Non-Christians seek equal space in parks

COLUMBUS (AP) — Zoroastrians and pagans, both claiming roles for their faiths in the Christmas tradition, won’t stop fighting to have their nontraditional holiday displays placed alongside nativity scenes in Ohio state parks.

Efforts by both have so far been rejected by the administration of Gov. Ted Strickland, an ordained Methodist minister, who recently ordered Christian crèches placed back in two state parks that had disallowed them due to religious concerns.

The battle comes in a year that the Rev. Charles Nestor, an Assemblies of God minister in Lakeland, Fla., promoted “Operation Nativity,” urging Christians to flood the country with nativity displays at their homes, churches and businesses.

The effort was an attempt to reclaim the role of Christian faith over secularization in the Christmas holiday.

Nativity scenes at Shawnee State Park in Scioto County in southern Ohio and Malabar Farm in Richland County in north-central Ohio, which sparked the Ohio controversy, had been long-standing traditions.

The governor views Christmas nativity displays as akin to Christmas trees on a village green, or statues of Frosty the Snowman or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, his spokesman has said.

Tammy Miller was thwarted in her attempt this year to have the parks also display the “happy humanist” of the Humanists, whose philosophy favors human rationality and morality over belief in a higher power.

She said she is now preparing a Wiccan pentagram, with help from Tarot card artist Robin Wood, that she wants to see displayed on the next pagan holiday, Yule, in February.

Early Christian leaders chose to celebrate Jesus’ birth on Dec. 25 because of the date’s proximity to the popular winter solstice, Miller said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

“My great grandma Mae loved hearing about the Imbolc celebrations of the pending spring back in Ireland,” Miller wrote in a Dec. 12 letter to Tony Logan. legal counsel for the Ohio Department of natural Resources.

“I feel that our holidays are mostly derived from their ancient holidays. They deserve the credit for our modern holidays even more than my Happy Humanist.”

David Russell, whose recent request to place a Zoroastrian display at Shawnee State Park was rejected by Strickland, said he will pursue his request “to its logical conclusion.”