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Annual holiday season battle begins over nativity scenes

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With the holiday season fast approaching, government officials are girding their loins for the annual battle over what displays will be permitted on public property.

Commissioners in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, showed little enthusiasm on Monday for entering the fray, in an interview with WLFI. The station asked County Commissioners President Tom Murtaugh whether Tippecanoe County would attempt to put a nativity on the courthouse lawn, in light of a federal judge’s recent dismissal of a lawsuit over a nativity scene outside the courthouse in Franklin County, Indiana.

“Whether you agree with the nativity scene on government grounds or not, we all know what the result is going to be, and that’s going to be a lawsuit,” said Murtaugh.

A 1999 ordinance that bans religious displays and requires county approval works well, he said. Amending it to mirror the ordinance approved by Franklin County, which allows displays regardless of viewpoint, might permit “something that could be very offensive to children or to citizens in general.”

Also “totally acceptable” is the nativity scene local citizen Jack Ruckel has for the past 16 years displayed outside the courthouse, on the bed of his pickup truck, Murtaugh said. “Because he displays the nativity scene on the back of his truck, and parks it on a public street. And you know as long as he’s not causing any traffic issues or anything like that, he’s not violating any ordinance whatsoever.”

An Associated Press article last year includes a photo of the pickup bed display.

Meanwhile, officials in Baxter County, Arkansas, are awaiting a federal court’s ruling in a courthouse nativity scene case, the Associated Press reports. (An earlier Baxter Bulletin story outlines the legal arguments.) According to the Bulletin, in past years a county judge had denied requests for a menorah and solstice banners to be placed on courthouse property.

Also in Indiana, a federal lawsuit was filed last month in South Bend by civil rights groups over an annual holiday show that has been taking place for many years at Concord High School. It features a live nativity scene as part of its program. The suit says student “Jack Doe” objects to performing religious songs included in the show, the Washington Post (reg. req.) reports. The complaint can be found on Scribd.

“The whole family really does enjoy the winter concert,” staff attorney Sam Grover of Freedom From Religion Foundation told the Post. “They just don’t want to be a part of the Nativity portion. They don’t want to be in a Christian propitiation of what should be a community event.”

Superintendent John Trout said at a Concord Community Schools board meeting before the suit was filed that students are not required to participate in the Christmas Spectacular show, reports the Elkhart Truth.

“As always, if a student or parent finds objectionable any portion of the Spectacular, or any school assignment for that matter, that student is free to opt out of the performance or assignment,” he said.

Related coverage:

ABAJournal.com: “‘Tis the season for lawsuits over holiday displays”

ABAJournal.com: “9th Circuit OKs city’s ban on holiday displays, says ‘heckler’s veto’ doctrine doesn’t apply”