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         November 29, 2009        

Holy war in Pennsylvania

A new holy war has broken out in the central Pennsylvania community of Chambersburg.  At issue is a decision by the Chambersburg Town Council to ban a Nativity scene from Memorial Square, rather than allow equal time to Pennsylvania Nonbelievers ("PAN") to put up a respectful, seasonal sign that would honor atheist war veterans and not detract, in any way, from what the Christians were doing.

For many years, the Chambersburg Garden Club has placed a Nativity scene at Memorial Square fountain, located in the center of the intersection of US 11 and US 30.  For those of you in the Chicago area who can't quite place where that is, if you've ever driven from here to Washington, D.C., do you know how you have to get off of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, halfway across PA, and drive about a third of a mile on US 30 through a funky town called Breezewood, the "Town of Motels," in order to get on the continuation of Interstate 70 to go on to our nation's Capital?  Chambersburg is located forty miles east of that spot, on that very same US 30.

Pennsylvania's leading atheist is Carl Silverman.  He is a member of the Board of PAN.  Earlier this month, Carl made a most reasonable request to the Chambersburg Town Council.  Carl asked for his organization to be given equal time with the Garden Club, so that PAN could put up a sign that says, "Celebrating Solstice.  Honoring Atheist War Veterans."  Carl's request makes sense because, after all, Winter Solstice is the reason for the season, not the pretend birth of some make-believe deity-parent.

Carl and PAN didn't ask for the Nativity scene to be taken down.  They merely asked the Town Council to stop limiting what could be displayed at Memorial Square to only the Christian perspective.

That's not quite what the Town Council had in mind, though.  The Town Council wanted only the Christian perspective to be allowed, or nothing at all.  Since the Constitution clearly was on Carl's side, in that the government can't discriminate against atheist speech or in favor of Christian speech, the Council voted to ban all displays at the war memorial.

This infuriating the local Christian community and, of course, the county Republican Party.

Christians angrily proclaimed their hatred for the American ideals of religious freedom for all, freedom of speech for non-Christians and the equal protections of the law for those who do not believe in Chee-zuss.  They labeled Carl Silverman a "domestic terrorist."  They called for him to be kicked out of the country and for his throat to be slit, among other nasty things.  In short, the Christians showed their true character:  Seething bigotry, extreme hostility and violence toward those who are different from themselves, and appalling arrogance about how they demand special treatment by the government.

The Chairman of the county Republican Party was quoted in the Chambersburg daily newspaper as saying that the Christian faith is under attack, so "Christians need to become more militant."  Kind of like the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, right?

The problem is that, Christians and Republicans are so accustomed to receiving preferential treatment by the government, that they think that they are being the victims of radical, unfair discrimination when, all of a sudden, they don't get the preferential treatment that they are so used to getting. 

It's all very reminiscent of what I went through, twenty years ago, when I helped local residents in several Chicago area suburbs to get Christian crosses off of their city seals, municipal water towers and other government property.  The same threats, the same arrogance, the same demands for a restoration of their preferential treatment by the government.

Welcome to the club, Carl.

Please e-mail a comment to me at rob@robsherman.com to let me know what you think, and I'll post your comments, below.

I look forward to your comments on this one.  Do you think that the government should limit speech on public property to only the Christian perspective?

Please tell your friends about this through your social media networks and word of mouth.

Send personal comments, comments unrelated to this story or notification of typos that you see in any of my posts to rob@robsherman.com.

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