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Charleston Firehouse Ordered to Remove Nativity Scene
CHARLESTON, S.C. - A fire department in South Carolina has removed a nativity display from a station after getting a complaint.
The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Monday that the nativity scene was removed from Charleston's Fire Station 12 after the complaint that the display supports Christianity.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter dated Dec. 17 to Mayor Joe Riley and Fire Chief Thomas Carr asking that the display be removed. The letter says a local resident complained.
The complaint was referred to the city's legal department, which recommended the scene be removed, citing U.S. Supreme Court rulings against promoting one religion over another.
A number of Charleston fire stations have Christmas decorations, but those include Santa Claus and holiday lights.
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Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.postandcourier.com
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Monday that the nativity scene was removed from Charleston's Fire Station 12 after the complaint that the display supports Christianity.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter dated Dec. 17 to Mayor Joe Riley and Fire Chief Thomas Carr asking that the display be removed. The letter says a local resident complained.
The complaint was referred to the city's legal department, which recommended the scene be removed, citing U.S. Supreme Court rulings against promoting one religion over another.
A number of Charleston fire stations have Christmas decorations, but those include Santa Claus and holiday lights.
___
Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.postandcourier.com
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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Ben,
Unless it's been changed I believe it's white with blue and the star of david in the center. What did I win?
See also the flags of ethiopia and morocco, they two both have the solomonic seal aka the star of david.
Sweden, norway, iceland, finland, switzerland, denmark, greece and great britain all have a cross on them (as well as others). I believe essentially every muslim country has some symbol (crescent moon/star), color (green) or words (allah) all religious in nature.
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Come to think of it, there is no religious significance whatsoever on the stars and stripes. whoda thunk.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Jack, my point was that the Star of David on Israel's flag should tell you exactly how they feel about persecution.
Co-incidentally, it gives a pretty good hint about how they feel about defending their citizens from persecution.
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Jack, The relevance is that I am questioning the relevance of some of your aguments. I pointed out that some of what you've posted in arguing against one or two particular religions and their member's perception of their god is an arbitrary and artificially narrow construct.
The fact that you widened one of those constructs even more (with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki references) kind of proves the point.
How many wars were started by men who felt God told them - Biblically or not - to start said war versus one that someone started for purely selfish or non-religious ideological reasons? Lots of them. Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War was one example. Those warm, fuzzy radicals that started the French Civil War, for another. After all, it wasn't a god that fought any of the wars under discussion, whether it was the God that told David to fight Goliath and the Philistines, the one that told Abraham Lincoln to fight a war to end slavery, or the one that seems to have been uninvolved in Robispierre (sp) and his buddies starting "Off with their heads" or Hitler deciding that Europe should receive an ethnic cleansing.
You have said more than once here that the issue is about religious displays on public property. Crosses and Stars of David in national cemetaries are religious displays on public property. Either it's OK, or it isn't. Which is it?
As for "ratcheting up", I'll respectfully ask you to look at the volume and tone of your posts on the subject compared to mine.
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Permalink Reply by Christopher Lee Melton on
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i see what you are saying and i agree!
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makes sense! be safe
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you hit the nail right on the head! be safe
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Jack, There's another side to this - if religious displays on public property are excluded, then isn't technically the government getting into the prohibition of "the free excercise" of religion?
In other words, the display isn't promoting one religion over another, it's allowing the firefighters free expression on public property. If we stop that free expression, doesn't that open the door to prohibiting civil rights groups from excercising their other Constitutional freedoms on public property, or alternate lifestyle/gay marriage proponents carrying signs with the "free exercise" of their views, etc?
Nothing in a Merry Christmas sign or a creche interferes with anyone else's freedom of religion. If a firefighter from another religion wants to put up a crescent moon a menorah, or whatever, then shouldn't they be allowed to do that as well.
Prohibition of one can be construed as a prohibition of all.
Prohibitions are an interference with "the free exercise" of rights by definition.
Do you see the relevance now?
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merry christmas! stay safe beverly.
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mike! silent night has alot of meaning im shocked to hear that happened! merry christmas and be safe!
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Permalink Reply by George on
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there ought to be a public out cry, one person complains and its taken down!!!!! Will they put it back up if there are more complain that it was taken down. The world is getting to be silly over these things now.
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george you are right as rain! it is silly. stay safe
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