Everyone knows that the place of religion in the public sphere is facing serious challenges. There is some confusion, however, about where those challenges come from. Is it from civil libertarians? Atheists? Actually, no. The larger answer to the question may surprise you.
Consider the Supreme Court's decision to overturn a ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that struck the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. Affecting 10 million schoolchildren in nine Western states, the 9th Circuit's ruling was rejected on a technicality: The Supreme Court felt that the California atheist, Michael Newdow, who brought the case lacked procedural standing to do so.
Or consider the battle over the official seal of Los Angeles County. The seal includes a tiny cross, over which the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to file suit. After the civil libertarians successfully intimidated the county supervisors -- who agreed to alter the seal -- more than 1,000 people rallied at the county's Hall of Administration to keep the cross on the seal. Other American cities and counties with crosses on their seals await suits or threats from the ACLU.
What we are observing here is not what it may appear to be -- a struggle of religion against no religion. It is instead a battle pitting one religion, broadly speaking, against another. On one side we have, primarily, the biblical faith of Jews and Christians. On the other side, secularism. If you object that secularism has no deity, remember that other recognized faiths, for example Zen Buddhism, likewise lack a belief in God.
What is a religion, then? Simply, a system of beliefs based on stories that explain where life comes from, what life means, and what we, as living beings, are supposed to be doing with our few allotted years. Judaism and Christianity have their sacred stories -- the biblical account of creation, followed by Noah's flood and on through the entire narrative of Scripture -- along with their codes of right conduct. For Jews and Christians, the meaning of human existence lies in communion with God in the context of eternal life.
