AP reports (link dead) that the parks superintendent of St. Albans, WV, set up the community’s holiday display:

ST. ALBANS, W.Va. — Christ is missing from Christmas in this small town. The community’s holiday display has a manger with shepherds, a guiding star, camels and a palm tree, but no baby Jesus, Mary or Joseph.

The parks superintendent said Jesus was left out because of concerns about the separation of church and state. But Mayor Dick Callaway said it was done for purely technical reasons: “It’s not easy to put a lit-up representation of a baby in a small manger scene, you know.”

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David Cunningham, parks superintendent in this town of 11,000, initially insisted St. Albans’ display was not even technically a manger scene. But the mayor disputed that and said Cunningham was unnecessarily worried about lawsuits.

“We have a manger scene,” the mayor said.

I am curious. If a manger scene ticks you off, is your anger assuaged when Mom, Step-dad, and baby are removed? I think the attempt to halfway do a manger scene insults both Christians and anti-Christians.

There is no constitutional right not to be offended. If you don’t want the government to put up a manger scene, get elected, then don’t set it up. Yes, you can argue that there’s force involved in the confiscation of your tax dollars to pay for something you don’t believe in. There’s also force in the confiscation of your tax dollars to pay for the judge and the public attorneys to hear your Establishment Clause case against a government where you can make changes in other ways.

That all said, it seems like everyone would be happy if private money were used to establish a complete nativity scene on a novel site: church grounds. If your church sits across from City Hall, so much the better.