A woke small-town mayor caused a national outrage after demanding a small Nativity scene hosted by one of the community’s citizen-led committees be removed over concerns of offending non-Christians living there. In response, many of the same citizens have defied Mayor Miki Pickett of Mullins, South Carolina and vowed to either keep it up or remove all the secular decorations as well, saying Christ is at the center of Christmas.
For context, Mullins is a town of about 4,000 people with “churches on every corner,” according to Kimberly Byrd, head of the Mullins Beautification Committee and organizer of the attempt to promote the town. She wanted a display to draw more customers to their quaint downtown area and make it look like a “Hallmark movie.” She also said all of the arrangements were paid not by tax dollars but out of committee members’ own pockets.
Decorations included a snowman, several wreaths, lighting, a Santa Claus, and the controversial Nativity scene featuring Mary, Joseph, and the Baby Jesus. Mayor Pickett personally reached out to Byrd, she claimed, saying she wanted the Christ representation removed lest someone of another faith take offense to seeing a Christian-centered display. The request left her stunned, she added.
“Our small town, we have a church on every corner,” Byrd relayed in an interview with Fox News Digital. “It’s a faith-based community in the Bible Belt. I’ve been here 53 years of my life and never heard of anything like this happening here.” In defiance of the request, Byrd said she had the support of city council members and declined to accommodate Pickett’s ask on account of promoting both her and her communities’ values but also the true meaning of Christmas.
“Christ is why we celebrate Christmas,” the head of the beautification committee stated. “I really thought she would probably change her mind or come back and say, ‘I’m sorry, I made a mistake. Let’s have a meeting about this,’ but nothing.”
For her part, woke Mayor Pickett released a statement replete with the typical pablum of ‘tolerance’ and ‘inclusion’ that is decidedly not tolerant and inclusive of Christianity. Lamentably, irony is always lost on the progressive left. In a statement shared on social media, the mayor declared that the oft-misunderstood “separation of church and state” clause be honored.
“I would like to clarify my reported comment about the nativity scene. I requested that the nativity scene be removed solely from the PUBLIC parking area. The reason for this is the separation of Church and State applies to municipalities as well, regarding religious symbols on public property and parks,” the statement began.
“We are a community composed of various ethnicities and religious beliefs. Both my family and I are deeply rooted in our own beliefs. I want to emphasize that I have never stated that nativity scenes should be prohibited in Mullins,” she continued.
“If there was any misunderstanding regarding my request, it was specifically about the PUBLIC space. I take pride in being the mayor for everyone, regardless of whether you voted for me or share the same beliefs as my family,” it concluded, with one final touch yet to come.
Saving the final insult, the mayor punctuated her statement on tearing down Christmas with the government-loved phrase of “Happy Holidays All!” Fox News Digital said it attempted to get a response from the mayor but her office declined.
As the standoff takes shape, Byrd declared she would remove all of the Christmas decorations if her bid to keep the Nativity scene loses. Without Christ at the center of the season, the rest is just material and secular fluff. “How are we supposed to explain to our kids that we have to hide our religion, hide our beliefs, and hide what Christmas is about?” Byrd reiterated. “Christmas is not about Santa Claus. It’s about the birth of Jesus. I never thought I’d have to do anything like this,” she said. “But at the end of the day, we have to stand for what we believe in and what is right.”
Amazingly, there is precedent for this exact situation, ruled over four decades ago at the Supreme Court no less. In that case, the 1984 decision Lynch v. Donnelly upheld a small city’s Nativity displays. That decision exactly mirrored the Mullins case, as the majority of justices argued the totality of non-Christian Christmas displays such as a tree and Santa figure rounded out the seasonal attitude rather than promote a purely religious idea.