GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- The Green Bay City Council president paid for a nativity scene to be put up at City Hall after learning of an anti-religion group's protest of one in Peshtigo.
Council president Chad Fradette told a city committee he elieved the U.S. Constitution upholds citizens' right to display symbols of their religious beliefs on publicly owned property as long as they are not paid for with tax money and other faiths aren't excluded.
The committee approved the nativity scene 4-1 Tuesday night.
"So now the Freedom From Religion Foundation can pick on somebody a little larger than Peshtigo," Fradette told the committee.
The foundation, the nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics, objected lst week to a nativity display in a Peshtigo city park, saying it was illegal to erect it on public property and use tax money to light it. Peshtigo is about 40 miles northeast of Green Bay.
On Wednesday, the group sent a letter to Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt objecting to the display as "inherently religious" and a violation of the separation of church and state.
"Displaying a creche on the city hall building conveys the message that the City Council endorses Christianity," wrote Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the foundation.
Schmitt did not object to the display at the committee's Tuesday meeting but urged it to draft rules on what could be included.
"It could get out of hand," he said.
Fradette had wanted to extend an invitation to all religions to put up displays, but committee members agreed a policy was needed to prevent people from testing the boundaries of taste. Fradette asked Schmitt for permission to put up his display while the council worked out those details.
"If you put it up, it's your risk," Schmitt said. "You may lose this thing, but if you want to put it up, I'm not going to not allow you to put the ladder up."
Fradette, council vice president Chris Wery and two maintenance workers then spent about an hour installing a display that includes statues of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Peshtigo Mayor Thomas Strouf offered to pay the lighting bill for his city's display after the foundation objected to it. The local Chamber of Commerce owns and erected up the display, he said, although it is in a public park.
Orignal Source