ACLU warns Florida city about Christmas display
Free Speech Friday, July 22nd, 2011
By Robert Nolin and Lisa J. Huriash, Sun Sentinel
PLANTATION— Joseph, Mary and the Baby Jesus have no business posing in a public park — even if they’re accompanied by a Hanukkah menorah.
“Inappropriate” is the word the Broward chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union uses to describe the holiday display planned for Liberty Tree Park.
It’s like Christmas in July, with all the traditional trimmings: squabbles over religious displays in super-sensitive South Florida.
The ACLU, in a letter to city officials, warned that displaying a Nativity scene and menorah violates the separation of church and state. The problem, the rights group said, is that the city is advocating for two religions while ignoring all the others.
“We feel it’s a violation of the First Amendment and an endorsement of religion,” said the ACLU’s Barry Butin. “If they were really neutral and didn’t favor one over the other, they’d have a more inclusive display: Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist.”
Butin didn’t mention the Wiccan religion, whose symbol presumably would be a broomstick.
The ACLU has already warned Plantation — twice — against setting up religious displays. It was acting on a complaint from an unidentified board member who doesn’t live in Plantation but photographed the creche and menorah one Christmastime.
“We trust that the city will uphold religious freedom and refrain from any further displays on city property,” Broward chapter president Brad Koogler wrote last month.
The group’s original letter, in March, was met with a terse two-sentence reply. Mayor Diane Veltri Bendekovic simply said the city would “take it under advisement.”
To read more, visit: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/plantation/fl-plantation-aclu-20110718,0,4466967.story
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