The problem with Christmas decorations

As anyone in America knows, as soon as Thanksgiving rolls around a Christmas tree will appear in front of every town hall. I am not the first to bring up this controversial issue—atheists, Muslims, Jews, and many other have hectored mayors and town officials about this public display of religion. For the most part these people have simply been viewed as liberal malcontents who need something to complain about. Unfortunately, this is true of some of them, but others are civilly demanding equal representation, and rightfully so.

However, I have a problem with the fact that religious symbols are in front of a public building at all. The Bill of Rights dictates that the State will not discriminate against any religion; we have interpreted this to mean a separation of church and state. However, “state” is a slippery word—remember that it means all things related to government in the US, including local governments. This is because the US is a federal nation, and state and local governments are still technically a part of the whole. Having a religious symbol in front of a building obviously denotes the fact that the “state” is recognizing it—violating the implied separation of church and state.

Why do I have such a problem with this? I detest religious tyranny in every form, and I do not believe that religious organizations should have any political power whatsoever. In our Constitution and Declaration, we vowed to protect civil liberties, and promised that the majority cannot oppress the minority. However, this has happened in terms of religion. The majority of people in the US can be considered Christian, and this enormous Christian influence has corrupted our government, society, and social conditioning. The state openly flaunts religious symbols, recognizes religious holidays, and even bans certain acts or objects for moral reasons (examples: public nudity, polygamy, pornography, “cussing,” etc.) I feel we should correct this error, by abrogating public displays of religion by the state, and by ensuring that our government follows through with its promise to be separate from religion.