Christ Child at the Capitol

Catholic World News ^ | 11/24/20 | Joseph M.Hanneman

[marshmallow]

31 state capitol buildings will display Nativity crèches this Christmas, a sharp increase from just two years ago.

Nearly two-thirds of state capitol buildings in the United States will display a Nativity crèche this Christmas season, a nearly 50 percent increase in just two years under a partnership between American Nativity Scene and the Thomas More Society, a public-interest law firm.

At least 31 state capitol buildings will host Nativity displays, with new entrants Idaho, Oklahoma, Nevada and West Virginia joining the list of crèches that honor the birth of Jesus Christ. Since 2018, the number of participating sites has grown by 10. The creches are privately owned and displayed under Constitutional protections of the practice of religion and free speech.

“So far we’ve been increasing every year,” said Thomas Brejcha, president and chief legal counsel for Thomas More Society, the Chicago-based religious liberty law firm. “We hope it won’t take too long to get up to 50.”

The Thomas More Society said it expects Nativity displays to be placed at state capitols in Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

In 2012, an Illinois group, American Nativity Scene, partnered with the Thomas More Society on a program to encourage private local groups to put up Nativity displays in state capitol buildings across America. The Thomas More Society began its own program to place Nativity scenes in capitols in 2008 at the Illinois Capitol in Springfield. The partnership program has grown every year. A benefactor of American Nativity Scene covers the cost of the figures of St. Joseph, the Blessed Virgin......

[lee martell]

Things one would rather not have to think about, Part 10:

I hope those churches that display the Nativity Scene have a couple of spare Baby Jesus statues or better yet, a plexiglass cover for the entire scene. Today’s Pagans are known to make a sport of stealing that statue and bragging about it online.

[left that other site]

Indeed. It happens every year in Quincy, MA, birthplace of two American Presidents.