A $2,000 reward is being offered after an atheist banner installed to counter a Nativity scene was vandalized again in an Arlington Heights park, officials said Monday.
“We’re very disappointed, obviously, that this would happen in a very progressive area, a very tolerant area,” said Tom Cara, president of the Chicago chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
The repeated offense is prompting the cash incentive funded by the national group for what it considers to be a hate crime.
“We are offering a reward for any information leading to a determination of who has done this,” Cara said.
This is the second year that signs bearing atheist beliefs from the Freedom From Religion Foundation were damaged at North School Park, near the annual Arlington Heights holiday lights display, said Steve Scholten, executive director of the Arlington Heights Park District.
“The maintenance of those things is the responsibility of the owners of those signs,” Scholten said. “Obviously, we would encourage people to understand that this is an expression of freedom of speech and to not vandalize any of the displays out there.”
The foundation, in conjunction with the umbrella organization Chicago Coalition of Reason, had set up this year’s atheist display Nov. 29. It included a vinyl banner owned by the coalition and a 5-foot-tall scarlet letter “A” owned by the foundation, as well as two aluminum signs indicating both groups’ contributions, Cara said.
The banner, which measured 31/2 by 7 feet and read “Are you good without God? Millions are,” was ripped from its attachments sometime Sunday, Cara said. The Freedom From Religion Foundation contribution sign was also severely bent.
“The banner itself must have been ripped out with some tremendous force, because we had screw eye hooks and the banner stand is made of wood,” Cara said.
Another atheist banner was vandalized in December 2013. Cara said police determined that someone had kicked a tear into it, but the offender was never identified.
The foundation has posted atheist messages at the park since 2012, when a Christian activist filed a complaint against the Park District demanding permission to install a Nativity scene at the park near downtown.
Officials at first rejected the donation but then allowed the Nativity scene to be put up with a special-use permit, acknowledging that there were no policies in place to deal with “unattended displays” on public property. The Freedom From Religion Foundation then countered immediately with its own request.
“Our reason for putting (up) our displays is to communicate the understanding to people that religion and nonreligion is a very divisive issue and should not be debated on public property,” Cara said. “Secular public property should be neutral on the subject of religion. … What we do is a response to what they do.”
The Park District has since approved a formal policy limiting such displays to two of its parks and only for certain times of the year.
Cara said he is getting the banner repaired or replaced and that the bent aluminum sign has been straightened. The atheist foundation said it has had its banners vandalized or stolen in other parts of the country before.
“This has happened very often to us,” Cara said.
