Five thousand people on Saturday gathered around a nativity scene in Athens Texas but it wasn’t to worship. A pastor (perhaps many pastors) showed up too but not to preach a typical sermon.
The Freedom From Religion foundation (FFR), a non-profit Wisconsin based group has demanded that Athens Texas remove a nativity scene from the Henderson county courthouse lawn.
The display has been put up every year since 2001 by volunteers of the Keep Athens Beautiful project. Commissioners would not object to post other displays but no one has ever made a request.
Fox News 8 reported that the FFR would like to post a sign reading in part, “there are no gods, demons, angels or devils…religion only hardens the heart and enslaves the mind.”
“I just don’t understand it, to be honest with you,” said Henderson County Judge Richard Sanders. “I’m just confused about it.”
The community has not brought the request forward according to Sanders. The Wisconsin group called the display unconstitutional and demanded that it should be taken down.
The county commissioner disagreed. “I’m an old country boy, you come to my house looking for a fight, you’re going to get one. That’s from the bottom of my heart,” said Joe Hall.
Hall also promised, “We’ll remove it when hell freezes over. It’s not going to happen.”
At the Saturday gathering, Pastor Nathan Lorick told the crowd, “The eyes of Texas are upon us. It’s time for us to stand together and protect the very principles that made this nation great from its birth.”
“We’ve become so busy with our lives that we’ve forgotten our first love (Jesus),” he added.
Should the county remove the nativity scene?
What do you think?
Their “first love” for Jesus isn’t in defending the right of the State or of anyone for that matter to display a nativity crèche. I hope of course the pols in Athens stand by their right to have the crèche, but let’s not confuse a secular display of Jesus’ backbarn nativity with true devotion to Christ. Anyway–most nativity scenes are biblical inaccurate…do I see one of the wise Kings in the background there? He and his gang are two years off and they meet in a house. Additionally, the wise kings should look Chinese, or at least oriental. Can’t you see that the juxtaposition of encouraging “first love” for Christ and demanding the rights of a secular display that even gets the biblical account wrong is, well, wrong.
This is not my post, but I thought I would weigh-in. I find I partly agree, partly disagree with Chip here.
It is a cliche to observe that this is a complex issue. But there is no question that a kind of censorship has been driving religion from the public square (literally and figuratively) for years now and activists are using the courts to their full advantage in this endeavor. Now, when these tokens of religion (like a creche) are removed from our public places, there are both negative and positive results: On the negative side, it stifles free speech and short-circuits a kind of pre-evangelism (“Mom, what’s up with the baby in the hay-basket?”). On the positive side, we have less people that imagine they are Christians because of the presence of these cultural tokens. We also have less people who are “offended” – though being offended has become something of a cottage-industry in recent years.
By the way, this year in my region it is almost impossible to hear religiously-themed Christmas songs on the airwaves. (So would you like a white Christmas? And tell me again about the story of Rudolf!) We are censoring ourselves out of habit now.
As for the “biblically inaccurate” thing, I don’t have a problem with creches conflating elements from different gospels or telescoping together elements of Jesus’ infancy narratives that are actually a year or two apart. A creche is like a play that has been reduced to a single shot. No big deal to me.
Then make the telescoping setting a barn in the back of a house… If the image–the telescoping–takes away from the text and hinders original meaning, then…?
Second, I am all for free speech. That does add to the tension, but its the confusing persecution (so-called) and the “taking Jesus out” with defending simply free speech that concerns me….defend free speech (on public property?–we should have an occupy Christmas on the Public Square!), but stop sweating that people not liking religious symbols on public property…that’s all.