The Other McCain

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God Bless You, Mary Zenecki!

Posted on | December 5, 2011 | 55 Comments

News from Virginia via Quinton Report:

A skeleton, dressed as Santa Claus, nailed to a cross, was torn down by an enraged woman outside of the Loudoun County Courthouse.
The display was legally there, with the consent of the county, officials said.
Mary Zenecki, a county resident, wasn’t having it. She, piece by piece and bone by bone took “Skele-Claus” off the cross and laid him on the courthouse’s lawn. . . .
The display was put there by Jeff Heflin. He applied for approval with the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors to put up his anti-Christmas Season display.
“It depicts how society’s materialistic obsessions and addictions are killing the season’s peace, love, joy and kindness,” Heflin said. . . .
The leader of the Northern Virginia Atheists, Rick Wingrove, says tearing down the display was illegal, and people should keep an open mind.
“Offense is in the eye of the beholder. We’re offended by the religious displays on government property. We think it’s constitutionally improper,” Wingrove said. . . .

Jeff Quinton comments: “[W]hat would the reaction be in both the media and in public opinion if this was a display mocking the religion of Jews, Muslims, or any other non-Christian faith?”

 

Category: Christmas, Quinton Report, Religion, Virginia

Comments

55 Responses to “God Bless You, Mary Zenecki!”

  1. richard mcenroe
    December 5th, 2011 @ 7:52 pm

    How is an attack on Christianity not a religious statement?

  2. Bob Belvedere
    December 5th, 2011 @ 8:17 pm

    I say ‘Yeah’ Mary Zenecki.

  3. newrouter
    December 5th, 2011 @ 8:17 pm

    separation of a -theism and state

  4. ThePaganTemple
    December 5th, 2011 @ 8:18 pm

    Here’s a pic of Skeleclause-

    http://www.loudountimes.com/images/uploads/santa_thumb.jpg

    Liberals don’t have a god damn lick of sense. How would you like to try to explain that to your kids? Maybe Wingrove should have the fucking flesh tore off his bones and his mangy ass hung on a cross at the county courthouse. Why the hell not, it would get his point across better than a fake ass skeleton. Asshole.

  5. Adjoran
    December 5th, 2011 @ 8:35 pm

    How the less than 1% of the population who are atheists managed to get their religion established is one of the sad tales of the degradation of our culture that has marked the last half century.

  6. herddog505
    December 5th, 2011 @ 8:40 pm

    Good for the goose, good for the gander, I say.

    Had this display (the things people dream up, eh?) been on private property, then I’d say that Zenecki would have been totally out of line to pull it down.  But it apparently – somehow – got official government sanction.  Despite the “artist’s” lame blather about it being a statement on commercialism, it is a pretty clearly an (anti)religious statement on public property, which violates the separation of church and state that libs never tire of telling us is somewhere in the Constitution.  Therefore, down it goes.

  7. Christy Waters
    December 5th, 2011 @ 8:41 pm

    So if “offense is in the eye of the beholder”, why is Jeff Heflin’s right to offend Mary Zenecki constitutionally protected, but if Zenecki offends Heflin or Wingrove by putting up a nativity scene outside the county courthouse, it’s “constitutionally improper”?

  8. jwallin
    December 5th, 2011 @ 9:24 pm

    May God bless you Mary Zenecki and may God reek upon your enemies his righteous wrath at their impious and devilish works.

  9. Virginia County Approved Permit for Crucified Santa Skeleton Display | The Quinton Report
    December 5th, 2011 @ 9:29 pm

    […] blogging: Robert Stacy McCain Doug Ross Categories : News, Pop Culture Tags : Christmas, […]

  10. wschoenfuss
    December 5th, 2011 @ 9:53 pm

    “[W]hat would the reaction be in both the media and in public opinion if
    this was a display mocking the religion of Jews, Muslims, or any other
    non-Christian faith?”

    Well, mocking Jews is OK. But other than that…

  11. Anonymous
    December 5th, 2011 @ 9:55 pm

    If only Christians threatened to behead Atheists and suicide-bomb their homes, we might become a more peaceful, respectful society. Isn’t that how “requesting” respect is done now?

    These pseudo-militant Atheists really aren’t helping their cause. I’m Agnostic and despise these Passive-Aggressivists.

    And what’s with the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors for partaking in this hatred of Christians nevermind Wingrove’s ignorance WRT the Freedom of Religion not from Religion? The voters better exercise their memory cells and recall this during the next election.

  12. Anonymous
    December 5th, 2011 @ 9:56 pm

    Only if you’re Jewish.

  13. Anonymous
    December 5th, 2011 @ 10:59 pm

    C’mon, man, you’re being a total buzzkill.  We just need to know what time Dancing With The Stars is on, and who won the game.

  14. Anonymous
    December 5th, 2011 @ 11:09 pm

    My religion believes that the only possible antidote for such an insult is a pure,  cleansing fire.

  15. Pathfinder's wife
    December 6th, 2011 @ 12:55 am

    She should claim that she was merely engaging in a piece of performance art herself — throw in some feminist dogwhistle phrases about reclaiming the feminine, something about a protest against the weight issues the patriarchy forces upon society and taking back the narrative.
    Then she could fire back that any prosecution of her actions is merely persecution of the female voice.

  16. Bob Belvedere
    December 6th, 2011 @ 9:19 am

    Hang him upside down.

  17. Bob Belvedere
    December 6th, 2011 @ 9:20 am

    When the law fails, you have to take it into your own hands.

