I should be free to put what ever symbol on any property I might own, right? Christians should likewise be free to put up crosses on their property and also be free to prevent pagans from putting up a pentagram, for example.
There are some Christians who have a Jesus statue on their land in Montana and some who recently put up a cross on their land in California. That would be just fine if they were the sole owners of that land, but they aren’t. That land belongs to each and every citizen of the United States. They no more have the right to put their symbols on federal land than Muslims, Jews, or atheists do. We all own it and since we can’t all agree, the only logical and the only legal compromise is to go with the least common denominator: nothing.
A few months ago the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) sued the US Government over the lease they have allowed a Catholic men’s club, the Knights of Columbus, to have without charge for some 50 years, the land upon which they erected a Jesus statue on Big Mountain overlooking the beautiful Flathead Valley. Initially the Forest Service decided not to renew the lease, but then a congressman intervened and now it’s up for public comment. More information and how to comment is available at the FFRF website.
On November 11 a group of Marines and family members erected an unauthorized cross on Camp Pendleton. This cross is in violation of federal law and military regulations. The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, FFRF, and I’m sure other groups by now have contacted the leadership on the base to ask them to remove the illegal cross.
Public land belongs to all of us and the Constitution does not allow the government to favor one religion over another or religion over non-religion. Every time Christians try to gain (or maintain) a state sponsored privilege they not only violate the inherent constitutional rights of non-Christian citizens, in the case of the use of federal land they violate our property rights.
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So would it be acceptable for the government to invite people from all religions to display their religious icons on public land so as not to give preferential treatment to one group? Thereby making it a certain religious groups choice not to display their own religious icon.
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That would be better, but would still serve no secular purpose worthy of government action. That being said, I would find it fascinating to see the kind of public response you'd get from a display that would have a cross placed between an American Atheists atom and a pagan pentagram, all of equal sizes of course. It would also be interesting to see the Star of David next to a Hindu swastika.
Rather than have the state try to play arbiter between all the different religions to make sure they play nice on public land, it would be better to just keep the religious symbols on private land.
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That would be interesting. I could almost garauntee that there would be a huge outcry from various groups claiming everything from social injustice to racism.
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Yep, that's why it's best to just keep religion off public land.