We’ve all heard the Bible story of Jesus’ birth. There was no room at the inns in Bethlehem, so the baby was born in a stable.
As it turns out, there will not be any room for baby Jesus and a nativity scene in Lincoln, Nebraska, thanks to the quick thinking of a coalition of atheist and humanist groups in Nebraska.
Instead, there will be an 8ft “happy humanist” figure right next to a “reason tree” which is dedicated to science and “human intellectual achievement.”
Last summer, the atheist/humanist coalition booked all of the available space in Lincoln in order to keep the usual Christmas displays from being erected around the state capitol.
Chris Clements of Lincoln Atheists commented on what his group wanted to accomplish:
“It’s going to be a big shindig. Our message is that it’s a secular government and religion has to stay separate from that. And it’s meant to communicate that atheists are not bad people – we can be good without God.”
There is a main exhibit which features a table holding a miniature church, a miniature mosque, and symbols from other religions including Judaism and Buddhism all separated from a miniature White House, Statue of Liberty. and US Capitol by a model wall. It is meant to serve as a reminder that separation of church and state is clearly identified in the First Amendment. Not just freedom of religion, but also freedom from religion, which has been known to really tick off some Christians.
Christine Delgado, an attorney with the Thomas More Society, said her group would love to have put up a Christian exhibit for the week of Christmas, but the venue was already booked:
“We would have liked to have been there over Christmas But it really doesn’t matter what week it is.
“It would have been nice. There are four corners and if it would have been up to us we would have reserved one corner and left the other three open to anyone else. We are not particularly pleased, but we’re not upset.”
As a Christian myself, I have never seen why there needs to be Christian symbols all over government property during the Holiday season. We all know what Christmas is about, don’t we? Do we need that to be reinforced?
And besides, in today’s America, what is Christmas really about anyway? Answer: Rampant consumerism and an attempt to goose the economy at the end of the calendar year. Maybe we should just put up a huge display of a pile of money and worship that instead.
