Baby Jesus is keeping strange company.
For the better part of 50 years, a creche and a Christmas tree were the only holiday displays on the Loudoun County Courthouse grounds.
Then came the atheists. And the Jedis. And the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster - each with its own decorations. A skeleton Santa Claus was mounted on a cross, intended by its creator to portray society's obsession with consumerism. Nearby, a pine tree stood adorned with atheist testimonials. ("I can be moral without religion," declared one laminated ornament.)
Flying Spaghetti Monster devotees are scheduled to put up their contribution this weekend. It's a banner portraying a Nativity-style scene, but Jesus is nowhere to be found. Instead, the Virgin Mary cradles a stalk-eyed noodle-and-meatball creature, its manger surrounded by an army of pirates, a solemn gnome and barnyard animals. The message proclaims: "Touched by an Angelhair."
With the new displays, a new tradition was born: a charged seasonal debate.
This year, the dispute struck a particularly raw nerve. Skeleton Santa was ripped down - twice. Kenneth Reid, Loudoun County supervisor-elect for the Leesburg district, sent a news release opposing "outrageous anti religious displays." In a letter to a local newspaper, one resident decried the "mean-spirited attack by the faithless on the faithful."
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