Sarah Palin: Atheists Are Suing Private Citizens Over Nativity Scenes ‘On Somebody’s Lawn’
Sarah Palin‘s book isn’t selling very well. The former Republican Vice Presidential candidate’s “war on Christmas” exposé, Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas, can’t even break into the top 100 of Amazon’s Best Sellers ranking. It’s sitting at an embarrassing #270 (which is a big leap from #662 last week.) And being a Christmas book, come December 26, it’s going to be worthless.
Palin last week sat down at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, home to the radical religious right wing, and in under two minutes uttered a word salad from which pundits are still trying to carve some sense.
“Thomas Jefferson today, he would recognize those who would want to try to ignore that Jesus is the reason for the season, those who would want to try to abort Christ from Christmas,” Palin told her religious college audience. “He would recognize, for the most part, these are angry atheists armed with an attorney. They are not the majority of Americans.”
Palin exclaimed that the “message” the “angry atheists … need to receive is, ‘no more double standards.’”
“Why is it they get to claim some offense taken when they see a plastic Jewish family on somebody’s lawn -– a nativity scene, that’s basically what it is right? Oh, they take such offense, they say it physically can hurt them, it mentally distresses them so they sue, right?
“But heaven forbid we claim any kind of offense when we say, ‘wait, you’re stripping Jesus from the reason, as the reason for the season, so that double standard, I think Thomas Jefferson would certainly recognize it.”
Of course, Palin has her facts totally screwed up.
First, no, Thomas Jefferson, a deist, would not agree with her at all.
Second, we could find no evidence of lawsuits by atheists — angry or otherwise — suing private citizens over nativity scenes on their private, personal property.
In fact, last year a Texas atheist was forced to drop his lawsuit over a nativity scene in front of a courthouse after he received death threats.
No one cares if their neighbor puts up a nativity scene, or a Christmas tree, or even those big Santa-on-a-sleigh props on their lawn or even on the roof of their own home.
But atheists and citizens of conscience do find troubling when governments violate the First Amendment by tearing down the wall of church and state separation by paying for and displaying religious iconography on public property.
And time and time again those religious displays are rightly found by courts to be unconstitutional.
No one is “aborting Jesus” from Christmas, Governor.
Sarah Palin and her compatriots are free to worship and celebrate Christmas as they see fit. They’re just not allowed to use the government to subsidize their beliefs.
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