The Freedom From Religion Foundation has made its mark in the Garden State.
Its Bill of Rights “Nativity” display went up over the weekend in Maplewood’s Ricalton Square and will be there through the new year. The exhibit was placed there last year for the first time to balance multiple religious expressions in this square, such as the town Christmas tree, a local church’s manger and a local synagogue’s menorah.
The irreverent FFRF cutout by artist Jacob Fortin depicts Founders Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington gazing adoringly at a “baby” Bill of Rights in a manger while the Statue of Liberty looks on. A sign beside the tongue-in-cheek Nativity states: “At this season of the Winter Solstice … Join us in honoring the Bill of Rights, adopted on December 15, 1791, which reminds us there can be no religious freedom without the freedom to dissent. Keep religion and government separate!”
FFRF wants to thank FFRF member Steve Mershon and kindred New Jersey nonspirits for installing the display.
“We’re delighted that with the help of our members, we’re able to offer the freethought perspective in New Jersey,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “If there’s going to be religion in the public square, there needs to be ‘room at the inn’ for nonreligion.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a nationwide nonprofit organization dedicated to the constitutional separation of state and church, with over 30,000 members across the country, including 600 in New Jersey.