The Crusade Against Cr

The Crusade Against Creches City hall's Christmas symbolism is on the defensive

For Dennis Lynch, 50, the former mayor of Pawtucket, R.I., one of the highlights of the Christmas season is taking his wife and seven children to visit the Nativity scene in a downtown park. But in order to keep alive the family custom started by his grandfather, Lynch has had to form a private group to purchase the creche from the city and take over the cost of maintaining it. A federal appeals court ruled last month that Pawtucket's city-funded creche, and others like it, violate the First Amendment clause prohibiting the establishment of religion. It was the biggest victory to date for civil liberties groups that have created a new holiday tradition: the annual legal battle to stop government from promoting any religious aspects of Christmas.

The confrontations have focused on depictions of the Nativity. The government "may not participate in or promote the Christian celebration of Christmas," explained Judge Hugh Bownes in the Pawtucket case. "The creche is purely a Christian religious symbol; this is the distinction between the creche and Christmas as a holiday." Christmas trees, for example, are generally considered secular because of their origins in pagan rituals. Public school Christmas pageants have won court approval as long as the cultural significance outweighed the religious.

The American Civil Liberties Union, whose state affiliates have brought many of the legal challenges, stresses that it has no Grinch-like objection to Christmas. Says Glorian Schneider, head of the South Dakota A.C.L.U. and a vocal foe of the creche at the capitol in Pierre: "People get the idea I'm a Communist. I have a Nativity scene in my home, and we have one in our church." Argued Attorney Jonathan Chase in an A.C.L.U.-backed federal suit against Denver: "It's not the city's business to keep Christ in Christmas. That's the role of the church."

Not everyone agrees with this stringently secularist approach. "If you take the symbol away from the celebration, it's almost a sterile, noncelebrative event," says Lynn Buzzard, executive director of the Christian Legal Society, adding that court attacks on Christmas scenes are "a trivialization of the Constitution." Henry Kinch, the current mayor of Pawtucket, agrees. "The A.C.L.U. wants to wring every bit of religion out of our daily life," he says. He will appeal the anti-creche decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Many other local officials have settled instead for allowing private groups to set up creches on government property. Such displays are now often accompanied by signs disclaiming any direct city role. Although the A.C.L.U. in Rhode Island last week decided to bring suit against one such creche in Providence, other A.C.L.U. affiliates believe that the use of private funds eliminates the constitutional problem. "As long as public land is available to everyone and no public funds are used, we think religious displays are fine," says John Roberts, executive director of the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union.

In the spirit of what's-sauce-for-the-Christians, some Jews now erect Menorahs, the nine-candle symbols of Chanukah, on public land. This year, for the fourth consecutive time, a giant 30-ft. Menorah was put up by the Hasidic American Friends of Lubavitch in Washington's Lafayette Park, just across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. Many Jews are not pleased, even though no government funds are involved. Says Attorney Marc Stern of the American Jewish Congress: "It's unconstitutional. Most of the organized Jewish community doesn't like it."

But the Menorahs do illuminate the central issue involved in the Christmas lawsuits. If government funds were used to erect Menorahs, most American Christians would probably see that as an unconstitutional use of government funds to promote Judaism. The traditional role that Christmas has played in American life has made the point harder to see in the case of cres, but no less valid.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.