War on Christmas Rages in Indiana

[rug]

Knightstown, Indiana from the air, looking southwest. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

December 10, 2016
Posted by Jack Vance

The small town of Knightstown, Indiana is facing a church-state lawsuit because the city-sponsored Christmas tree has a cross atop it. This is a church-state issue because governments are not supposed to promote religion or give preferential treatment to one religion over others. Of course, this suit will be heralded as the latest example of the fictional war on Christmas that Fox News uses every year to raise money for various conservative causes.

Nobody will stop to think about how the plaintiff in this case is not objecting to the city having a Christmas tree and paying for it with public funds. Nobody will bother to note that he isn't telling anyone that they cannot celebrate Christmas as they see fit. The only thing he's objecting to is the use of a cross at the top of the government's tree. And all he's doing is attempting to ensure that his local government follows the law.

It really doesn't matter that the city has had a cross on top of the tree before. It also doesn't matter that the person named in the lawsuit appears to be on his own with no support from his neighbors, aside from the ACLU who filed on his behalf. What matters is that the city has chosen to decorate their Christmas tree with a cross and that someone finally objected.

From Fox 59:

The suit alleges that the Latin cross “is the preeminent symbol of Christianity, representing the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus.” So if the display is religious, the suit argues, it has no business on town property.

http://www.atheistrev.com/2016/12/war-on-christmas-rages-in-indiana.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AtheistRevolution+%28Atheist+Revolution%29

On a side note, Hoosiers was filmed in the old Knightstown High School gym.

[mrs_p]

1. Besides the obvious need to

Separate church from state, a cross on the top of the tree seems a little tacky IMHO.

[rurallib]

2. here is wish for the plaintiff to win

I could probably pray for it, but a wish is just as solid.

[J_William_Ryan]

3. The issue will come down to

how a court interprets Allegheny County, where the City might argue that because the cross is on top of a tree, a secular symbol, the religious message is mitigated, and not in violation of the First Amendment.

But clearly such an argument would be made in bad faith, the cross is obviously the dominant symbol of the display, as government is unlawfully promoting a single religion – Christianity – in violation of the Establishment Clause.

[rug]

4. Welcome to DU!

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/492/573/case.html

[okasha]

5. It has never occurred to me,

or to the best of my knowledge, to anyone I know, to put a cross on top of a Christmas tree. WTF?

[rug]

6. I never heard of it either.

[rug]

7. UPDATE!

The Cross At the Center Of A Lawsuit Back on Display



ACLU agreed with Knightstown officials on putting the cross on different part of the tree

http://www.wibc.com/news/local-news/cross-center-lawsuit-back-display

[Angry Dragon]

8. Some speculate that the cross was really an X

[rug]

9. Jehovah's Witnesses say it was a stake.

The Romans were inventive in how they killed people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion