“Is this, as you call it, a church?” a tourist asked Monday on the west side of Civic Center.

Nope, I answered, it’s city hall.

He, his wife and daughter looked at me blankly.

“Denver government,” I tried again.

And, again, no response.

The daughter translated in a language I couldn’t identify. There was chatter among family members until finally the man looked at me, incredulous.

“Thank you and goodbye,” he said curtly.

I blame this confusion on the baby Jesus — the plaster one on the city’s steps. The replica has been debated and litigated for decades, yet remains, stretched in his plaster hay, leaving foreign tourists wondering if the building is a Christian holy place.

Generations of columnists have used this space to ponder what’s up with the manger and the life-size figurines of the characters attending Jesus’s birth as described in the Gospels. How is this possible, the question goes, given the separation between church and state?

Generations of newspaper readers have responded by calling us godless idiots. Hands off our Christ Child, their messages go. Isn’t anything sacred?

The nativity scene has been part of the city’s holiday display since early last century.

“If it hadn’t been there for 85 years, I wouldn’t put it out there,” Mayor John Hickenlooper told me a year after taking office.

Now after 90 years and counting, Jesus is apparently here to stay.

“The display . . . is a holiday tradition in Denver, having survived numerous legal challenges over the years. Even mayors have been unsuccessful in changing the display,” reads a less than glowing statement by Hickenlooper’s office.

James Sprecher, 23, paid no attention to the religious figures while rushing out of city hall Monday after paying a fine.

“It doesn’t affect my life one way or the other,” he said.

Denverite Alisha Wetstine, 31, grew up visiting the manger at Christmastime, as did her mother. Her own 2- and 5-year-olds could take it or leave it, she said, “as long as they replaced it with something shiny.”

Wetstine, meantime, expressed concern that the baby’s looking sick.

“He’s skinnier than I remember him,” she said. “And sort of funny looking, actually.”

“It’s beautiful artistically and all,” added Willie Hayes, 51, a Denver paralegal. “But I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be here legally. A religious shrine has no business on city land.”

U.S. and Colorado Supreme Court rulings actually allow nativity scenes on government property if decorations also include figures such as a Santa Claus, reindeer and toy soldiers.

Those decisions have always mystified me — like telling your kids it’s OK to burp really loudly at the dinner table, as long as they fart too.

After those rulings, the city added a Hannukah menorah, presumably to appease Jews who were cranky about the crèche. The colorful candles are gone now, without official mention from the mayor.

As a card-carrying menorah lighter, I, for one, am comfortable with the apparent removal on the theory that less religion is usually more at city hall, which shouldn’t look like a synagogue, just as it shouldn’t a church.

Susan Greene writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-1989 or greene@denverpost.com.