"Hawke" wrote in message
...

"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
...

It's a little like racial discrimination, as I see it. We've had a law
against discrimination for a very long time, but it's still a task to
get
some people to live up to the law. Likewise, living up to the
Constitution,
which says we won't establish religion, is a never-ending battle.

FWIW, I happen to believe that the fundamental constitutional principle
is
that the government will not encourage or promote any religion, or any
group
of religions. But I don't think it was intended for the government to
prevent citizens from expressing their religion in public settings.
There
was a Supreme Court ruling that drew a fine line between the two, and I
think it was a fine decision.

In other words, at Christmastime, if the people of a town want a manger
and
a Christmas display in the town square, I'm all for it. But they'd
better
also allow any other religious display, at the appropriate religious
holidays.

--
Ed Huntress

See the problem with that? If everyone was of one religion it wouldn't be
a
problem for them to put up displays related to their religious practices.
Unfortunately, we no longer have a country where everyone, or nearly
everyone, is of the same religion. Now we have Christians, Muslims, Jews,
Buddhists, Wicca's, Atheists, and various others. The trend is for there
to
be ever more diversity. So how can you have any one group putting up their
religious displays on public ground? You can't it wouldn't be fair.

Yeah, I see the problem with that, but I also see another problem -- one
that's only come to me as I've aged and mellowed. That other problem is that
you can try too hard to squeeze religion out of civil life by scrubbing and
abrading all evidence of it from public places -- from the commons. In the
balance, it's destructive to do so, IMO. It can be something like censoring
news.

I've not tried to shape this into words and I won't make a serious effort
now. But here is the underlying idea: We live in a society that's dominated
by one group of closely related religions and it's unrealistic to expect it
not to assert itself. So be it, so far. We also live in a system that has
decided government and religion shall be kept separate. Also good, so far.
We have avoided regulating the practice of religion except in rare cases: no
sacrificing of chickens in public parks, for example. g

So we should go as far as we can to allow expression of all religions while
keeping government out of it. Now, in our excessive zeal, we've gone from
avoiding government favoritism and support for one religion to disallowing
any expression of religion in publicly supported places. The trend has
fostered a sense that religion not only has to be kept out of public places,
but that it also must not be acknowledged, even in public schools. No "Merry
Christmas." But most people are thinking "Merry Christmas." It's in their
thoughts.

Too much social delicacy, IMO. Instead of equal treatment, we wind up with
universal avoidance. In doing so we leach some of the color and life out of
our culture, not to mention a recognition of the importance of religion to
our history. There is more to religions than their underlying beliefs, and a
government that doesn't acknowledge them is a government that is one more
step removed from the lives of the people living with that government. It's
one more bit of unreality that separates government from life as it really
is.

In the tradeoff, I'll take Christmas displays in public places. Also other
religious displays. But we're dominated by Christianity. I expect to see
more Christian displays, as I would expect to see more displays of other
religions in other parts of the world. I prefer this to the blandness of no
displays at all. I'm not worried that it will add to the weight of
prosyletizing so much as I'm worried that avoiding it will disconnect us a
bit more from the reality of civil life.

The only
reasonable thing is to deny all of them the right to display their
religion
in public places.

I think that's too much reasonableness and that it bleeds too much out of
our civil life.

If you are
interested in peace and fairness you simply say; no religious displays on
public property, end of problem.

But you've created another problem, and I think it's a worse one.

--
Ed Huntress