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DALLAS, NC – In downtown Dallas, over a hundred people huddled around a live nativity scene Saturday night, signing hymns and rallying in support of a display now removed from the Courthouse Square.
“That nativity scene needs to be brought back to where it stood for 40 years!” one man cried.
Town leaders received a letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation earlier this year, saying the display needed to go because it sat on public property. The group’s attorney wrote, “Displaying an inherently Christian message on town property unmistakably sends the message that the town of Dallas endorses the religious beliefs embodied in the display.”
“Turn their heads. They don’t have to look at it,” says former Dallas resident Beverly Wellington. She’s one of many who say there’s nothing wrong with keeping it on public property. “Whoever wants to display a nativity scene, should be able to do that,” Wellington says.
“People get offended so quickly by things and the nativity is not anything to offend someone,” said Sarah Jordan, who organized the live nativity.
Now it sits about a block away at John Beaty’s auto shop. “People come by and wave and say ‘thank you,’ blow some horns and stuff like that,” he says. And while Beaty says he’d also like to see the display return, he thinks what happened has brought the town together.
“If anything it strengthens the community. And makes everything a lot better I believe,” Beaty says.
