Supreme Court Appears Ready To Let Cross Stand But Struggles With Church-State Test

This will be fun to watch. The Court has bowed to the lawyerly inclination to reinterpret simple language. Thus, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." becomes a prohibition on "...the free exercise thereof..." We the People exercised our right freely in erecting a cross to commemorate war dead and decades later, some zealots decided to take offense. The simple declaration of "Church-State Test" is just another attempt to influence readers to believe that the First Amendment was crafted to "separate church and state" or interfere with the natural right of people to make up their own minds and take responsibility for those decisions. Obviously, they want us all to think like "them". I swear, I see little difference between "them" and all other religions.

Thank you my friend PO1 William "Chip" Nagel for posting this perspective from NPR

A little copy/paste:

"Separation of church and state" is paraphrased from Thomas Jefferson and used by others in expressing an understanding of the intent and function of the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution which reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

The phrase "separation between church & state" is generally traced to a January 1, 1802, letter by Thomas Jefferson, addressed to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut, and published in a Massachusetts newspaper. Jefferson wrote,

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties."

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My interpretation:
"the clause against establishment of religion by law" is the key here. Nowhere does it say that the religious cannot be in government. The "wall" separating government and religion is just that, the government will not create a state religion. We are not Europe where the Kings demanded everyone follow a certain religion and were heavily influenced by senior church clergy.

What makes this hard is trying a case like this. Which religion will they piss off the most? Christians? Atheists? Remember, while atheism is not a religion, atheism is protected by many of the same Constitutional rights that protect religion.

If I were a SCOTUS (thank God I am not!) my ruling would be "go to your room until you grow up". If one group wins they violate the rights of the other group. I don't care which group you are in.