Elinda wrote:
gbaji wrote:
Friar Bijou wrote:
As a non-Christian, garbaji....why do you care?
Because I believe in protecting other people's rights, even if I don't benefit myself. Aside from the principle involved, if everyone only fought for rights that benefited themselves directly, pretty soon we wouldn't have any.
The right to express their beliefs in a public venue, just like any other expression? If group A is free to put up a display with Santa and Rudolf in a public place, but group B is not free to put up a display with Baby Jesus in the same public place, and the only reason for the discrepancy is that one is an expression of religion while the other is not, then that absolutely is a violation of the right of free speech of group B. How can it not be? You're singling out just religious speech to be barred from public places.
Think about that for a minute. If we're going to allow other expressions in a public space for some reason, then we can't make the fact that an expression might be religious in nature a criteria for allowing it in the first place. To do so is a clear violation of free speech.