In Jersey City, Frosty and Baby Jesus Usher In The Holiday Season

Dec 1, 1999

Today in Jersey City Mayor Schundler is putting up the City’s holiday display. The city fought against the ACLU for five years in order to put up the display which includes a creche, a menorah, Kwanza symbols as well as various other secular symbols of the holiday. The city finally won the battle in the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in February of this year.

“In at least one corner of the world things are as they should be. We proudly defended Jersey City for five years so that Mayor Schundler could put up his display unencumbered by the ACLU. Today the people of Jersey City can publicly acknowledge both the religious and secular significance of the season,” said Kevin J. Hasson, President and General Counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented Jersey City.

“In too many other cities around America, however, religious holidays aren’t faring so well,” Hasson continued.

“In Denver, the Freedom From Religion Foundation placed a sign next to the city’s holiday display, which includes a creche, that reads, ‘At this season of the winter solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. The ‘Christ Child’ is a myth.’ Not only is it a tasteless display, but its not even interesting writing.”

“And in Pittsburgh the city has begun its annual celebration of ‘Sparkle Season’, whatever that is.”

“Religion is not antithetical to a good society--in fact, the natural expression of the religious impulse is essential to a good society. I hope, we are beginning to relearn that forgotten truth. Jersey City is a model for what this melting pot of a country can and should do--celebrate our diversity and embrace religious expression as a normal part of our humanity.”

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a bipartisan and interfaith public interest law firm that protects the free expression of all religious traditions.