Universal Life of Alan Ministry

Tis the season to be jolly…unless you’re City Hall, and then some rabble rouser decides to take offense at the Christmas decorations.

The principle of separation of church and state is about making sure that the government does not give preference to one sect over another, creating an implicit “official” religion. That means that, yes, if you put up decorations for one religious holiday, you have to put up those for the others (I think you can be reasonable here: there are a pretty standard set, and if someone else in the community wants theirs celebrated, they should be accomodated comparably).

That does not however mean other religions (or anti-religions) have the right to use the space for denigration. If they want to have a holiday to celebrate rational thinking, or some event in their history, fine. Attacking others, whether it be against religion in general or one religion taking aim at another, belongs in a different venue.

Like it or not, Christmas is a huge part of our culture, and only a small part of it has anything whatsoever to do with religion. Like many things, whatever it originated as, it’s taken on a life of it’s own, and the secular spirit of Christmas giving is worthy of everyone’s attention, no matter where it came from.