Making Room for Baby Jesus in the Illinois Rotunda

The Springfield Nativity Scene Committee (SNSC) recently held its annual opening day ceremony for their privately sponsored and funded display depicting the birth of Jesus Christ.  This display marks the 10th straight year that this display has had spot in the center of the State Capitol Rotunda, right next to the Governor’s “holiday tree.”

Tom Brejcha, Esq., founder and chief counsel of the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, a member of the SNSC and its legal counsel, explained the constitutional rights of private citizens to erect Nativity Scenes as a form of free speech and free exercise of religion in America’s “public square.”  Pastor Greg Wooten of Hope Chapel in Lincoln and Father Charles Edwards of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield also spoke during the opening ceremony.