Posted on 12/06/2005 8:35:18 PM PST by FeeinTennessee
Bartlett library keeps baby Jesus out of nativity display Dec 6, 2005, 10:02 PM CST
You can see Santa on the door here, there are also Happy Chanukah, Kwanzaa and Merry Christmas signs inside, but you won't find any nativity scenes because the library won't allow them and that could land the library system in court.
But a close look at this nativity scene at the Bartlett Public Library has something missing: Jesus, Mary or Joseph?
Library officials banned the figurines from a public display.
"I took one piece out at a time and I said, what about this donkey will that go? What about this sheep, is that ok," said Brandi Chambless, who wants Jesus in the nativity scene.
Brandi Chambless set up the display announcing Christmas programs at her church, Broadmoor Memphis.
The nativity was set up in an area set aside for public announcements.
But library workers said Jesus wasn't welcome.
"To have Christmas without the baby Jesus would be kind of like having Graceland without Elvis there," said Chambless.
Chambless and fellow church members were furious and decided this was no time to turn the other cheek.
"The church has chosen to remain silent and passive and I think it's time that we stood up for our rights as well, because we have rights just like anyone else does," said Broadmoor Pastor Bo Grace.
Enter the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal group that fights for religious rights.
The group sent a letter to the library system demanding a policy change saying freedom of speech was at stake.
So far, the library's decision hasn't changed.
"We want to be good partners with everyone in the community and one of the ways we can do that is provide everybody an avenue to provide their information without advocating for any one group," said Betty Anne Wilson of the Memphis-Shelby COunty Library.
Chambless says if Jesus isn't in this window by Friday, the library may have to answer to a higher authority.
In this case, that higher power is the court.
The Alliance Defense Fund's position is the display is valid because it's put their by a non-government related person in a free speech setting.
"Sigh, this mess is happening here...where people are fairly conservative. "
The question is, where will it stop???
Will it become illegal to wish someone a Merry Christmas? I am not joking.
Who would have thought 30 years ago that Christian evangelists would be trown in jail for witnessing at a Homosexual rally.
Where is this all leading???
Project the current trends out 20 years.
Must be one of those Holiday baskets.
Memphis? Fairly conservative????
What have you been smoking and not sharing, FRiend?
comments@memphislibrary.org
I just got a kick out of that quote.
They'll just have to throw me in jail -- and I won't go quietly.
I've had quite enough of this nonsense.
When did the wishes of the minority become the driving force?
Whatever happened to freedom OF religion -- not freedom FROM religion?
I still remember the phrasing correctly, freedom OF...and I'll wager many others do as well.
Memphis is liberal...Bartlett and the surrounding suburbs tend to be conservative.
Is that the correct email address? I am thinking of calling them instead. The Bartlett library.
From their web site.
When I lived there 15 years ago, only Germantown could be considered "conservative".
Could this article have been any more poorly written? The writing alone ticked me off so much I couldn't finish reading it!
I was, at first, trying to figure out what they took out of the Nativity display from the writing...
but the fact still remains, some idiot decided to remove a piece from the display, I'm sick of it.
Any books in the library that contain the word Jesus? Are those banned as well?
If they are going to ban one display, they must ban all including this Kwanza nonsense and the empty Happy Holidays signs.
"Liberal" in Memphis means something a little bit different than it does in other places I've lived. It's socially conservative in many ways and fiscally liberal (I would argue that this really just means corrupt--per Mayor King Willie Harrington). That's what you get when you have a majority black population more often than not it seems.
My impression with Bartlett was that it was fairly conservative. You've got some of the larger megachurches and nice suburbs out that way.
"but the fact still remains, some idiot decided to remove a piece from the display, I'm sick of it."
They act like they have an utter fear of the baby Jesus. Kind of reminds you of... anyone care to guess? Yes, King Herod. Kill all the babies just to make sure we also get rid of that Jesus! Jesus is so powerful a force, that even a statue of him as a baby scares liberals. Of course they won't admit it... just being PC they say. We must be tolerant of other religions. Bah! They must be afraid their children would ask too many questions about who Jesus is.
Here's what we do... instead of calling it the baby Jesus, we pronounce it in spanish- the baby Hey-seus, and if someone wants to take the baby out of the nativity, we just tell them -"you haves the racisms".
What do you think-- good plan?
what part of CHRISTmas are these retardos not getting?
The "Christ" part.
This instance is perfectly legal and decided law in the 1984 US Supreme Court Case of Lynch v. Donnelly.
It's not a bad idea to keep this one on hand whenever you see nonsense like this going on.
http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/217/
I wrote the library. We'll see if I get a response. I'm in Memphis for the moment, so perhaps I'll hear something.
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