PITMAN — A year after a dispute over Pitman's "Keep Christ in Christmas" banner led one group to call for its removal, a new banner is causing yet another controversy over religious freedom.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, the group objecting to the sign last year, claims that their request to put up their own sign, reading “Keep Saturn in Saturnalia,” was denied by borough officials over the holidays.

For years, a local chapter of the Knights of Columbus has hung a “Keep Christ in Christmas” banner over Broadway between a privately-owned building and a privately-owned utility pole in the heart of the downtown business district.

Saturnalia is described as an ancient Roman holiday that took place between Dec. 17 and Dec. 23 correlating with the winter solstice where regular rules of morality were disregarded as part of the festivities. Historic works recognize the holiday as a complete break from workday chores where citizens would often drink, gamble and dine with slaves.

According to the foundation’s staff attorney, Andrew Seidel, borough officials led them to a number of officials from both the borough and the county before passing an ordinance making it near impossible to put up their own or other signs. Seidel accuses the town of making the permit process unnecessarily restrictive for organizations looking to put up their own signs, while the Knights of Columbus is allowed to hang their banner without a permit.

“The borough passed a whole sign ordinance, which really restricts who can put up signs,” said Seidel. “From the beginning, the government has been trying to keep us out.”

Seidel said that he had gotten letters from a number of Pitman residents requesting some sort of action against the “Keep Christ in Christmas” sign and, when the town did not take it down last year, this ironic take on the winter holidays was their next step.

“They want the city to recognize their beliefs, or lack thereof if the city is going to recognize others’ Christian beliefs,” said Seidel. “To me, they’re clearly trying to keep our sign out and keep the Knights’ sign up.”

Last year, the organization stirred a small controversy after contacting borough Mayor Michael Batten requesting that the sign be moved to private property and claiming that it “unmistakably endorse[s] the Christian faith.” The banner was then determined to be a potential zoning violation by borough attorney Brian Duffield but, according to Seidel, officials have done nothing to challenge the fact that the Knights have still not obtained a permit.

Seidel said that the group is not done with the issue and intends to continue efforts to erect the Saturnalia sign “every year” until the issue is properly recognized by Pitman officials.

He has also filed an Open Public Records request with the town to obtain any and all documents relating to permission for the Knights to hang their banner, although he doesn’t expect to receive any type of official confirmation.

“It’s incredibly frustrating,” said Seidel. “There’s always options. If they’re going to allow their sign up, then our goal is to get our sign up.”

“This is a free speech and a discrimination issue,” added Seidel. “If you imagine they were doing this to a Jewish group, not letting them display a sign about Hanukkah, it would be discrimination.”

The borough’s zoning officer could not be reached by press time to respond to Seidel’s accusations.

Contact Phil Davis at pdavis@southjerseymedia.com



