Should Religious Symbols be Displayed on Public Property?

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It is no accident that challenges to public religious symbols are almost always brought in federal court rather than as a public referendum or ballot initiative. The fact is that a vast majority of Americans support religious displays in public places, a fact duly noted by many elected officials and duly ignored by appointed federal judges.  

In 2005, as the Supreme Court considered two Ten Commandments display cases and after Chief Justice Moore’s Ten Commandments monument in Alabama had been in the spotlight for several years, various polls indicated overwhelming public support for Ten Commandments displays in public places: e.g., 76% support in a CNN/USA Today/Gallop poll and 74% in a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll.

More recently, for a demonstrably small but vocal minority, Christmas has become the season for giving—lawsuits and complaints over public recognitions of the holiday, that is. Again public sentiment is largely lopsided on this one: in 2005 more than 8-in-10 people (83%) polled by the Pew Forum indicated support for Christmas symbols such as nativity scenes and Christmas trees on government property. Only 11% opposed such displays.

Again and again, polls show not just close division but wide margins that support public displays of religious symbols or holidays. America is not a pure democracy; we are a constitutional republic. But a republic is based on democratic principles of governance by elected officials who represent the people they serve. As Abraham Lincoln described it at Gettysburg we are a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” While the Constitution should not be beholden to the whims of public polls, nor should it be hijacked to reverse the will of the people when the Constitution is silent about religious symbols in public places. (See Argument 1.)

America’s discovery, colonization, and founding is inextricably linked with Judeo-Christian principles in general and Christianity specifically. The Founders incorporated acknowledgments of God, offerings of prayer, and religious analogy frequently in their private and public documents and speeches. Despite decades of legal opinions that show increasing hostility to sincere religion in public life, the American people have not abandoned the Founders’ natural inclination toward recognizing religion and its proper place in the public square.

The Founders, in fact, declared independence because an unaccountable few in power made decisions for a helpless people as a whole, for good or ill (mostly the latter). Whether it was a vocal, dissenting few or the federal judge or judges that overthrow the will of the people, the Founders had a fitting word for it: tyranny.