Ohio town threatens to sue resident over zombie nativity scene
If you want to put up a nativity scene in your front yard in Deer Park, Ohio, your baby Jesus must not be undead. Resident Jason Dixon found this out the hard way after he put up a zombie-themed nativity scene that he thought was appropriate because he owns a haunted house. "I wanted a nativity scene and I worked with what I had," Dixon says.
The scene has attracted extensive attention from passersby, as well as a threat of legal action from Sycamore Township, the 12-town municipality conglomerate that includes Deer Park. City officials say the structure is objectionable only because it takes up more than 35 percent of Dixon's front yard, but he argues that "if it was a real pretty nativity scene they wouldn't be saying anything." --Bonnie Kristian
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.