MY NEW HERO
Jasen Dixon
A man in Ohio is facing legal action if he does not take down his Nativity scene that features zombies instead of traditional biblical characters. Jasen Dixon told WXIX that he manages 13 Rooms of Doom haunted house, so he already had the zombies, including one resembling the baby Jesus…. “I wanted a Nativity scene and I worked with what I had,” he explained. Neighbor Dan Fluker said that he didn’t really pay attention to the Nativity scene “until the different color lights came on, then finally the baby was put in the manger.”…. “The neighbors don’t like it. My father hates it and anything bad that happens he blames it on that,” Dixon pointed out. “On the average we probably get 30 or 40 cars stop and taking pictures, getting out with their camera. People that follow zombie movies and stuff like that love it[.]”…. But just days after WXIX spoke to Dixon, Sycamore Township township ordered him to take it down or face legal action. Town officials claimed that Dixon was breaking the rules with a structure on the front side of his yard, and a display that took up more than 35 percent of the area.
On today’s episode of “Great Moments in Religious Freedumb,” we find our hero, Jasen Dixon standing up for his right to create such Christmas decorations as he desires on his property. On the surface, it doesn’t appear Mr. Dixon possesses any evil intent, merely that he was, as he put it, working with what he had on hand. Since Halloween decorations don’t always translate well to Christmas, it’s understandable that the resulting Nativity scene might be a bit…unusual. His neighbors see Zombie Jesus; Dixon sees a Nativity scene that’s just a bit different from the norm because that’s what he had to work with…but hardly maliciously, blasphemous, and/or sacrilegious. It’s a privately-created Nativity scene on private property; what business Sycamore Township feels it has regulating public speech would certainly make for an interesting discussion. Then again, I suspect they felt the need to respond to the butthurt tender sensibilities of the good, God-fearing patriots to whom they owe their livelihood.
BUTBUTBUT…it’s Zombie Jesus!! How can Dixon be allowed to blaspheme the baby Jesus like that?? Won’t we all go to Hell if we allow it to continue??
To someone less cynical than myself, this might seem a case of people getting their panties in a wad over something that in the end matters not all…and that assessment is absolutely correct. People can see what they wish or choose to see in Dixon’s display. If Dixon’s father chooses to see the Nativity scene as a harbinger of evil and a talisman for every misfortune that befalls him, that’s his right in a free society- just as it is his son’s right to decorate his Nativity scene as he sees fit.
No, what this case really seems to be about is religious freedom, or, in this case, the freedom of those who adhere to an inflexible version of the majority faith which allows them justification for imposing their will on those who happen not to think, live, and/or believe as they do. They demand their rights and sensibilities be respected even as they refuse to extend the same courtesy to those not “enlightened” enough to share their narrow moral/theological worldview.
It shouldn’t be within the township’s authority to proscribe certain forms of speech, nor to enforce a narrow definition of religious freedom. I’m choosing to interpret the township’s giving Dixon until the day AFTER Christmas to take down his Nativity scene as tacit admission and recognition they have no legal leg to stand on. At least this way, they can respond to complaining residents and contend they took action to address their concerns (baseless and unconstitutional though they may be). There’s every chance Dixon’s Nativity scene would be coming down ‘round bout then, anyway. Problem solved…sort of.
If nothing else, it saves taxpayers a lot of money defending a lawsuit they’d most certainly lose while allowing the township a degree of plausible deniability. They can go on thinking they’ve done their part to protect their religious freedom (even as they deny the same to Dixon), and the township gets a no-muss, no-fuss way out of a no-win faux controversy.
