There's still room on the public square

It's amazing how crosswise and upset folks can get about a little plastic Baby Jesus.

After the quorum court said a nativity scene could be placed on a portion of the courthouse lawn leased to the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce, who allowed the folks with the nativity scene to put it there, all heck broke loose. At least on social media and the Internet, although I did hear of an incident in which a woman at a local store told another woman she thought everyone should have an opportunity to be represented on the courthouse lawn, and it ended with the church lady telling her she should be burned at the stake.

Seriously, people?

Is saying things like that really the way to share peace and brotherly love during the season of peace and brotherly love represented by the nativity scene? Are some of the comments being made online really an expression of understanding one another's position and beliefs, and genuinely representative of our community? Whether we like it or not, we have a fair amount of national attention on us because of the nativity scene.

Now, it wasn't until after Christmas was over last year that the tinsel hit the fan about the nativity scene. Here's a refresher. At the start of the holiday season, a local request was submitted to the county judge for permission to place a banner stating "Happy Winter Solstice" somewhere on the courthouse lawn in addition to the nativity scene.

No one wanted the nativity scene taken down; no one attacked the county, the nativity scene or Christianity. They just asked to use a little bit of their public property to express their season's greetings. The request was rejected. The judge said it would open the door to "hundreds" of occasional exhibits on the courthouse lawn.

After New Year's, the American Humanist Association, through its legal center, contacted the judge, the Mountain Home mayor and the owner of the nativity scene asking for representation of other religions or nonbelievers on the public square under the First Amendment, or to not have any represented. There was some hullabaloo about it for a few days, then it went away.

Until now. And here we go again after the judge leased the corner of the public courthouse lawn to the private chamber of commerce so a private citizen could put up the scene, and the quorum court approved it. The judge contends there is legal precedent for this that makes it OK.

The way I see it, there isn't an "attack," "war," or "assault" on Christmas or Christianity here. In fact, other than in online comments and discussions, talk around town and on Glenn Beck's The Blaze, there is no formal challenge to anything. Yet you'd think heathens with pitchforks and torches, and foaming at the mouth, are laying siege to the nativity scene, even though no one here has asked for it to be removed.

There are people — local people — who think even with the lease option the county is violating the Constitution and court rulings by not allowing anyone else to offer season's greetings on the lawn. Yet the judge still won't allow anything but the nativity scene on the courthouse lawn during December, although banners and signs for everything else are all right the other 11 months.

But what if someone asks to place a "Happy Hanukkah" sign, or a menorah, on the courthouse lawn this month? Would that be rejected? Hanukkah is as old, if not older, than Christmas, and springs from the same roots. After all, Jesus was Jewish.

Obviously, not everyone in our community believes the same way. Sadly, many of those here outside Christianity — and there are more than you might expect — won't express themselves, or talk about what they believe publicly for fear of reprisal, of being figuratively stoned for not believing the same way. I suppose it's like being a Christian in a Muslim country.

For the record, again, I'm a Christian. It's how I was raised, it helped shape my values, which include the belief that one of our most important gifts is free will and the ability to think for ourselves and believe what we want.

It may be futile, but I wish people would understand this isn't an attack on religion. People just want the opportunity to have their beliefs represented in an equal manner, as guaranteed under the Constitution. And to be precise, no one's even asked to put anything else on the courthouse lawn this year.

As I said before, there is, and always should be, plenty of room on the public square for all of us.