BROOKVILLE, Ind. – Franklin County officials will fight the federal lawsuit filed last week over a Nativity scene that’s been displayed on county property for five decades.
County officials agreed the privately owned display will come down on Friday, one day after Christmas, but that doesn’t mean the county isn’t contesting the lawsuit, commissioners said Monday.
The manger scene, which depicts the birth of Jesus Christ, will be dismantled by those who erected it, a loosely organized group known as Aroma’s Breakfast Club.
The suit filed last week by Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation alleges the Nativity scene on the courthouse lawn demonstrates the county endorses Christianity over other religions, which violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
FFRF is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. The nonprofit Thomas More Society is representing Franklin County.
The breakfast group has an “absolute right” to exercise free speech, county attorney John Worth said at Monday’s commissioners meeting.
Read more here
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
4 comments:
The current kerfuffle over the nativity scene being displayed in Brookville centers on the question of whether citizens have the right to religious expression on public property.
Those who oppose such a display allege that the US Constitution demands a 'separation of church and state', and that such displays and religious content are illegal, unlawful, etc .
But let me repeat what the first amendment to the Constitution actually says:
"CONGRESS shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech..."
No one (certainly not Congress) is making a law establishing a religion by portraying the birth of Jesus as we observe the holiday that celebrates His birth. This display is placed and maintained by private individuals on land for which their taxes have paid.
There is some abridgment of the freedom of speech of private individuals, however, as well as a prohibition of free exercise of religion, which are violations of those individuals' civil rights. The Constitution does NOT limit those freedoms to private property.
"Separation of church and state" doesn't appear in the quote above, nor anywhere else in the Constitution. It was a statement of OPINION made by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802 which certainly doesn't have the force of law.
When Jefferson expressed that opinion, it was to comfort them and underscore the fact that that the government was PROHIBITED from interfering in their religious lives.
The US Constitution does not give atheists a veto over religious expression. To say that it does perverts the very essence of the First Amendment. It is written in plain English and needs no interpretation (or 'translation' as one opponent said).
Besides, if God isn't real and Jesus isn't His Son, then those figures on the courthouse lawn are just some nicely-painted little statues, aren't they? Nobody should be offended by that.
It would seem that this battle is more about eliminating public expressions of faith, rather than this contrived Constitutional issue.
But the militant atheists (and their hordes of lawyers) need to know that this conflict is a spiritual one, and goes to the very core of what this country is all about.
I don't think God will wait too much longer before He weighs in on this issue.
Hang in there, Brookville!
Stand your ground!
You're fighting for ALL our rights.
To 12:49 it finally nice to see someone else who understands the simple language of the constitution! What these morons don't understand is the reason nor the history behind the " no law establishing a religon comes from the formation of The Church Of England where every citizen was forced to join and pay taxes to!
Public property is not Christian property. If you put up a nativity scene one could demand a antichristian display in the same exact spot yours is.
Or hell, what if all 300 million Americans wanted their own religious display in that same exact spot?
Post a Comment