Christmas Wars” die down quickly once the calendar hits December 26th, but this time around religious minorities (and various Church-State organizations) aren’t going gently into that good night. In Green Bay, where a controversial Nativity display was at first announced to be interfaith, but then restricted to a solely Christian display, a lawsuit has been filed.
“The Nativity scene at Green Bay City Hall will come down today, but the controversy it created won’t go away anytime soon. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Madison-based group that advocates for the separation of church and state, and 12 Green Bay residents moved to file a lawsuit Monday challenging the display on the roof of a City Hall entrance. The lawsuit claims the display depicting the birth of Jesus is an unconstitutional governmental endorsement of religion. It claims City Council President Chad Fradette and Mayor Jim Schmitt allowed the display to provoke and marginalize those who would object.”
The charge of provocation is easily proven, since Fradette went on record as saying the Nativity display was meant to start a fight.
“I’m trying to take this fight to the people who need to be fought. I’ll keep going on this until this group imposing Madison values crawls back into its hole and never crawls out.”
Also damning to Green Bay’s City Council is the revocation of an interfaith display (while leaving the Nativity up), including the refusal to restore a vandalized wreath donated by Wisconsin Wiccan organization Circle Sanctuary. Mayor Jim Schmitt later claimed he had no idea Wicca meant Witchcraft and that such a display wouldn’t be appropriate near a Nativity. The situation has become so heated that some are suggesting drastic measures.
“Only Christians should be obliged to pay taxes in Green Bay as the ignorant bigots running that city appear to represent them and only them. Perhaps non-Christians in Green Bay should go on a taxpayers strike!”
But instead of a taxpayers strike, perhaps groups in Green Bay might want to pay attention to what is happening in Ohio, where a similar set of circumstances have transpired.
“Zoroastrians and pagans, both claiming roles for their faiths in the Christmas tradition, won’t stop fighting to have their nontraditional holiday displays placed alongside nativity scenes in Ohio state parks. Efforts by both have so far been rejected by the administration of Gov. Ted Strickland, an ordained Methodist minister, who recently ordered Christian creches placed back in two state parks that had disallowed them due to religious concerns.”
But instead of localizing the battle to the Winter festivals, a local resident is preparing to take the fight over public displays of religion into the Spring.
“Tammy Miller was thwarted in her attempt this year to have the parks also display the “happy humanist” of the Humanists, whose philosophy favors human rationality and morality over belief in a higher power. She said she is now preparing a Wiccan pentagram, with help from Tarot card artist Robin Wood, that she wants to see displayed on the next pagan holiday, Imbolc, in February.”
Now that is some creative thinking! If these State and City governments want to “put Christ back into Christmas” so badly, let them, so long as they will allow us to put the Samhain back into Halloween. Flood representatives who insist on their “legal” Nativity displays to respect our need to see Pagan religions properly honored (legally of course) on the same property. Their refusals will only weaken whatever case they had for erecting Christian displays in December.
Legal pressures can be married with social pressures until these officials realize they don’t preside over a “Christian nation”. They are supposed to represent every religious manifestation (not to mention those who choose to not have a religious manifestation), not privilege a majority faith in order to score political points. Public displays must be open to all (Nativity + Menorah doesn’t equal diversity), or they shouldn’t happen at all. No doubt 2008 is going to be spent arguing this very question.
3 responses so far
When I was a kid during the ’60s, “interfaith” usually meant the Protestants were shaking hands with the Catholics. The more common term was “interdenominational.” It didn’t, as I recall, often include any other flavor of belief but variations on Christianity. I guess in some people’s minds that has never changed.
My family weren’t even churchgoing Christians, but still I grew up assuming everyone celebrated our generic and commercially promoted version of Christmas, until at around the age of 14 I asked a girl in school if she was looking forward to Christmas, and she explained that she was Jewish and celebrated Channukah. I really should’ve known better by then, because I was already aware that some of the kids at school were Jewish. But I had no idea what Channukah was, and on confronting my limited assumption, I found the revelation fascinating that not everyone was like my family or my churchgoing Catholic cousins in how they celebrated. That started me on a quest to learn about the vast variety of beliefs, a quest that hasn’t stopped since, and which I find rewarding every day.
It’s sad to think that 37 years after that eye-opening conversation, even with the internet, there are still people with such a narrow view of the world around them, and not only a narrow view but a stubborn, resistant, and even hostile one, when confronted with their narrow thinking. Apparently the Christians in Green Bay haven’t figured out that it’s much easier to look on such comeuppances as an opportunity to learn, and to embrace what they learn as well as befriend others in their community, than as an excuse to reject and fight. I also personally think, from what I’ve read of him, that it would make Jesus sad, and I wonder why people who follow him as their deity would want to persist in this ugly behavior for one minute longer than that in which they realize they’re being unfair and hateful, rather than loving as he taught. Green Bay Christians need a challenge to open up and include their neighbors.
So much for seperation of church and state. No wonder I get so depressed this time of year. I am truly disgusted at how our government officials have chosen to throw out or spit in the face of the constitution in order to serve their own religious war. Gag me with a smurf.
Just a passing comment:
I had my own blog open in another window as I read this, and I have a playlist on my blog.
The song that came on as I opened this window to read this entry was “Revolution” by the Beatles.
Something about it seemed totally apropos. It worked so beautifully.