Hooliganism during the holiday season is no longer restricted to thieves running off with Christian symbols from nativity scenes or egging mangers, because atheist decorations, too, have become targets for vandalism after more and more people have expressed a desire for them to be added to the public forum in recent years.
“It's not unusual at all to run into these heavy-handed tactics,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF).
Of the 12 displays installed by FFRF in 2012, as many as five were vandalized or stolen, explained Gaylor. This year, too, 14 displays were installed by the organization, of which two have been vandalized already. FFRF is currently offering a $2,000 reward to anyone that reports the culprit responsible for damaging one atheist banner, which was installed inside a park at Arlington Heights this year.
The now-repaired banner says, “Are you good without God? Millions are.”
Similarly, last year, an arsonist set fire to an atheist billboard in Pitman, New Jersey, and he went unpunished because nobody from the neighbourhood came forward to report him. That particular billboard was not reinstalled this year, as local residents who had it installed feared that it would be destroyed yet again.
Gaylor explained. Earlier, atheists did not feel the need to install displays during the holiday season, but when believers started cluttering neighbourhoods with Christian symbols, which FFRF insists are not supposed to be displayed in public spaces, nonbelievers automatically felt the need to counter that tradition.
One of the displays installed by FFRF this year is a ‘Bill of Rights’ nativity scene, which commemorates the December 15 ratification of the American Constitution’s first ten amendments.
“It's the founding fathers gazing adoringly at the Bill of Rights in a crib. James Madison is on bended knee,” said Gaylor.
According to a 2012 Pew report, one in every five Americans does not identify with any religion, which is why Gaylor believes there needs to be room at the inn for those individuals too.
“There has to be room at the inn for non-believers,” Gaylor said. “Many more people are offended when they encounter religion at the seat of their government.”
Tom Brejcha, an advocate for Chicago-based Thomas More Society, which fights to protect religious displays in public spaces, said it is wrong for both religious and atheist displays to be vandalized but vandalizing the latter is more often than not done with the intent to discourage free speech.
“I think it's really an attempt to try to get people angry and make it divisive so the public officials involved will suppress people expressing themselves on something that's important to them,” said Brejcha.
Photo Credits: Justin Vacula
