Gig Harbor won't have nativity display after letter from freethought group

File photo

Baby Jesus won’t be lying in a manger next to Gig Harbor’s holiday tree this year.

Officials blocked residents from putting up a display in a park after getting a letter from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, which claims to be the largest “free-thought association in North America." That prompted a small protest in the city of 7,000 people this week from residents who wanted a Nativity scene, according to the Associated Press.

The Tacoma News Tribune writes that the city chose not to challenge the legal action threatened by the Freedom From Religion Foundation this year because of special circumstances, but city leaders believe the display is allowed because it is free speech in a public forum, said City Administrator Ron Williams.

Gig Harbor’s display isn’t put up by the city; it’s created by resident John Skansie, who has been allowed to put it on city property for nearly a decade.

"Putting a Nativity in a public park is a healthy thing," <a href="http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article119820068.html">Skansie told The Tacoma News Tribune</a>. "It's a great thing to do. It is part of what Christmas is."

The City of Gig Harbor wrote on its Facebook page that it will hold a public hearing on the placement of holiday objects next year.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation argues that allowing the Nativity scene in the park would make it a government-sponsored display.

"We don't think religion or irreligion should be on public property," <a href="http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article119820068.html">said foundation co-founder and co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor.</a>

She told The Tacoma News Tribune a Nativity scene belongs on private of church property.

The group also has its own version of a Nativity scene with Thomas Jefferson, Lady Liberty, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin standing around a manger holding the Bill of Rights. There's no indication that one may be placed in Gig Harbor.

Outside of the Northwest and across the country, annual disputes over displays celebrating the birth of Jesus on public land have pitted local residents against advocacy groups pushing separation of church and state.

In Franklin, Pennsylvania, a city of 6,500, councilors last month voted to keep a decades-old Nativity scene in a city park after receiving an email from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Franklin's city councilors consulted lawyers and resolved the issue by agreeing to allow other secular Christmas decorations in the park.

Supporters and opponents of the Nativity scenes agree that municipalities are fighting harder to protect the displays.

"We are seeing more municipalities digging in after learning about their rights," said Mat Staver, who heads the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which offers the municipalities advice to protect them and volunteered free legal help for Franklin, Pennsylvania.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said more cities and towns simply ignore complaints that placing Christian art on public property violates the U.S. Constitution.

In recent years, conservative Christians have vocally complained about the secularization of Christmas, said Andrew Chesnut, the Bishop Walter F. Sullivan Chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.

"We also are seeing a rural and city divide where rural areas are facing less resistance (to Nativity scenes) while there is more conflict in cities, which are more diverse," Chesnut said.

Gaylor said some cities and towns are getting around the conflict by setting up public spaces where volunteers can erect Nativity scenes along with secular Christmas displays.

"But we don't think putting a couple of reindeer up near a Nativity scene solves the problem," Gaylor said.

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