I was very disappointed after reading the article “Secular Opponents Of Holiday Displays Get Creative” that ran on NPR a few days ago, and not because I think that the other atheists are just “being mean.”

Sometimes we’re going to offend people just by saying we are atheists, so I think that trying to not offend anyone is not a realistic characteristic of successful activism. People are going to think that we’re jerks just for disagreeing, so it’s not that. When you make atheists look like a bunch of fourteen-year-old Redditors who have seen The Nightmare Before Christmas a few too many times, and are allowing for precious resources to be squandered on 24-hour surveillance of a skeleton in a Santa Claus suit, however, I am going to disagree absolutely.

Read the article linked above if you haven’t already. Notice that there are perfectly reasonable requests from secularists included in there.

“When the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) sought permission to put up its own holiday display alongside a Nativity scene outside the borough building in Ellwood City, Pa., hundreds gathered to protest, wielding homemade crosses and holding group prayers on the building’s steps.”

It is a great idea to require that holiday displays on government land include several types of celebrations. It is legally established, inclusive, and upholds the separation of church and state to assure that the government is not promoting any particular religion. FFRF is totally on the right track with this, and they have the image of being mature, reasonable adults.

How does someone look when they put a skeleton in a Santa Claus suit on a cross? Why is this even a question that I have to ask?

“There’s also something residents are calling the “Skele-Claus,” which, as the name suggests, is a skeleton dressed as Santa – that’s slung over a cross.”

Why? What does that even mean? Putting the Flying Spaghetti Monster in a manger makes more sense than putting up “Skele-Claus” on a cross because at least FSM is an established symbol of a religion that can be discussed and shared and even criticized in a clear way. But…I am just speechless on this Skele-Claus display. You seriously have to have something wrong with you to think that it is awesome, or funny, or helpful to secularism to enter this as a holiday display and then sit by while police spend time and money on making sure the display isn’t defaced or taken down. If the idea was just to mock the holiday, I’m pretty sure that any troglodyte could have come up with a more concise scene to criticize Christmas (I don’t know, the Nativity crew with iPads and baby Jesus in a Walmart shopping cart?) Instead, a policy that is supposed to allow for inclusion and diversity of thought is promoting childishness to such an extreme that a police presence is necessary to keep it intact. What an absolute waste.