Tag: Nativity scene

December 22, 2016
image of A satanic pentagram erected by atheist Preston Smith lies damaged in Boca Raton's Sanborn Square, Fla. on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016
A satanic pentagram erected by atheist Preston Smith lies damaged in Boca Raton’s Sanborn Square, Fla. on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016

Every Holiday season is the same thing. We are told by conservatives that there is a ‘war on Christmas’ where saying ‘Merry Christmas’ isn’t allowed and public schools aren’t allowed to sing religious Christmas songs and how this will destroy our world… yadda yadda. The ‘war’ is poppycock but why is it that atheist or freethought holiday displays seem to be the only ones vandalized during the season? If there is a ‘war’, it is on inclusion not Christmas.

December 23, 2015
image of FFRF Display that scared Texas Gov. Abbott
FFRF Display that scared Gov. Abbott

It didn’t take long for Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a radical Christian, to subjectively decide what is covered under the 1st amendment and what isn’t. He had a display from the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) removed from the capitol building after arbitrarily deciding it didn’t meet the criteria for putting up displays in the building.

December 17, 2015
screencap of Another Texas city endorsed Nativity scene in 2014
Another Texas city endorsed Nativity scene in 2014

Most Christmas seasons I’ve written blog posts about some religious freedom legal case involving a local or state government preference for Christianity during the holiday. Why haven’t I written many posts on it this year? I get sick of repeating myself and it seems like after each case, each year, we go back to square one somewhere else the next year. I needed a post this month so here are a couple of examples that show why some religious conservatives refuse to understand the first amendment.

December 5, 2012
created image of a park with a canceled sign for a Nativity scene and Jesus saying he quit

December isn’t the Christmas season – it’s the ‘War on Christmas’ season. It’s the time when the religious right and their propaganda machine called FOX “news” whine and complain if they aren’t allowed to shove their religion down your throat through the use of a diorama of the fictional birth of the savior of said religion based in a public spot like a park or a court house. Listening to the religious right one would assume God would quit if he didn’t see said dioramas in said park. Yeah, right?

January 19, 2012
screencap from a newsreport

I was doing some “spring” cleaning by finally digitizing some old VHS tapes I had. These contained TV show clips and news stories I saved over the years. One of the news stories was about a controversy over a Nativity scene in Lancaster Ohio back in 1999. I wrote about it for my website back then but had no way of embedding a video clip. I watched it again and found a perfect example of Christian privilege and persecution complex in the space of a short 15 second comment from someone interviewed by the reporter. I now have a short clip I can show people who don’t know what Christian privilege is or don’t understand their expressed irrational persecution complex.