‘They Took Down a Painting of Jesus’
A senior citizens apartment complex in Omaha, Nebraska is facing mounting legal trouble after management allegedly removed a painting of Jesus from a common area wall—an act critics say is part of a broader pattern of hostility toward Christian residents.
The controversy centers on Millard Manor Senior Apartments, a federally subsidized housing complex overseen by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. According to residents and their legal advocates, the complex recently ordered the removal of Christian imagery, including a picture of Jesus, while continuing to allow secular decorations.
“This is the second time we’ve run into issues with this complex,” Olivia Summers, senior litigation counsel with the American Center for Law and Justice, told Todd Starnes during an interview. “This time they’re trying to ban Jesus. They’ve even taken his picture off the wall.”
Summers said the artwork was not imposed by management, but placed by the senior citizens themselves—many of whom have lived in the complex for years and were previously allowed to decorate shared spaces with personal items, including religious displays.
“These are the senior citizens that live there,” Summers said. “These are their personal items that they were allowed to use to decorate for years. And then all of a sudden the complex decided to change course and remove them from being displayed.”
The removal of the Jesus painting follows earlier disputes at the same complex, including a decision several years ago to ban residents from holding a Bible study on the property. Taken together, critics argue the actions amount to unconstitutional religious discrimination.
Starnes pressed Summers on the legal implications, asking what federal law has to say about such actions.
“The Fair Housing Act is pretty clear,” Summers explained. “It has to be neutral. So if they’re allowing secular displays, they can allow religious displays as well. You have Christmas trees—you can have nativity scenes. It’s not an issue.”
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Summers noted that the ACLJ initially believed the matter could be resolved through education, suggesting management may have misunderstood the law. But after informing the complex of its obligation to remain neutral, Summers said officials refused to reverse course.
As a result, the ACLJ has filed a formal complaint with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is awaiting the outcome of a federal investigation.
“We’re still waiting to hear from HUD,” Summers said. “HUD will open an investigation and require the housing complex to give an account of what they’re doing. And once they do that, we’ll be involved in the investigation because we’re representing our clients.”
Perhaps most troubling, Summers said, was how residents discovered their religious items had been removed.
“They were actually taken down overnight,” she said. “They woke up and found out that these personal displays of theirs had been removed. Initially the complex put them back up, but then they were taken down again overnight and thrown into a closet randomly without any care.”
Summers said the residents—many of them grandmothers and grandfathers—were “quite appalled” by the treatment.
As the legal battle unfolds, the ACLJ warns that unless the complex remedies what it calls clear religious discrimination, further legal action may follow. As Summers put it succinctly, “The Constitution does not take off for the holidays.”