Whose house is it?

Herb, keep up the good work and try and ignore the occasional fulminating white supremacist/Christian jihadist that shows up with the inevitable brain-addled nasty comment. There must be something in the dye they use in those brown shirts.....

Ooooh, Silverman. YOU and the likes of you keep it up.

In this overwhelmingly, historically, Christian nation. Those of us who practice it and those who don't.

Just behave as you've always behaved, in every country, in every century, the same.
And you will reap the same thing, too.
Some fear it has already begun...
Wall Street, the bonuses, the wars, the neocons...the roiling anti semitism here and abroad, according to polls taken by the ever watchful Jewish organizations.

Just make sure you don't assimilate! Or anything.

"It's an absurd leap to claim that displaying a creche at the White House somehow violates the U.S. Constitution."

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Even if the Constitution did permit government endorsement of religion, wouldn't official government endorsement of a particular religion (like Christianity) imply government favoritism for members of that particular religion?

Why should the government ever favor one religious opinion over another?

Thomas Jefferson would indeed be rolling over in his grave!

"HumanLight" that sounds nice.
Have a happy, giving season.

'church-state' separation! I hate to point out that the Constitution forbids the establishment of a state religion by Congress (each state of the Union may establish a tate religion if it wishes to!). It does not demand exclusion of religion; it does not demand that anyone set his religion aside. In other words the 'separation many are pushing for is far beyond what the Constitution says and frankly an attempt to force one point of view to the exclusion of any expression of religion.

As far as anyone knows, there is One Reality - you can mytholigize it, symbolize it, attribute it to divinities, build faux mangers complete with infant avatars, etc.

In the end, belief has nothing to do with it, and always misses the mark. There is nothing sacred about reality....or profane, for that matter.

But we all like to celebrate, and we think certain humans are special. So it goes...

jonesm2

You wrote, " Personally, I find it a sad situation that we have to kowtow to these fundamentalists groups, but that is where we found ourselves culturally at this moment as a nation. Perhaps, years from now, we will not need religious symbols adorning the White House to keep the fundamentalists from attacking the President."

I suppose that will be when we "kowtow" to the secular "fundamentalists".

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

Elect Americans who usnderstand her.

Select from the peers of the founders.

http://www.masonicinfo.com/famous2.htm#O

President Obama is a skillful politician. While I do think that he has reached out to groups that have been traditionally ignored, he also realizes that, in this country, it will be very difficult to accomplish very much if he alienates the dominant religious majority. Personally, I find it a sad situation that we have to kowtow to these fundamentalists groups, but that is where we found ourselves culturally at this moment as a nation. Perhaps, years from now, we will not need religious symbols adorning the White House to keep the fundamentalists from attacking the President.

I really couldn't care less what Obama does in his own living room. But I sure do enjoy the consternation voiced by the christians these days about some imagined war on christmas.

If you're dumb enough to believe there's a war on christmas, you're probably dumb enough to believe in ... well, gods.

Herb Silverman says "because we are not a Judeo-Christian nation"... what rubbish!!. Of course, we are-- that is culture, and a nation without a common culture is not a nation at all. That is why England or France are nations, but the EU isn't.

Silverman's argument is that the White House should ignore America's culture and heritage, because some people may feel offended. Well, then they should not be living in the US, but in some other country that does not have Christmas, like Saudi Arabia, for example.
It is not enough for a nation's culture to be observed only in private. A secular nation does not imply that a nation has to ignore it culture, and not honor it in its public spaces.

If that is what the Constitution says, maybe it is time to amend it.

As a member of The HumanLight Committee (www.humanlight.org), which is a non-profit volunteer group that promotes celebrating the HumanLight holiday, I greatly appreciated how Mr. Silverman prominently mentions the Humanist holiday in his column. We hope HumanLight becomes a popular holiday for non-religious, humanist-oriented people.

I wish to respond to the comment posted by "bobbiek1" (Bobbie Kirkhart) on 12/8:

She is correct that Christmas is, in essence, the Christian alternative to the winter solstice celebrations, a pagan tradition that existed long before Christianity.

However, she has misunderstood things by saying, "HumanLight is a celebration of the winter solstice".

HumanLight is an alternative holiday to BOTH Christmas and Solstice. It absolutely is not a celebration OF Solstice. We make the clear distinction that Solstice celebrates the change of seasons and is originally based in pagan god-worship, while HumanLight is entirely non-theistic and celebrates Humanist values and ideals such as reason, humanity, compassion, hope and secular ethics, not the change of seasons.

Please check out our website to learn more: www.humanlight.org

Happy holidays! ...whichever ones you celebrate :-)
- Pat.

The answer: "the U.S. Capitol".

The question: "where did Thomas Jefferson attend church?"

Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Association (where the term "separation of church and state" was born) was simply meant to reassure Baptists that the U.S. government had no intentions of "establishing" a government-endorsed denomination.

It's an absurd leap to claim that displaying a creche at the White House somehow violates the U.S. Constitution.

Jefferson is rolling over in his grave.

Under a climate of social and economic repression our society lives under, armed guards and police outside food and clothing stores to be specific, children going to bed hungry and cold, whose holiday are we referring to?

I don't disagree with the separation of religion and state, but at this point one must ask whether this separation would result in improvement of living conditions for the bottom half of the people living within the confines of the US borders.

Ask any poor child going to school whether she or he feels the state's existence more when a symbol is displaced by it, or whether the craving for a candy bar with no money in the pocket has an armed guard to enforce the monetary exchange.

Some of us see the cross behind the state and some of us see the guns in front of the state that enforce hunger and poverty! Inequality can only be enforced with violence.

There shall not be any holiday till equality will be reached, and there can not be any truce!

i have said it before and its not an advertisement but a comment on the company which i think reflects well on them and thier employees..i am always amused at how many days b&hH photo is closed... they seem to celebrate every holiday of every religion lol, or if they don't they might do more business if they did. maybe thats the answer they are still in business selling real products not fake intable stuff last time i checked .. merry whatever i know what i celibrate

As usual, I enjoyed Dr. Silverman’s column, except for one egregious error: HumanLight is a celebration of the winter solstice, and Christmas is celebrated this time of year as an alternative to the solstice, or more precisely, as a way to make the solstice more meaningful to a particular group. There is nothing wrong with that: The return of the sun is an experience we all share, and I am one atheist who doesn’t mind at all if individuals want to honor one of the many gods which were once thought to have been born on this date; I do mind when my government takes this special day shared by all Americans and excludes many of us by celebrating with parochial symbols.

Bobbie Kirkhart

A seven-branched Menorah celebrates the Seven Days of Creation which is anathema to addlepated, paleo-evolutionists like me.. a nine-brancher, Chanukah. Could some one in the White House light a Carl Sagan, single candle of enlightenment to brighten our demon-haunted world? D. Reid Wiseman whose BIC lighter has a few microliters of butane left in it!

When she was 7 years old, my sister once made one of her schoolmates cry by telling her that there really is no Santa Claus. Call me a wimpy humanist if you wish, but there are some truths can keep until after the holidays.

I voted for Barack Obama and remain a strong supporter. For the most part, he has done a good job this first year of his term. At the same time, his failure to begin scrapping Bush’s “faith-based initiative,” is a great disappointment. The Capital of the United States; the building, pictures, portraits, flags, sculpture, should all reflect the spirit and application of our Constitution. The building and its contents must be entirely void of anything that might imply our government relies on make-believe, prayer, faith, superstition, all things religious. Congressional prayers are an insult to our Republic and its people. Political correctness notwithstanding, President Obama needs to more aggressively honor the Constitution and intentions of our forefathers. Tom Broome

Having a creche in a public room of the White House is tantamount to putting a manger scene outside City Hall. As an atheist, I suppose I should be alarmed, but as a parent, I understand what may be motivating the Obamas. Creches and trees and wreaths and Santa are all part of the traditions and mystique of Christmas. I like the mystique and music, if not the religion, of Christmas, and I like latkes for Chanukah, also. It's the Obamas' house, too, and Sasha and Melia's childhood. Let's hope they serve latkes at the next White House holiday party.

May we all be well and happy. And here's hoping that we soon learn how to make and keep peace on earth, no matter what else we might think about religion.

Herb Silverman

You wrote, "Barack Obama said he wants his presidency to be inclusive, diverse, and representative of all Americans. A crèche in the East Room is not a symbol of diversity, because we are not a Christian nation. A crèche and a menorah would not be either, because we are not a Judeo-Christian nation. We are a secular nation with a secular government, and our president represents Americans of all faiths and none."

Do you think that maybe they should plaster dollar bills all over the place?

Put up photos of all of the shrines we have built (stadiums, skyscrapers and other man-made "wonders")?

Maybe we could plant an ICBM with a huge nuclear warhead in the front yard of the White House to show off our engineering and technological prowess, what do you think?

Why does it seem that some, not all, of the people that believe in nothing beyond themself want everyone else to believe in nothing beyond themself and call themself so "enlightened" for being so inclusive?

There have been other places that have tried to make the "state" their "god".

Is that what you think "secularization" is?

Because if it is, that is NOT what the founding fathers put into the constitution, not even close.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

We secular Americans appreciate Obama's call-outs to us, but it would be nice if those call-outs were accompanied by actions that actually demonstrated he understands the notion of church-state separation.