Monday, August 30, 2021

Endorsement vs. Disapproval



Excerpt from my article:


 
But when evaluating a public culture such as ours, in which government endorses many things and celebrates many causes,[1] how are we to determine whether a Christmas nativity display in a local park or public school endorses religion, or whether the removal of such a display by a federal court injunction endorses a message of disapproval of religion? Why are citizens who celebrate Christmas marked as favored insiders when the Christmas display is only one of hundreds appearing in the public square in the course of any given year? Indeed, when a religious display is singled out and cleansed from a public square open to all sorts of secular displays by a federal court applying the endorsement test, doesn’t this judicial decree tell the religious display’s willing audience that they are outsiders and less than full members of the political community?




[1] See Kevin Seamus Hasson, The Right to Be Wrong: Ending the Culture War Over Religion in America 128 (2005) (observing that government “celebrates everything from National Catfish Day to National Jukebox Week.”) I would add that government also celebrates many ethnic and cultural causes such as Cinco de Mayo, Gay Pride Month, Black History Month, Earth Day and Kwanza. A truly “neutral” public culture in a pluralistic society should recognize and celebrate the full scope of its diversity, not merely secular subgroups and secular ideas.

No comments: