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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022

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Those are, of course, two different questions. As noted above several times, a particular creche is often legally permitted, despite a creche, in general, being quite high on the sacredness scale.

As for determining the scale, the mere fact that differences cannot be measured precisely does not mean that they do not exist. One can say that Ronald Reagan was a greater President than Millard Fillmore without having to assign points. That being said, as noted, one element, but not the only element, is the nature of the holiday in question. A symbol associated with a holiday which is central to the religion in question (eg, Passover) is obviously going to carry more sacredness than a symbol associated with a holiday that is more peripheral (eg, Hanukkah, Purim). And, one way to assess the centrality of the holiday is, as noted, how they are treated by adherents: Are stores closed? Are govt services closed? What do adherents do on the holiday: Do they skip work and school, if schools are open (Passover) or do they go to work/school (Hannukah). Do those who rarely attend religious service go to religious services on that day (Passover) or do they not do so (Hanukkah)? Etc, etc. I am sure that you can think of other ways to operationalize that particular variable. And, of course, since all of the holidays in question have both secular and religious components, the particular symbol is important. Some are more religious than secular (a creche); others are more secular than religious (a Christmas tree).

I would also add that you, and the OP, seem to assume that a display of a menorah is a celebration of Judaism, rather than a celebration of the Hanukkah holiday, and that the display of a creche is a celebration of Christianity, rather than a celebration of the Christmas holiday. Neither of those assumption is necessarily true; they might be true sometimes, but they are not **necessarily **true. And that is why, as I have said many times, courts, when determining whether any particular display violates the First Amendment, be that a creche or a menorah or whatever, look at the particular context surrounding the particular display, in order to determine whether they constitute an endorsement of religion, which is the legal standard (or was, when the cases OP is complaining about were decided).

Finally, where is your standard? If my organization wants to rent a public park display areas to put up the world's largest Easter Bunny, is that OK? What about the world's largest Christmas tree? What about the world's biggest sign saying, "Jesus says, "on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"? What about "Accept Jesus or Go to Hell?" Now, maybe you want to say that all symbols with any religious content should be banned from public spaces. Or that none should. Great! But that is not current law, and since the issue at hand is the legitimacy of OP's claim that current law favors Jewish people over Christians, that doesn't address the issue.