A privately sponsored Nativity scene now stands inside the Georgia Capitol rotunda, with organizers setting their sights on making it an annual presentation.
“I couldn’t think of a better spot,” Atlanta’s Catholic Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory said of the setting, which includes the state’s towering Capitol Christmas tree under the building’s soaring Gold Dome.
But while the evergreen — bedecked in white lights and gold and red ribbons — is generally accepted as a universal holiday symbol, the tableau is overtly religious, representing the birth of Jesus as celebrated by Christians on Christmas Day.
A spokeswoman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State said the display, which made its debut Tuesday, was likely constitutional because current law allows any group to rent the rotunda for events or temporary exhibitions. However, she said, the state would also have to allow similar exhibits since it allowed this one.
The scene, or creche, is being underwritten by the Chicago-based Thomas More Society and sponsored by a state affiliate of the American Nativity Scene Committee. Both groups have sponsored similar displays across the country, including in Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, Rhode Island and Texas.
“This is our First Amendment right to express our religious belief,” said Ann E. Witt, who spearheaded the Georgia effort and led a small dedication ceremony Tuesday.
The display, which was hand-built by a Duluth teenager as part of his Eagle Scout project, will remain in the rotunda through Monday.
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