Here is an interesting article on the legal status of Government and
Christmas displays in the United States. For those of you who may not
familiar, this is not mentioned in the article, but the government has
resolved the conflict between the very popular Christmas Holiday and the US
First Amendment ("Congress shall pass no law regarding the establishment of
religion nor the free exercise thereof.") by declaring that there are two
holidays of the name "Christmas" celebrated on December 25th, a religious
one and a secular one. Of course, separating the two can be tricky
sometimes, which is where the following article comes in:
http://slate.msn.com/?id=2060070
My solution:
-a religious display on public land that is clearly identified as being
produced by a private entity is perfectly acceptable, so long as all
private religious entites have equal access and opportunity
-I would also extend this to say that so long as the government places
religious displays from more than one religion during the year in a
substantially equal manner would also be acceptable. For example,
Hanukkah is a fairly minor Jewsh holiday, and there is no reason why the
menorah should be *the* public Jewish display, simply because it occurs in
December. So long as the Jewish, or Muslim, or Buddhist display is not
displayed in a substantially inferior way to the Christian display, then
there is no problem with it. It is simply the government reflecting the
religious beliefs of its citizens. In the article, the placing of a
creche in one park and menorah in another park would meet this test -- as
by making displays of more than one religion, the government is clearly not
establishing a religion.
John D.
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John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"Our campaign against international terrorism does not represent some
sort of 'clash of civilizations.' Instead, it is a clash between
civilization and those who would destroy it." -Amb. Richard N. Haass
