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Eighty-five percent of Americans claim some form of religious affiliation. The public display of religious symbols, though, is always controversial, whether we’re talking about the Ten Commandments in a courthouse or nativity scenes in a park. In the ongoing debate about religious imagery’s proper place, where do we draw the line between private faith and public religious expression?
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Keeping religion out of the government is not censorship
Right but...
"Allowing the government to place a religious symbol on public property means either all religious and nonreligious symbols must be allowed to be placed..."
So what wrong with a little diversity in terms of belief systems? Does a stone with writing or a cross or image of the FSM harm anyone?
- F2XL
December 19, 2008 9:37PM
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?
No, nothing is wrong with diversity, and I'm not sure what you're asking.
I'm saying if you put up a cross, you have to put everything else up, or else it's endorsement. That includes FSM if someone wants it.
- Blue Linchpin
December 20, 2008 9:28PM
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Agreed
"I'm saying if you put up a cross, you have to put everything else up, or else it's endorsement. That includes FSM if someone wants it."
I too feel all views irrespective of the belief have a right to be represented, which would mean everyone that wants a symbol in public should have that representation if they find it important to them.
- F2XL
December 20, 2008 11:36PM
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But life isn't so ideal
Just look at the outrage over the atheists signs. We'd be foolish to think such a policy would actually be in place: it's better to keep religion away from government and let people display their signs on their own land.
- Blue Linchpin
December 20, 2008 11:55PM
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I live in the region where that occurred
And I can tell you such events would be less common if everyone had a right to their public expression and thus LEARNED to accept the fact that we are all different.
- F2XL
December 21, 2008 4:57PM
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I agree, but
You're missing the point. They are not going to let everyone have a right to free expression in government buildings. There WILL be a line drawn, and that lesson would not be learned. Would they allow a Church of Hitler? Church of Scientology? Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Atheists? etc, etc? There will always be a line drawn.
- Blue Linchpin
December 21, 2008 6:53PM
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If they did have THAT many competing views...
...then I would agree, we should just not promote any at all. Though I have doubts a "Church of Hitler" would ever persist.
- F2XL
December 21, 2008 10:59PM
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