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.
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