The issue I’m going to raise in this post is from this past Christmas, but I think the fact that today (er, well, now that I’ve finally finished this, tomorrow was Easter) is Easter makes today an appropriate time to address this (or it could be because this blog didn’t exist at Christmas time and this fits perfectly with the blogswarm for the weekend).

In nearby Green Bay, WI, of Brett Favre fame, there was a small dust up this last Christmas season over a nativity scene. You guessed it, it was on government property. The city council president, Chad Fredette, had heard of a case in Peshtigo where a nativity scene was placed on government property and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) filed a lawsuit, as such a display has been ruled to be a violation of the first amendment guarantee of separation of church and state. Fredette wanted to give the Foundation someone a little larger than Peshtigo to pick on, so he went to his council and acquired the necessary permission to put up a nativity scene at the Green Bay City Hall. Residents were told that they could submit any sort of religious symbol and it would receive a slot next to the nativity scene at city hall. A Wiccan asked to put up a wreath with a pentagram and it was quickly vandalized and removed. Others clamored to place their own religious symbols, one man calling in and saying that he had a whole truckload of various symbols from different religions that he wanted to put up. The mayor put a moratorium on all displays other than Fredette’s nativity scene until the 26^th of December, and the FFRF quickly filed suit.

The point I want to make though is that none of these religious symbols should be allowed up at all. Church and state are supposed to remain separate, and that means that the state should not recognize any religion, not that it should recognize all of them. For one, there’s no way they could ever properly represent everyone’s beliefs, and secondly, it is simply not necessary. We are allowed to own private property in this country, and that’s where these things should be displayed. Chad Fredette can build a thirty foot cross on his front lawn and his neighbor can sacrifice a pig every Friday night and invite the whole town for all I care, but please keep it off government property. Why is it necessary for him to put this thing up at city hall? Does it make him less of a Christian if he doesn’t? The gospel of Matthew says:

When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

If that applies to praying, don’t you think it would even more obviously apply to nativity scenes too?

More than anything though, I think even if you look at it from the viewpoint of someone like Mr. Fredette, the advantages to him (whatever they may be, even though I can’t really see them) cannot possibly outweigh the dangers we run in allowing such displays to continue. (think Iran and Afganistan)

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