A man in a Muncie Indiana apartment complex sparked a controversy over a four-foot-tall lit statue of Jesus that resides(d) on his patio. Apparently, a nearby spotlight cast the statue’s shadow against the wall of a neighboring apartment. After the spotlight was removed, the statue remained an issue of contention, and the manager of the complex, Mike Desloover, wanted it gone. Why? Apparently, the manager didn’t want to offend anybody’s religious sensibilities.

Now, you know me. I’m a scary, horrible, heartless libertarian. But I have kind of a soft spot for managers. It can’t be easy to do their jobs, and most of the contact that they have with their tenants is because of complaints or overdue rent. They get a thousand complaints, half of which are actually under their jurisdiction, and they get little to no co-operation from the majority of the people that they’re working with. In short, it’s an awful job, and you get jaded fast. I wonder if Mike wassn’t simply looking to avoid some unpleasantness for himself in the future. I can’t blame him.

Now, this isn’t a really big issue, to be honest. Things a hundred times more horrible and shocking are our there for me to write about. In fact, this is sort of a minutiae. But I find that within minutiae, there are broader themes, and larger things at play. And so, I’d like to focus on a couple of what I see as the broader themes and questions that are raised over this issue.

I believe that the first question raised is about the nature of multiculturalism, for certainly, multiculturalism is the main source of momentum for this ‘issue’. Does multiculturalism demand that the statue be removed?

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