  18. Bob Belvedere
    December 6th, 2011 @ 9:22 am

    I got a righteous lighter.

  19. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 9:51 am

    I don’t recall Heflin or Wingrove vandalizing any nativity scenes. I think you have your facts wrong.

  20. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 9:52 am

    According to the builder, it was an attack on the commercialism of the holiday.

  21. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 9:53 am

    So, if you’re fine with vandalizing a display you don’t like, you must also be fine with them vandalizing any displays they don’t like? Free speech is an all or nothing game.

  22. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 9:54 am

    It wasn’t Wingrove who put the display up. If your kids are old enough to understand the display, they probably don’t believe in Santa anymore. How did you explain “Nighmre before Christmas” to them?

  23. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 9:57 am

    Last I heard, we have three Christian holidays, Halloween, Christmas, and Easter. We also have only one open atheist in Congress. There is a national day of prayer supported by government. There is a chaplain in Congress. There is a Faith-based Initiative.
    So, how, exactly, is atheism established? I think you have your facts wrong.

  24. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 9:59 am

    It was still private property, even if that private property was displayed on government property. If a pro-Christian statement, like the nativity scenes, does not violate separation of church and state, then an anti-Christian statement doesn’t either. You can’t allow one religious view and ban the other and still have separation of church and state.

  25. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 10:01 am

    Spoken like a true Muslim jihadist.

  26. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 10:02 am

    She would need a permit to do that, and only in one of the nine spaces. Even then, vandalizing someone else’s property would be wrong.

  27. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 10:10 am

    True. The state should neither promote atheism, Christianity, or any other religions. It should remain completely secular.

  28. Christy Waters
    December 6th, 2011 @ 10:14 am

    My scenario that Mary Zenecki puts up a nativity scene is hypothetical. Because if she WERE to do that, Wingrove would be hauling her INTO the courthouse so as to force her to take it down. My point being that some people’s right to offend is more constitutionally protected than others.

  29. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 10:38 am

    No, actually, there are two nativity scenes this year, and Rick Wingrove did nothing to either of them, nor has anybody else.

  30. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 10:41 am

    Christians seem to be the only ones with thin skin this time of year. Even a cordial “Happy Holidays” offends them.

  31. Bob Belvedere
    December 6th, 2011 @ 11:27 am

    Free speech is an all or nothing game.

    Leftist mindset at work – grow-up.

  32. Pathfinder's wife
    December 6th, 2011 @ 12:08 pm

    Ok, so you are good to go with the patriarchal oppressors and thought police then?  I see…

  33. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 12:19 pm

    The only thought police I see here is the lady tearing down someone’s display.

  34. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 12:24 pm

    Other than yelling “fire” in a crowded theater, it pretty much is all or nothing. It allows people on both side of an issue to have their say. It benefits religious people as much as non-religious. It is not just a “leftist” mindset, unless you consider our founding fathers leftist.

  35. Pathfinder's wife
    December 6th, 2011 @ 12:54 pm

    Funny, the only thought police/fascist oppressors I see here are people who would take away her right to civil disobedience.
    When will you stop hating Henry David Thoreau?

  36. Bob Belvedere
    December 6th, 2011 @ 1:20 pm

    Freedom of speech is not an absolute right.

  37. Bob Belvedere
    December 6th, 2011 @ 1:28 pm

    It is prevented from establishing a religion.

  38. Bob Belvedere
    December 6th, 2011 @ 1:30 pm

    I get it now ‘nondescript1010’…
    http://thecampofthesaints.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/troll-doll-purple-01.jpg

  39. Bob Belvedere
    December 6th, 2011 @ 1:32 pm

    Tut, tut, nondescripto, tut, tut [apologies, Jeff].

  40. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 2:05 pm

    All you leftists know about religion is that Islam is OK, and all the others, especially Jews, are bad.

  41. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 2:15 pm

    Nothing is an absolute right. However, the Bill of Rights makes it a right in the US.

  42. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 2:17 pm

    A religion is a belief in one or more gods, along with any associated rights and rituals. For the government to promote religion at all is establishing a religion. That’s why it should remain secular.

  43. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 2:18 pm

    Apparently not.

  44. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 2:22 pm

    No, I don’t support Islam, Judaism or any other religion. However, I would fight for their right to free speech. Hell, I even support the Westboro Baptist church’s right to spew their hateful bigotry against gays, and that’s a Christian group. I don’t have to like someone’s message to support their right to say it.

  45. Bob Belvedere
    December 6th, 2011 @ 2:24 pm

    Such an offensive display is not speech.

    What is speech has been so perverted by the Left that their thinking, carried to it’s logical end, is that every action is speech.

    Therefore, this right loses all meaning – which is exactly what the Chaotics want to achieve.

  46. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 2:27 pm

    First, vandalism is not a right.
    I’m all for civil disobedience when warranted, so let’s see what she is fighting here. That’s right, she is fighting to oppress another person’s point of view. No other reason.

  47. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 3:40 pm

    So, should we ban this video, too? http://wonkette.com/432966/texas-christians-execute-santa-clause-video

  48. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 3:43 pm

    So, if you were offended by the Santa on a cross in Leesburg, but not apparently “Nightmare before Christmas” http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2196476928/tt0107688, perhaps this would be more to your liking: http://wonkette.com/432966/texas-christians-execute-santa-clause-video

  49. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 4:33 pm

    And your right to pretend someone is a jihadist, too, for whatever stupid, bizarre reason.

    Congratulations on supporting free speech.

    You should be punished with a baby.

  50. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 4:34 pm

    Free Bird!