Christmas Symbols, Christmas Holidays
Do they violate the Separation of Church and State?
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The latter part of the year in the United States is affectionately known as the "holiday season" and less affectionately known as the "silly season." This is the time of year when we experience a cluster of holidays - it starts off slowly enough with Halloween, then begins to pick up speed with Thanksgiving, and as we approach the end of the year, we are moving quickly with Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, New Year's, and sometimes even Ramadan.
This holiday season is, naturally enough, heavily structured with tradition - indeed, tradition is very much the lifeblood of any holiday. We have trick-or-treating during Halloween, family dinner during Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping for most of December, and of course the series of rancorous lawsuits.
Lawsuits? Yes, a relatively recent facet of the holiday season is the holiday lawsuit, where one aggrieved party objects to some aspect of the holidays being endorsed or supported by the government and asks to have it stopped, arguing that it is a violation of the separation of church and state. The government, citing the activity as a tradition (even if it's not that old), refuses to stop, and so the matter goes to court.
What is all of this about? What does it mean for you? Where does the separation of church and state really come into play here?
-->Nativity Displays, Creches and More
Surely the most obvious and divisive of the holiday questions is that of religious displays in public. These generate the most discussion, the most debate, and of course the most lawsuits - including a couple of high-profile Supreme Court cases.Schools and Religious Holidays
Traditionally, public schools in America have been very explicit in their celebration of the holiday season - for students, it was a Christmas holiday season, a Christmas break, and celebratory events were specifically oriented towards Christmas. So long as America has been predominantly Christian in composition, such a focus went unchallenged and even unnoticed by the majority.Naked Public Square?
One common complaint raised about the way strict separationists read the First Amendment is that it leaves the public square "naked," by which it is meant that the public square is now "bare" of religious speech. This, in turn, is believed to foster and encourage public hostility towards religion, something which is actually forbidden by the First Amendment. This view has been widely popularized by Richard John Neuhaus, a Catholic priest and regular critic of the separation of church and state.Demeaning Religion
One of the common arguments raised by those who object to the limitations placed upon how the government accommodates religious beliefs is that such limitations are an expression of hostility. Is that true? Does a strict separation of church and state result in a "naked public square" - a public square without religious speech?Christmas: Religious or Secular?
Americans all over the country in all walks of life look forward to getting a day off on December 25, a day which has traditionally (and almost certainly erroneously) been celebrated as the birth day of Jesus Christ, savior for all Christians. What's wrong with that?Court Cases: Index
Can the government fund religious displays during religious holidays? Can the government give employees religious holidays as paid vacation days? Can public schools fund religious holiday programs? Find out what the courts have decided.
