An Indiana Republican lawmaker is planning to introduce a bill he said would allow government agencies to display Nativity scenes and protect them from litigation by atheists and civil rights groups, WXIN-TV reported…. “We are as a nation allowing this to continue,” state Sen. Jim Smith (R) said. “We are certainly stealing Christmas from our children and from our culture.”…. The “Merry Christmas Bill,” as it is called, is modeled after a Texas law passed last year. The proposal would allow local officials, as well as public schools, to put up Christmas displays or hold Christmas events as long as they include other faiths.
I suppose we should have seen this coming, right? It seems as if every year a Conservative Republican in a Bible-belt state tries to figure out how to circumvent the Constitution so Christians can put up a Nativity scene on government property. Not that they believe their religious beliefs should have primacy over any and all other considerations, of course. Ah, who am I kidding? OF COURSE they believe their religious beliefs take precedence over any and all other considerations, even the constitutional separation of Church and State. After all, it’s the One, True, and ONLY Faith…and, as a very wise and godly Texas Governor/Pastor once said, “Freedom OF religion doesn’t mean freedom FROM religion.”
While faith is important to some and 80% of Americans self-identify as Christian, American governance is secular. That’s a fact (read the Constitution and American history) and it’s one of the truly brilliant things the Founding Fathers did. They knew, in some cases firsthand, what could happen when governance and religion were intermingled. The important part of this consideration is that maintaining the separation of Church and State is the best way to avoid the imposition of religious tyranny. Judging by politicians like Michele Bachmann and other hyper-religious TeaPublican Christian soldiers, their concern was not without basis.
Despite what Sen. Smith may believe, Christians are not being silenced, intimdated, or persecuted…nor are they being told they can’t celebrate Christmas. The separation of Church and State, one of the things that guarantees Christians the right to practice their religion without government oversight, is an important buffer, ensuring that government works for all, not just adherents of the majority religion.
[C]ritics said that state agencies cannot be protected from lawsuits under the Establishment Clause of the 14th Amendment.
“It’s rudimentary that the U.S. Constitution trumps anything they try to do,” ACLU attorney Gavin Rose said. “A lot of people really do get into this war on Christmas thing. It’s not a war on Christmas. It’s an attempt to make sure government abides by what the constitution recognizes is governments role actually is.”
Government works best when it works for all of us. Maintaining a strict separation of the ecclesiastical and the secular ensures that the liberty and freedom Conservatives make so much noise about will not be curtailed by any group or person who’d advocate for turning America into a theocracy.
Sen. Smith would do well to remember that what’s he’s proposing essentially breaches the separation of Church and State. Once headed down that slippery slope, the slide may prove difficult to arrest…and the results might not be what he would prefer. Is that REALLY what he wants?
