Speaking as a non-Christian...
I love Christmastime in the States because there is a lot of genuine happiness and joy, and that's a wonderful thing to see. I am honestly happy for and respectful of this Christian holiday that means so much to many of my friends.
However.
There is a line, and sometimes people (often unwittingly) cross it, becoming obnoxious and horribly insensitive of my (and my family's) non-Christmas celebrating ways. Please remember that as much as taking the Christ out of Christmas imposes upon your religious views, so does your forcing Christmas -- in any form -- upon me infringe upon
my religious views.
As for Santa Claus and Christmas trees... these things are primarily for children, and it is for my children that I am mostly worried. I worry that seeing these symbols, symbols that are not theirs, in their schools and from their teachers, will make them feel less worthy than the Christian children for whom all the fuss is being made. I understand that neither Santa nor the tree have any religious grounding, but they do symbolize a religion that is not one I want to pass along to my children. Please put yourself in my shoes and think about how you'd handle it if YOU were the minority religion.
Also, religious decorations in a government building? Grossly inappropriate. If you must, hang up some lights or ribbons or a garland or two, but please keep the nativity scenes for the church or your front yard.
Yes Rivka maybe it gets a little much but you live in a country where the majority of the population is Christian. You have to just ignore it and live and let live.
I don't remember who said this (and am too tired to scroll down and find out), but this quote makes me so incredibly sad. Helga said it best, so I'm just going to word her and move on.
As far as there being no separation of church and state in the Constitution, while it's true the document does not explicitly outlaw a religious state, it does make pretty clear that the government cannot promote (or exclude) one religion over another. At the same time, it does not ban religion outright (as I expect the "communist constitution" does). If that's not separation between church and state, I don't know what is. If the argument is that the declaration is made in the amendments and not the core Constitution, please remember the amount of compromise necessary to get the Constitution to a point where it would be ratified by all the states. The founding fathers knew it needed more guidelines than it provided, and that's why they added the Bill of Rights, in one chunk, and almost immediately after the ratification of the original document. If I have misintrepreted (or forgotten my history), and this is truly not a country where the law guarantees a separation of church and state, then perhaps I should look into moving.
Btw, Wendy... there's another Eid rolling around at the end of January.
Seasons greetings, everyone.
