(Reported By Todd Starnes) Residents at an affordable housing complex for low-income renters were ordered to remove Nativity scenes and other religious symbols from public areas, the Joplin Globe reports. “It was like somebody brought in a vacuum cleaner and sucked the joy out,” resident Linda Hopper told the newspaper. Mercy Village is owned by Mercy Housing Inc., a Denver-based nonprofit. A spokesperson for the company blamed the Fair Housing Act for evicting the Baby Jesus.
“Because of the way the Fair Housing rules work, any decorations have to be religion neutral (in shared spaces),” spokesperson Kate Peterson said in a statement to the newspaper. “So Mercy Housing, as most other property owners, does not allow religiously themed decorations in the common areas at any time of the year.” FULL REPORT
