Not positive if I mentioned this before, but when I went to law school, at a Jesuit but quite progressive school, I took a class called Religion and the Law. It was an excellent class, with much of the history of America's struggle with the separation of church and state since the negotiation of the amendments to the constitution. It explained many of the "tests" that the Supreme Court went through when deciding whether a given action was proper under the First Amendment separation or establishment clauses.
At this time, I thought that it would be much more simple if we used what I called the "Satan Test." If we replace the religion in question with Satanism, would it be allowed in the same way as whatever other religion is being argued about. So I wondered, with all of this "War on Christmas" stuff, how the Satan test would work here.
First, imagine a holiday called Satanmas that the government recognized as a national holiday. How would this sit to non Satanists? How bout wishing them a Merry Satanmas? Would non Satanists say "thank you?" Would they explain that they don't celebrate Satanmas? Would they tell their employers that they didn't want Satanmas off but they wanted their own holiday instead? How would that be seen by the majority, if one assumes that the majority is Satanist? How would non-Satanists feel about being requested to make donations, adopt a family, feed the homeless, etc. ONLY during the time around Satanmas, and be painted as uncaring or morally bankrupt if they do not. How would non-Satanists feel if their children asked why they weren't receiving gifts when most of the other kids did during Satanmas. After all, everyone else is celebrating so why shouldn't we?
Yeah, there is a significant argument that Satanmas has become secular because it's become so commercialized as to totally obscure the reason for the holiday, and yeah, Satan wasn't really born at this time anyway, the early Satanists decided this was a good time to celebrate because some of the other religions were celebrating other stuff anyway so it might be easier to keep up the party, while just renaming it, but many non-Satanists are still a bit uneasy. They see symbols of Satanmas put up everywhere, oftentimes with taxpayer money, and while not mentioning Satan himself, they mention other things that everyone associates with Satanmas. And gee, why aren't you jolly about that and just let them have their fun and shut up about it if you aren't going to celebrate and stop bringing the rest of the Satanists down by complaining. And don't DARE question why your company gives you Satanmas off and not Yom Kippur or Halloween.
Yes, the vast majority of non-Satanists don't complain. They are the "good" ones who get into the holiday spirit as they should without rocking the boat. Those others are godless heathen scrooges.
But wait! MY religion teaches that Satanism is wrong! Why should I sit still for that? How do I fight this thing that is so entrenched in our country's society? Good luck with that.
So, would you celebrate Satanmas? Would you go to work? Would you sing Satanmas carols? Would you donate to needy families during Satanmas? Would you say that Satanmas celebrations were a violation of the separation of church and state? Would you get to the end of this and say "
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
recalcitranttoy is a godless heathen grinch and I won't invite her to my Satanmas party?
Maybe I need to come up with a Hare Krishna test :-)
! 
! 
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
branchandroot
