WEST CHESTER, PA – On Thursday November 18th, the Chester County Commissioners voted 2 to 1 in favor of Resolution 58-10 (pdf). The resolution was created with the specific intent to exclude the Freethought Society (a local atheist group) from erecting their winter display known as the Tree of Knowledge.
The Tree of Knowledge is a large evergreen tree decorated with laminated book covers from atheist authors as well as book covers from disciplines ranging from history, science, and philosophy. In the spirit of inclusion, the Tree also features book covers from holy books such as the Bible and the Koran.
This would have been the fourth year in which the Tree of Knowledge shared the lawn of the Chester County Courthouse with the Christmas Tree, the Jesus Crèche, and a large Menorah. Each year has been a fight for the Freethought Society to get around the Commissioners ever changing procedures designed to block them from participating in the winter festivities. Last year, the county even created “zones” in which holiday displays could be placed, but after a few days all the displays were moved to a more prominent location not in the zoned area except the Tree of Knowledge which was left in the metaphorical back of the bus.
The year, the Commissioners didn’t even make the application for winter displays available to the public at all. Margaret Downey, the president of the Freethought Society had to use last year’s application with a changed date in order to apply for space in the “Free Speech Zone” before the deadline. It goes almost without saying that The Pastors Network did presumably have access to some sort of application or reassuring nod for their Jesus Crèche display.
This is when the Commissioner Terence Farrell came up with Resolution 58-10 which would ban all displays except for those owned by the County. This resolution however is just another attempt in a long line of attempts to purposefully exclude the Freethought Society from the lawn of the county courthouse. The loophole is that The Pastors Network would “donate” the Jesus Crèche and Commissioners would choose to put it up as well as any other displays “donated” except for the Tree of Knowledge of course.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, “After the meeting, he [Commissioner Farrell] said he envisioned a display in keeping with recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have permitted traditional secular and religious elements such as Santa, a tree, a crèche, and a menorah.” Interestingly enough those are all the displays that are usually on the courthouse lawn with one very noticeable exception.
Downey however offered to donate the Tree of Knowledge to the county. Now the county has multiple winter displays in their possession and will either have to put them all up or none of them up. If they were to discriminate against one particular view on religion by elevating other views, they would be in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The county would be opening themselves up to a legal battle they would not win if somehow the Crèche, Menorah, and Christmas Tree were to be picked by the County while the Tree of Knowledge was somehow excluded. Ironically the Freethought Society’s display is the only display which was designed to be inclusive of the entire community while the other displays only serve to divide the community into religious factions.
The Freethought Society is planning on staging a protest on Saturday December 4th at 5pm, the place, day, and time that they were planning on erecting the Tree of Knowledge, if the county continues to discriminate against the greater humanist/atheist community.
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Comments
Fight the power!
Thanks for the post Staks, I'm in Portland, Or, but I will be keeping an eye on the story - good luck with the protest!
Wow. Maybe these County Commissioners should consider moving to Iran where they can live with other like minds who enjoy living in a Theocracy.
Ridiculous and an abuse of power.
I do hope these corrupt officials realise they are merely creating good publicity for the Tree of Knowledge.
Rather than hurting the Freethinking cause, they help it immeasurably.
This is an example of discrimination and bigotry toward non-believers. These people are just as bad as the totalitarians they despise.
Right on, Eric. We should ask them what they're afraid of. If they're afraid we're prosletize their kids, we should explain that our rejection of their religion is not prosletizing. We just don't buy nonscientific nonsense, and when we say so, certain people agree with us, which is why our movement is growing with every poll.
I doubt the County Commissioners talked to their legal advisor before the vote. If the Freethought Society is feeling really nice, they'll only sue for legal expenses.
How about this for an idea? Instead of atheists trying to attach themselves to the traditional Judea-Christian holidays in December, which offends so many Americans, why don't you organize a special day to be set aside for your own holiday? Maybe the Tree of Knowledge Winter Festival or something. Then petition the United States government to give everyone the day off for your holiday. Then it could be just like the religious based holidays and we'd all be happy.
The Tree of Knowledge is so beautiful, I’m sure you could sell the government of the United States on the idea. I mean, after all, we are a secular nation – right? If we are truly a secular nation then it should be simple to sell the idea to the majority of Americans. Give it a shot and good luck.
Lol, I love how Christians try to claim the entire winter season. You do realize that winter celebrations pre-date Christianity, right? On the question of who stole Christmas, the answer is Christians.
You also seem to know little about the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Your ignorance in this area says volumes.
And I bet your a teabagger too.
As Rosch said, your attempt to commandeer a full quarter of the year is laughably absurd. In case you didn't notice, there is exactly one time in the year that the county affords to religious displays, and it claims that all opinions will be equally represented during this time.
ALL opinions. There is a reason multiple religions will be represented, not just Christianity. A menorah was specifically mentioned, and I imagine other religious symbols will be, too. In fact, everything that was there before will still be there EXCEPT the tree of knowledge. It's a clear case of discrimination.
Besides, if this were truly a Christian-only holiday, having any public government display at all would be undeniably unconstitutional. So you might want to be careful about the arguments you make.
Just another example of the religious reich illegally suppressing any dissenting views and stifling free speech. As always, religion demands a free ride on everything, including stamping on the freedom of others.
What are the county commissioners afraid of? Someone might actually think for themselves?
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