Christmas Culture Clash Reaches New Heights

Dec. 22, 2004 — -- Town officials in Bay Harbor Islands, Fla., allowed residents to display holiday decorations such as Christmas trees and Hanukkah menorahs this season, but they would not permit resident Sandra Snowden to erect a nativity scene along a public roadway.

"How can you take Christ out of Christmas?" asked Snowden, a Christian activist. "Jesus is the reason for the season."

But where Snowden sees God, Bay Harbor Islands Mayor Isaac Salver sees a slippery slope.

"The town would be open to having to accept any type of manifestation from any segment of society," he said.

Across the country in large cities and small towns, Christians are protesting what they see as efforts to remove all mention of their Messiah.

"This year, many Christians are raising their voice and saying, 'We've been left out,'" said Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, which addresses issues concerning religious liberty in American public life.

Christian groups are expressing their outrage in a variety of ways. A religious group in California is boycotting Macy's stores since store clerks and displays do not mention Christmas.

In Plano, Texas, 9-year-old Jonathan Morgan was told he could not distribute at his public school candy canes with a message stating the red stripe in the candy represents "the blood Christ shed for the sins of the world." His family sued the school district and won.

A pastor in Raleigh, N.C., has led his congregation in a threatened boycott of businesses that have forgone Christmas displays and greetings in lieu of the generic "Happy Holidays."

Some in Florida have even started practicing civil disobedience. When Polk County commissioners denied one church's request to build a nativity scene outside a courthouse, a neighboring church went ahead and built its own on the lawn of the county administration building.

"Both sides need to relax and to think again about how we can have a place for religion in our public square," said Haynes. "But let's keep the government from imposing religion."

Making peace about such a contentious issue will not be easy.

ABC News' Jake Tapper filed this report for "World News Tonight."