A freethought display will go up today in VFW Park in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., to counter two religious holiday displays traditionally hosted in the park, a Catholic church's nativity scene and a menorah put up by the Chabad.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state/church watchdog, is placing a banner offering seasonally irreverent "Reason's Greetings" in a stained glass motif. It will be accompanied by a sign advertising the Freethinkers of Hastings-on-Hudson, which depicts Rodin's "The Thinker" contemplating the village's water tower. Rounding out the display is a Festivus pole, a nod to the satirical secular holiday invented by the television show "Seinfeld."
"If religious displays are allowed, then there must be 'room at the inn' for all points of view, including irreverency and freethought," said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
This is the first year FFRF is placing a display in Hastings-on-Hudson. The leader of Freethinkers of Hastings-on-Hudson, Patrick Randolph Bell, will unveil the displays in an event beginning at 7:00 tonight.
FFRF is the nation's largest association of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics), with more than 21,500 members, including over 1,200 in New York.