Alabama town plans to defy litigious atheist group with giant Christmas event at City Hall

The perpetually-offended, Wisconsin-based atheist group known as the Freedom for Religion Foundation (FFRF) has an extensive history of targeting small Alabama towns that display any faith-based reference, and at least one community has had enough.

Rainbow City, Alabama unexpectedly found itself in the FFRF’s crosshairs last year because a Nativity scene had been erected at the town’s City Hall.

A letter from FFRF staff attorney Andrew Seidel declared that it is “unlawful for the town to maintain, erect or host a holiday display that consists solely of a nativity scene, thus singling out, showing preference for, and endorsing one religion.”

The Nativity scene was briefly removed as a result of the letter, then quickly returned to the location where it had stood countless years before without complaint.

“While the Freedom From Religion Foundation states correctly law applicable to religious displays, they are incorrectly applying those cases to the situation in Rainbow City,” city attorney Jim Turnbach said at the time. “Rainbow City does not believe that the Christmas display on city property is in violation of any case law.”

The public support for the Nativity scene was so overwhelming that local church leaders organized a “Rally at the Manger” that was attended by hundreds of local residents in spite of the frigid weather.

“This is ‘Rainbow City,’ a city with a name that indicates (the) promise (from) Genesis 9:13, ‘I will set my bow in the clouds as a covenant between me and the earth,’ State Sen. Phil Williams, who represents the town in the Alabama Senate, said on his Facebook page. “The so-called ‘Freedom From Religion’ foundation is welcome to stay in Wisconsin and avoid being offended.”

This year, Rainbow City is once again planning to defy the FFRF.

Local State Representative Mack Butler on Thursday announced community leaders’ plan to host a “Night at the Nativity” two days before Christmas.

“The theme for this event is Night at the Nativity,” he explained. “Wednesday, December 23rd at 6 p.m., we will have a live nativity scene and worship at Rainbow City Hall. This is not sponsored by our local government as they cannot endorse religion. However ‘We the People’ can. I have met in person and by phone with several local pastors who are helping with this event. Many of the local churches are moving their service to city hall this night. We will sing Christmas carols and have cookies and hot chocolate as we celebrate as a community the best gift of all, Jesus Christ.”

It is probably only a matter of time before an FFRF attorney files of a threat letter to the folks in Rainbow city, especially considering its long history of going after other Alabama towns and institutions:

Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza recently placed small decals on the back of every patrol car in his fleet with an excerpt from Matthew 5:9, stating “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

“I’ve always had religious belief, and I feel like that’s kept me alive,” Valenza said. “We’ve used that (quote) with (the special response team) for 15 years. It symbolizes the Houston County Sheriff’s Office.”

The decals, which Valenza said cost about $1.60 each, received mostly positive feedback from Alabamians and Houston County residents, but they weren’t acceptable to the FFRF.

“Placing decals that literally quote chapter and verse on Houston County property is a clear endorsement of Christianity, especially when the quote is viewed in its full context,” wrote FFRF Staff Attorney Sam Grover to Sheriff Valenza.

The Auburn football team chaplain is not an employee of the University, and is not not being paid by public funds, but the FFRF insisted he is being given “special privileges and unrestricted access because he is a Christian clergyman.”

The Auburn University administration responded to the letter with a short statement.

“Chaplains are common in many public institutions, including the US Congress. The football team chaplain isn’t an Auburn employee, and participation in activities he leads are voluntary.”

The FFRF reportedly sent similar letters to several other SEC schools, including Georgia, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and South Carolina, as well as ACC school Clemson. The group has requested documents from the University of Alabama to investigate its chaplain, as well.

FFRF sent a letter of complaint to Glencoe city hall back in March, but the flag, which flew in front of City Hall, was not removed until late June when the mayor received a second letter threatening legal action.

In an interview with Fox 6 News, Mayor Charles Gilchrist said the city attorney warned about another town that was sued over a similar matter. That town had to pay $500,000 in damages plus $50,000 in legal fees.

“That would just about ruin us,” said Gilchrist. “That’s what they do, they pick on these smaller towns that can’t defend ourselves.”

FFRF threatened Piedmont, Ala., with a lawsuit if it didn’t change the theme of its Christmas parade from “Keeping Christ in Christmas.”

The theme “alienates non-Christians and others in Piedmont who do not in fact have a ‘strong belief in prayers’ by turning them into political outsiders in their own community,” according to FFRF attorney Andrew Seidel. “The sentiment of ‘Keeping Christ in Christmas’ does not qualify as a secular celebration.”

The attorney’s letter told the mayor to find a “more appropriate, more inclusive, and constitutional theme” for the parade.

“It was a great theme,” mayor Bill Baker told Fox News in response. “I was totally shocked when I received the letter. It’s a small town. It’s a small Christmas parade. We didn’t think there would be any problems at all.”

The town did not back down.

The parade ended up being the largest in Piedmont history, with countless floats prominently featuring signs proclaiming the true “Reason for the Season.”

“If all the good Christian people would stick together and lift up the name of Jesus Christ and not let these atheists and non-believers scare us like they do,” one of the local parade organizers told ABC 33/40, “it would be a better world.”

FFRF also threatened Piedmont with a lawsuit if the high school football team did not stop praying before its games.

It backfired.

Rather than it being “officially” led, everyone now just comes to gather on the field before games, “and as citizens, we recited the Lord’s Prayer – out loud,” Mayor Baker said. “One week we had the entire football field encircled by people. It was really wonderful and very moving to me to see people come together and praise God and speak His name out loud.”