Florida Woman Demands Equal Treatment for Public Nativity Display

Florida Woman Demands Equal Treatment for Public Nativity Display

By Allie Martin
December 11, 2006

(AgapePress) - A Christian activist says officials in one Florida town are favoring Judaism and the Jewish Menorah over her Christian Nativity display, and she wants the preferential treatment to stop.

Last month, in the latest chapter of a three-year battle between Christian activist Sondra Snowdon and city officials in the town of Bay Harbor Islands, the Town Council placed a Menorah in the center position at a designated public forum and relegated a Christmas crèche to a side location.

"When I went to find where the Nativity would be displayed," Snowdon recalls, "I was told the Menorah would be front and center and that the Nativity would have to be put off somewhere to the side." However, this did not sit well with the Christian woman, who says she "at that particular time, told the Town Council and the town that my Jesus would not take a second place."

Snowdon notes that the city officials also passed an ordinance forbidding any ceremonies affiliated with the Nativity display. However, she points out, individuals of the Jewish faith often visit the Menorah display and pray with a rabbi during Hanukah.

"The town, in the placement of the Menorah, has decided that the Menorah is even taking over that position of my Jesus," the Christian activist contends. "And all I'm asking for," she insists, "is equality here in Bay Harbor Islands."

The Nativity scene displayed in the public forum is one paid for by Snowdon herself. However, she notes, the town of Bay Harbor Islands paid for the Menorah with taxpayer dollars.

Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.