Separation of Church and State

Some people feel it's wrong for Christmas to be a national holiday. The First Amendment protects us from government-imposed religion. Yet in 1870 Christmas was declared a national holiday, one of ten that falls on set calendar days. It's unrealistic to think religion had nothing to do with this decision.

Christianity was the dominant faith in the early days of the United States. It must have been an influence on the men who wrote the Constitution, nearly all of them Christian, and on the early culture of the country. When Thomas Jefferson promised a group of Baptists that the United States would not mandate a government religion, it was to protect one Christian denomination from another Christian denomination.  Fewer people are religious today than ever before. Still, at least 70% of Americans are estimated as Christian. This is the most conservative estimate I could find. We live in a country where Christian symbols and names abound. Many cities would have to be renamed to make it otherwise. "Holiday" is thought to be a problem-solving word because it removes the religious connotation from the big holiday. We can argue about why December 25th is a government holiday, but whatever the reason, it's clear it became one because it was Christmas, not "Holiday", and most people wanted the day off and still do.You don't have to go to work even if Christmas isn't your thing- what's not to like? In the last decade, several constitutional challenges have been mounted against federal and state laws that designate Christmas a holiday but they have been rejected. The official rank of Christmas as well as the observation of it in the marketplace has given Christmas an unparalleled established standing in America. It is this establishment that is being challenged now on the basis of religion. If changing the name of December 25th to "Holiday" isn't going to happen officially, there's nothing to stop people from thinking an unofficial change is nevertheless in order for the sake of making sure no one mistakes the official rank of a religious holiday to mean that we have an officially imposed religion. It's a contradiction. Officially we aren't Christian but culturally we largely are." But Christmas isn't strictly a religious holiday that only Christians can observe. I've heard it said, and I think there's general acceptance by most people, that Christmas is  a government holiday because it can also be observed secularly. The name "Christmas" evokes centuries of tradition and many layers of meaning that are not just Christian. This increases the percentage of actual Christmas observers to much higher than 70%. The fact that Christmas has been a day people have had off, regardless of their religion, for so long has in turn contributed to the wide range of responses it has engendered. NEXT