Last night I was speaking on the phone with an old friend back in the Philly region. At one point during the conversation, he asked me if I'd heard about the hubbub at the Chester County Courthouse, where a judge recently issued an edict that said the Ten Commandments must be removed from its spot near one of the entrances to the courthouse. (If this sounds familiar, it's because I wrote about it here, back in March.)
I told him I was very familiar with it, which surprised him. He didn't realize I had been part of the whole movement, back in '97, to get it done. Then it was his turn to surprise me. He told me he thought it was ridiculous. He was outraged that taxpayer money was "wasted" on this court case, over something so inconsequential.
His opinion, apparently, is that we atheists are getting all bent out of shape over petty things. "What's the big deal?" he asked. "Just use a different entrance. Or don't look at it."
My response was to ask why anyone should have to use a different entrance, or to avert their gaze. "You shouldn't have to," he said.
What he was saying was, "You shouldn't be offended by this." Maybe he didn't realize that's what he was saying, but it was.
I told him I was offended that taxpayer money had to be spent on it, too. And I pointed out that the County Commissioners had ample opportunities to avoid such expense. But they insisted on leaving the plaque in place.
Brushing this off, he said, "But it's such a petty thing! With everything else there is in the world to be upset about, to try to fix, why something as insignificant as this?" Basically, he was saying, "Why make a mountain out of the molehill?"
But I explained that what happened was that this action is to prevent the molehill from becoming the mountain. And I told him about the Weber County Clerk (also referenced in the previous column) who refused to admit that she was bound by the First Amendment in her position, and that she had every right to inject her personal religion into the marriage ceremonies she performed. I explained that virtually everyone in the area thought she was wrong… but how would it have been if her courthouse had the Ten Commandments posted outside? She could point to it and say, "We have a religious document on our building, so why do you think there's separation of church and state?"
These little battles may seem trivial to my friend, or offensive when they spend taxpayer money. But we can't refuse to take it to court just because we don't want the taxpayer to bear the burden of paying for the trials. If we had that attitude, then we'd never make any progress, because people like the Chester County Commissioners would know that they'd never have to go to court. In other words, they'd never be held accountable.
Like it or not, these battles are largely funded by the taxpayers. There's no way around that without either a total overhaul of the tax system, or for people like these Commissioners to realize what they're doing is wrong, and actually obey the Constitution.
So will my friend ruminate on my words and maybe realize that such battles really are necessary? I tend to doubt it. For, while not the most religious friend I have, he still has no clue what it's like to be a non-believer in America. To him, seeing the Ten Commandments beside a courthouse door is no big deal. He doesn't really care about it, even though he supports the separation of church and state.
After all, it's not like we're in a theocracy. It's not like the church is making our laws.
And this is true. For now.
But for those of us who aren't in denial that America could actually become a theocracy, we're here to stand in the way of anything that weakens that wall of separation. Because none of it is "inconsequential."
It all matters.
