Living in a freedom from religion era

“Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him” (Proverbs 26:4, NKJV).

Constant vigilance!

Atheists are determined to protect the American people from the Christians. After someone complained about a memorial for a teacher at a middle school and a live nativity scene at a high school Christmas concert, the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) asked the Jackson County, W.Va., school district to investigate whether the schools were violating the U.S. Constitution.

Joann Christy taught at Ravenswood Middle School for more than 25 years. She was killed in a car accident in 2004, and the school planted a garden in her memory that included crosses and angels. Tracie Sadecky, a friend of the late teacher, said Christy collected angels. After her family downplayed the angels’ religious meaning and said they represented the teacher, the school board decided to remove the crosses but keep the angels.

Apparently, the atheists bought the semantical maneuvering, and the memorial issue seems to be settled. “If there is an angel, that is more so a representative of that particular person,” FFRF attorney Patrick Elliott said. “I’m not sure there would be a legal issue with that.”

Regarding the live nativity scene during the Christmas concert, choir participation is voluntary (and students know there might be religious-themed concerts). But that’s “of no consequence,” the FFRF wrote, noting that students would feel pressured to go along with teachers and peers.

I assume most people know that the First Amendment contains neither the words nor the concept of separation of church and state: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. …” The Establishment Clause bars the federal government from establishing a national religion. It doesn’t mandate separation of religion and civil government. When Thomas Jefferson wrote those words to the Danbury Baptist Association, he was assuring them that the government wouldn’t interfere with the free exercise of their religion. The figurative wall guarded the church, not the government.

The U.S. Supreme Court placed the wall around the government, and now the Christian faith is the thing from which everyone else needs protection. But, of course, the high court has managed to find rights in the U.S. Constitution the Founders never intended or imagined. For instance, according to the court’s ruling in 1973, hidden away in that document all this time was a right of privacy for women to kill their unborn children. Talk about spinning in the grave.

We are living in a freedom from religion era. Should Christians fight to keep religious symbols on government grounds? Would the legal wrangling interfere with our more important responsibility to share the gospel and make disciples?

On the other hand, what if Muslim students wanted to erect a star and crescent on a memorial for a departed Muslim teacher? Given the association of those symbols with global Islamic terrorism, I wouldn’t like it. But looking at it objectively, the same principles I mentioned above still apply. Although the founders had Christianity in mind when they crafted the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses, the amendment extends to Americans of different faiths.

What do you think?