Posted December 16, 2005.

Tennessee Library Resurrects Crèche Exhibit

The Bartlett, Tennessee, branch of the Memphis–Shelby County Public Library and Information Center allowed a local church group December 8 to reinstate the figures of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus in a crèche that the group has placed in the library’s community display window. Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald asked the library to waive its policy of barring sectarian or political displays after the Alliance Defense Fund, a coalition of religious-rights attorneys, threatened to file a First Amendment lawsuit over the incident.

Brandi Chambless of the Broadmoor Baptist Church had received permission to display the crèche as part of the church’s announcement of its “Sing Joy” musical program on December 11 and 12. But on November 29 a library worker told Chambless she couldn’t place religious figures in the window. “We asked her to remove the entire Nativity scene,” Betty Anne Wilson, MSCPL assistant director for library advancement, said in the December 9 Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Besides contacting the ADF, Chambless took her protest to the Fox News Channel’s show The O’Reilly Factor, where she appeared as part of TV personality Bill O’Reilly’s coverage of what he has termed the war against Christmas.

In a December 14 news story that aired on Memphis NBC affiliate WMC-TV, Chambless indicated she might continue her challenge to library policy. “We don’t believe it would be fair to have the citizens of Bartlett have one set of rules and have the citizens of Memphis have another set,” she remarked. Wilson responded, “If someone asks us to review our policy, we normally do.”

In the meantime the city of Bartlett plans to review policies for its library, which contracts with the Memphis–Shelby County system for branch management, the Commercial Appeal reported.

Posted December 16, 2005.