Christmas Skirmishes and the Offended Observer

December 22, 2010 By David French

We live in strange times. I’m writing this post from the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom office in tiny Columbia, Tennessee, listening to Christmas carols being broadcast from the courthouse in our town square. And yet, in this same rather conservative state, the ACLU sent letters to public schools statewide, warning them against holding Christmas parties and recommending only “holiday celebrations” and endorsing “secular symbols such as Santa Claus or dreidels.”

I understand why Ross Douthat would decry the “war on Christmas drumbeat,” and (as I note in a recent Washington Post “On Faith” piece) it’s easy to snicker when people start arguing over “merry Christmas” versus “happy holidays.” After all, the whole issue reeks of oversensitivity on all sides. the rest

But let’s not forget that the secular Left created an entire litigation engine out the “offended observer.” When religious symbols are taken from public land, those cases are launched through a unique standing rule that allows a person who’s merely offended at the sight of a religious symbol to literally make a federal case out of their fit of pique. As a general rule, we do not enjoy a right not to be offended (and it’s a good thing too; imagine a world where every perceived slight could launch litigation) — except when it comes to public religious displays.