Constitutional Law

Ind. county under fire for Nativity scene

By By The Associated Press

BROOKVILLE, Ind. ? A county commissioner from eastern Indiana says a Nativity scene that's been erected on the courthouse lawn each year for more than a half-century will remain on display despite a challenge from a group that advocates separation of church and state.

Franklin County Commissioner Tom Wilson said Dec. 17 that the county had received two complaints about the scene depicting Jesus' birth from the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation. The group says the scene beneath a flagpole in front of the county courthouse violates the First Amendment.

"If this was on private property, fine. But when this is in a government setting with a flagpole it seems to be tying being a good American citizen with being a Christian, and that is making outsiders of non-Christians in your community," foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor told WXIX-TV in Cincinnati.

Wilson said the county planned to keep the Nativity scene on display through the holiday season and wouldn't remove it unless ordered to do so by a court. He said the manger scene that local firefighters set up each year is a tradition in the city of Brookville, about 60 miles southeast of Indianapolis, that reflects the predominantly Christian faith of the county's residents.

"It's a big thing around here. We're in the Midwest, part of the Bible Belt, and around here everyone has good Christian values. We're not trying to push our religion on anybody," he said.

By legal precedent the Nativity cannot be the focus of the display, Gaylor said.

After the foundation filed its first complaint, Wilson said a local nursery donated a pine tree that's been decorated as a Christmas tree to make the display more secular. He said the county was willing to go further by adding a Santa Claus and additional holiday lights on a larger pine tree on the courthouse lawn.

Local resident Pam Henson said Christians have the same freedoms as non-Christians.

"This is our right, this is our season. These people who don't want to celebrate or don't want us to put out these symbols of Christianity don't have a problem with taking paid holidays," she told WXIX.

Wilson said the county's residents shouldn't have to be beholden to a minority that wants them to end a longtime practice.

"I just think that we've got one percent of the population or less trying to tell 99 percent what to believe and what to do and what our values are," he said. "The people own that courtyard, they've paid for it with taxes. They maintain it with taxes. It's theirs."

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on December 19, 2010 (boomark / email).