In 2013, the small town of Mountain Home, Ark., was the site of a small-time spat between the religious majority and nonreligious, as well as other-religious, minority.
There was a minor controversy about it then, with the usual lines being drawn. One side saying "include other religions and beliefs or don't allow any" and the other side saying "blargh, blargh, you're oppressing white Christians who are already facing great amounts of discrimination in the US, blargh, blargh!"
That situation ended in the threat of a lawsuit that didn't really go anywhere after that display was taken down in Jan. 2014.
So, in a move to keep Christmas on people's mind into January 2015, and probably February and beyond, the Baxter County government allowed a Nativity display -- which included Santa Claus (who I didn't realize was present at the birth of Jesus -- to be put on the County Courthouse grounds.
According to JT Eberhard, who runs the wwjtd? blog at Patheos.net, the county is now arguing that it's a "tourist attraction."
In a move that was hailed as a "Creative Way Gov't Officials Are Standing Up to Atheists" by the Blaze, the county put a disclaimer by the display. Of course, they ignore the part where other religious groups -- Jews, Pagans and Atheists -- are not allowed to put up displays on courthouse grounds.
Unsurprisingly, they got stuck with a serious lawsuit. But this time, it's one a citizen, with the help of the American Humanist Association, will be following through.
So, where will this go? There's no telling, but it seems that many of the commentors, as well as the county officials themselves, don't seem to understand that the case isn't about pushing religion from the public square, but that if they're going to allow religious displays on public properties, then they must include everyone.
Oklahoma and Florida learned their lesson about including everyone the hard way. When lawmakers in those states threw fits about how religious displays weren't allowed in those states.
Personally, I am not bothered by the "include everyone or allow no one" rule. If they could make the "include everyone" part work, I think it would make a lot of flavorless public spaces to be a bit more colorful. It would also allow nonChristian religions and nonreligous groups a chance to be less "foreign."
But you know, we live in a "my way or the highway" type of world.