Originally posted by: maluckey
Jhnn,
If this proposed action comes about, a formal definition of religion would surely follow after several challenges. THAT in itself is moving towards a State Religion which the Founding fathers would have been very opposed to. It is not so much by this piece of legislation that religion is forced upon you, but by the followup of definitions and legal precedents sure to accompany any attempt to protect a religious attitude. To avoid the end you must avert the beginning.
How could it not? Because without a formal definition of WHICH religions are appropriate, then it's ANYTHING goes. Right?
A judge wants to keep a tapestry to the ten commandments behind his bench (like the plaque Roy Moore used to keep). It's HIS bench, it's HIS personal relgious beliefs, it's A-OKAY.
Likewise if a Muslim Judge wants to keep a tapestry of a Koran passage, "Go Right Ahead".
If a Satanist Judge wants to keep a large Pentagram behind his bench, what can we say, it's his right by law.
I recall the issue where some fundamentalist legal group was fighting for the right for a grade-school girl to distribute flyers to her schoolmates inviting them to some (specifically denominated) Christian event. The school said she could not. The school is a public institution and there is a seperation of church and state. Many of the fundamentalist parents in her school district were incensed by this! I don't recall what the outcome was. I believe that they won the case and she (or future children) were able to distribute the flyers.
I was thinking "Well, what if some child THEN wanted to distribute flyers inviting the school children to a Satanist event!!" (In fact, I thought - even though I'm not religious at all, let alone a Satanist, that if I had a kid who would agree to do so - I'd have him/her do just that, just to make a point). Could you IMAGINE the uproar that parents would have over that!!!! What could the school then say? "Well, hey you shmucks adamantly supported the case of the girl who wanted to distribute her fundamentalist Christian flyers, and you won! Well, you ALSO won the right for this kid to distribute his Satanist flyers."
In fact, you can apply this line of thought to ANY case where the fundamentalist Christians are trying to gain the RIGHT to put their religious symbols in public and/or government places. If you give THEM the right, then you (by virtue of the 1st Amendment) give ANY religion (no matter how kooky) the right.