ICC Note: While groups like the Wisconsin based Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) routinely threaten legal action in an attempt to force all displays of faith from public property, some towns in the U.S. are finding creative ways to push back. The city of Jay, Florida, declared a public nativity scene “surplus property” and transferred ownership to a ministerial association, which promptly placed the display at one of the towns main intersections. As one representative of the American Pastors Network points out: “FFRF would do well to remember that Jefferson himself attended congressionally approved church services held in the U.S. Capitol building itself—the seat of American government. The truth remains that public displays of the nativity scene on government property in no way violate the Constitution. FFRF’s attempts to stifle religious liberty, however, do.”
12/15/2014 United States (Charisma) – The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is at it again, attempting to force two American towns to remove their nativity scenes from near government buildings. But Jay, Florida, and Brookville, Indiana, have no intention of removing the real meaning of Christmas from public display. Instead, the city of Jay declared the nativity scene as surplus property, which was then acquired by the Santa Rosa County Ministerial Association. It now stands at a busy corner at the town’s main stop light—ironic, say nativity supporters, because many more people will see it there.
Brookville is going a step further and ignoring FFRF’s letters and instead rallying around its nativity. The town even planned a candlelight walk for this past Saturday as a show of support.
American Pastors Network says FFRF’s actions are a direct attack not simply on religion but on religious liberty in America. “Anyone who actually takes time to study our nation’s history and read the writings of our founders—not the interpretations of those writings written 200 years later—knows that religious liberty and the acknowledgement of Almighty God as the source of that liberty are the bulwark of our nation,” said APN President Sam Rohrer. “Threats like these against towns that want to display nativities are a blatant attack on our God-given and constitutionally protected freedoms.
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