{"id":648,"date":"2009-12-23T11:17:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-23T15:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skepticblogs.com\/justinvacula\/2009\/12\/23\/nativity-resurrected-1223-article\/"},"modified":"2009-12-23T11:17:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-23T15:17:00","slug":"nativity-resurrected-1223-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/2009\/12\/23\/nativity-resurrected-1223-article\/","title":{"rendered":"“Nativity Resurrected” 12\/23 Article"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This post contains an article — no longer available — concerning the Luzerne County Courthouse separation of church and state issue I was involved with.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
December 23, 2009<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n

Resurrected Nativity celebrated<\/a><\/h2>\n

Crowd makes merry at the expanded display<\/strong><\/p>\n

WILKES-BARRE \u2013 Holiday decorations were again the focus of a crowd gathered on the county courthouse lawn on Tuesday evening, but the congregation was there to celebrate rather than complain.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, what we\u2019re doing is people won a victory here. We want to show our thanks to each other and also to the commissioners and the (county) solicitor for coming to their senses,\u201d said Gene Stilp, a Luzerne County native who spends much of his time as a voter activist in Harrisburg. \u201cIt\u2019s a good way for the people of the county to end the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 40 people showed up to encircle the recently reinstated Nativity scene and menorah, along with new secular decorations, and announced why they\u2019re thankful. They sang Christmas carols and prayed. Some made political pleas.<\/p>\n

Among the new decorations are a plastic, lighted Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, two reindeer, and some candy canes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they start separating God out of the government, that\u2019s when things start to collapse,\u201d said Debbie Lansberry of Lehman Township. \u201cWe need new leaders, but not just new leaders \u2013 Christian leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several prayers were made for Justin Vacula, the King\u2019s College student whose initial concern over the religious specificity of the display sparked a complaint from the American Civil Liberties Union. It was acknowledged that Vacula \u201cprobably has so many capabilities\u201d and Jesus was implored to \u201cget a hold of him\u201d and \u201clet him know the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linda Mericle of Trucksville noted that the U.S. Constitution, which Vacula used as the basis for his complaint, doesn\u2019t say religion can\u2019t be expressed on government property, \u201cjust not be governed by one particular religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking away some of our beliefs was taking away our rights to assemble,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s never been put in the Constitution that we should be denied that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The activities were accentuated intermittently by honks of approval from passing motorists. One vehicle of young males expressed displeasure, booing as they waited at the traffic signal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHark! The Herald Angels Sing\u201d and \u201cSilent Night\u201d were among the carols sung.<\/p>\n

Herb Fice of Kingston asked those assembled to also pray for those serving in the military overseas. \u201cRegardless whether they\u2019re atheist, Jews, whatever, they\u2019re over there protecting us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Stilp was glad to see the decorations were returned despite the ACLU\u2019s legal threats. \u201cIt seemed like they were grandstanding. \u2026 They could have done it in a better way,\u201d he said, such as suggesting: \u201cWe have a tradition here. How can we work this out?\u201d Instead, he said, \u201cI think that the county rolled over.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that the ACLU didn\u2019t make any such threats about the county court scandal.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople of the county needed a renewal of their spirits, and this has done it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post contains an article — no longer available — concerning the Luzerne County Courthouse separation of church and state issue I was involved with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,31,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-me-in-the-media","category-nativity","category-separation-of-church-and-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}