Baby Jesus Back By Popular Demand In West Virginia
Hat tip: Don Surber via Daily Mail
Baby Jesus now appears in a manger scene at the St. Albans Festival of Lights.
He was added over the weekend at the request of the St. Albans mayor.“We do have a baby Jesus there,” Mayor Dick Callaway said. “Since this has become a focal issue, we put a baby Jesus in there.”
An article in Thursday’s Daily Mail reported visitors every year ask why there is no baby Jesus in what looks remarkably like depictions of the night Christ was born. There is a star, a couple of sheep, some camels and a structure that could be taken for the barn where Mary and Joseph had the baby.
Public outcry over the missing Jesus has been loud since then. The controversy found its way Monday night onto the national stage, when talk show host Jay Leno quipped about the lacking manger scene during his monologue on the Tonight Show.
David Cunningham, superintendent of St. Albans City Park, had said legal counsel advised a religious display could be a violation of separation of church and state.
Callaway said he was unaware of the details of the absence of a baby Jesus during previous years.
“I have been in office since July,” he said. “You would have to ask previous administrations.”
The mayor said he contacted Cunningham and asked him to add a baby Jesus to this year’s display. A crew of seven, including Cunningham, builds new displays and repairs old ones. Displays are hand drawn and then created in steel.
It remains to be seen whether Mary, Joseph and wise men will be added.
Why was Baby Jesus missing in the first place?
Cunningham has said officials avoided a nativity scene over the years in order to avoid complaints from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Thats the reason why a lot of places are so afraid to celebrate the real reason for the season. Quite sad.
Festival organizers feared that someone would sue. But the display is one of 350 seasonal items at the festival. That’s permissible.
People get all uptight about the ACLU. Of course, St. Albans High lost a lawsuit on a graduation prayer. So I can see where the city was spooked.
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Posted by Jay on December 5, 2006 9:12 pm
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3 Responses to “Baby Jesus Back By Popular Demand In West Virginia”
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Any word from the ACLU?
No.
Andrew Schneider, executive director of the state affiliate of ACLU, was not in his office to comment as to whether the organization would object to a nativity scene in a park run by the city.
Sorry, I should have read that.
Can you do a follow-up next week?