BELEN, N.M. (AP) – The little New Mexico town of Belen – Spanish for Bethlehem – is fighting to keep a year-round Nativity scene on city property.
Belen Mayor Jerah Cordova told The Associated Press the city will resist pressure from a Wisconsin-based group to remove a piece of art on the birth of Jesus. Cordova says the city would even sell the property to keep the Nativity scene up.
Freedom From Religion Foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor says Belen is violating the U.S. Constitution by having the religious art on city property. She says if Belen puts the property up for sale, her foundation may bid on it and would replace the art with a monument to nonbelievers.
Cordova said those who oppose the Nativity scene are “outsiders” who don’t understand the history and culture of New Mexico – a former Spanish territory with deep Hispanic and spiritual Catholic ties.
