Letters to the Editor
Crèche on government property vs. private property
Editor: Having the crèche displayed on the plaza downtown makes an official statement that this is a Christian community. If it is displayed on a church lawn, then that is just the church doing what churches do and it can easily be ignored. It is important to Christians that the crèche not be ignored and this is why it is so absolutely necessary that the crèche be displayed on government property instead of church property.
This issue has nothing to do with free speech. Christians believe that Atheists are morally bankrupt and that a person can only be a good citizen after they have accepted Jesus. It is extremely important that people who are not Christ accepting, Bible believing Christians know this so they can feel bad about having rejected Jesus. If the crèche appears on church property it doesn’t get the message across to all the non-believing Atheists that they need to join the majority and accept Jesus. Only when the crèche is displayed on government property can it get the full message across to the entire community.
Each year new surveys are taken across the land and they show that more and more Americans are coming out of the closet and admitting that they are Atheists. The most recent polls show that approximately 20 percent of the American population is Atheist while another 6% decline to state. Do you realize that this means that there are more Atheists in America than there are African Americans at 12.8 percent of the population, Mexican Americans at 9%, and Gay American’s at about 10 percent? Each year the number of people attending church declines and the number of Atheists increase. It is the hope of Christians that this trend will reverse if the crèche is displayed on government property, which gives it the official recognition that it needs.
Jerry Manson
Sonoma
Separation of church and state
Editor: If Mr. Sebastiani yearns for the crèche of his childhood, I suggest he place one on his lawn, or at the front door of his family’s winery. It does not belong on public property.
Regardless of the results of his father’s paid-for survey, this is a Constitutional issue and not a popularity contest. Even if 99 percent of us are religious folks, we still need to consider the atheist’s right to freedom from religion. This is not a freedom of speech issue; rather, it’s one of separation of church and state. It’s the way America works.
Gary Shepard
Sonoma
Solution to crèche conflict
Editor: Regarding the current controversy over the re-institution of the crèche in Sonoma I hope you will print this letter I sent to the Sonoma Ministerial Association. I believe the proposal is constructive and will ease off a lot of corrosive conflict in our community.
Dear Reverend McHan,
I admired you for your frankness at the Sept. 19 City Council meeting regarding the proposed Holidays Display policy. I can certainly understand why you and many of your members are conflicted on the issue of display of religious symbols in our City Plaza.
You will recall that I wrote you last December on this issue, and I would like to repeat here my suggestion that the Ministerial Association can play a positive role in this controversy. The Council’s approval of a policy allowing religion in the Plaza may well cause bitter and public division in our community, which most of us definitely want to avoid. I hope you can be the peacemakers!
I believe that the Association can “bring back” some form of the Nativity scene to the Sonoma community without placing religious symbols on public land. As you mentioned, there are many practical problems connected with a simple restoration of the “old” Nativity scene. Perhaps some new “forms” can be explored. I mentioned how urban churches in Italy “compete” with one another in creating novel, imaginative renditions of the Nativity scene each Christmas season. These are very popular, and families traipse from church to church during the season just to see them all! I myself have done so many times when I was in Italy.
I earnestly hope that our local religious leaders can come up with proposals that will add luster to the role of religious expression locally and that at the same time respect the healthy limits reflected in our Constitution.
Dave Henderson
Sonoma
