Lights, festival and a manger scene

by Rick Nelson

I came to work full-time at The Eagle as a reporter in February, 1979. At some point I joined the Cathlamet Commercial Club, an organization of merchants, local elected officials and community minded citizens who wanted to promote fun and prosperity in Cathlamet. At one point in the early 1980's, we decided to hold a Christmas lighting festival and sought permission to use the courthouse lawn, the closest thing to a town square that we have around here. The festival included lighting a large tree and decorating the lawn. A manger scene was part of those decorations.

Here, my memory gets even more fuzzy than usual. As I remember, county commissioners didn't feel it was appropriate to have a religious display on public/government property, so the manger scene went to the Assembly of God church. I don't remember that anyone had a real problem with that concept or resolution.

I said the memory was fuzzy: It might have been Commercial Club members themselves who made the decisions. There are very few people around now who were part of that process; perhaps one of them might clear my memories.

In any case, the festival has gone on for years, rain or shine, providing a fun event for families.

And now, wow. A group of Christians decided they want to put the manger scene back in the display. They have started pressuring, even threatening, the county commissioners to give them permission to add the manger scene to the display.

Commissioners have expressed sympathy to the feeling of disappointment at the mandate to separate religious displays from public facilities, but they didn't want to change this late in the year. The county has authorized the Commercial Club's successor, the Wahkiakum Chamber of Commerce, to erect the display, and they didn't want to infringe on them. Commissioners suggested conversations begin next fall if people want to continue with the request next holiday season.

Religion should give ethics and morals to society, which should then reflect those ethics and morals in its actions and institutions, whether it's local government or the Central Intelligence Agency. It's not good to have government and religion working together to determine ethics and morals for a society. It has been tried before, and it doesn't work.

Churches and individuals are free to erect religious holiday displays on their property, and they do so freely. That works well.

This attempt to force a religious display into a community festival at this point in the season seems misguided and unnecessary, and thus, designed solely to generate controversy.

It's not good news.