Maplewood New Jersey has banned religious Christmas carols in its school Christmas plays.
This sort of move always fascinates me, because it always brings out a rather vocal group of protestors who want to see traditional, religious songs left alone on the basis of that tradition. The problem, of course, is that traditionally our public intstitutions such as courts, schools, and public welfare offices have largely ignored the separation of church and state because, until recently, the very vocal majority of Christian citizens kept it that way by supressing other people's complaints or, simply, banding together and leaving other religious groups in niche areas of the country.
This intrigues me further for good reason. Here's a question: if I don't believe the bible is anything more than a book of stories, and the honesty of my testimony is sworn upon it, does that mean I have free run to lie to a courtroom because I don't believe in the book I swore on? If not, why not? If the idea is that I'm obligated to tell the truth regardless, why swear on the bible? If the idea is that I'm attesting to my honesty before the Christian god, how can I be obligated to keep my word if I'm not a Christian? This is the sort of oddity that is created when you allow public institutions to enforce religious beliefs on the public they serve.
Anyway, back to the schools and the hymns. The problem, of course, is that every student in Maplewood is not necessarily Christian. Even if every student were, it would be irrelevant, because not everybody who could potentially attnd that school is Christian. The school has the potential to service every possible religion, so it can either represent ever possible religion equally (or, for the sake of practicality, represent ever religion represented by the student body equally) or it can turn a blind eye to the religious aspect of the season entirely and stick completely to secular celebrations.
This, of course, always upsets the religious folks who are getting smacked back into place. They complain that its traditional, harmless fun. Naturally, this is their point of view and their point of view only, and that's the problem - they don't care about anybody but themselves.
See, we live in a society. Each person in that school is not living in his or her own little bubble, protected from the world outside while the bubble protects that world outside from them. We have to interact with people as a body who don't believe or desire the same things we do as an individual. When we enter the public arena, we become a part of the body, but we often want to remain individual. It doesn't work like that, however. When you enter the public, you need to respect other people and those other people need to respect you. More importantly, when you become a part of the public that holds a position of responsibility, you need to ensure you are treating everyone under your thumb equally. You cannot lavish favors on the people who think the same as you and ignore everyone else.
This is what happens in a public school. These people have a responsibility to equally represent all of their charges. The easiest way to do that is to simply ignore their personal beliefs and desires when doing otherwise would conflict unfairly with other people's. The Christians that are always crying for more religion in schools wouldn't appreciate a prayer being led to Allah anymore than the Muslims in the school appreciate being led in a prayer to Yahweh/god.
What the Chrisitians that complain never stop to consider, however, is that they are not personally affected as in individual in any way. They are still free to believe and worship as they wish (so long as they're not being disruptive - saying a prayer out loud in the middle of class and disrupting the class is a problem just like any other disruptive behavior), the PUBLIC BODY simply cannot be coerced by the authority in that body to believe or worship things.
Like it or not, religious symbols, songs, books, etc. do not belong in public schools when they are being provided or touted by the authorities in charge of those schools. You are free to bring your bible to read during study hall, you are free to wear a crucifix (unless you're French... but they can be idiots sometimes), you are free to say a non-disruptive prayer at your desk. You are not free to make anybody else partake in these things without their explicit consent.
That's the essence of the subject. If you can't function as part of a society, then society just needs to leave you behind.
