As noted upthread, the display of religious symbols on public property is not forbidden as long as they are not limited to symbols of one favored religion.
I am not aware of any laws prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols, nor am I aware of any laws prohibiting prayer. Some here will cite school prayer laws, but let's be clear on this - any public school student can pray in school. There is no prohibition whatsoever against this. The only prohibition is against the school - teachers, principals, etc. - leading the students in prayer. And don't think it doesn't happen anyway. I played high school sports in a public school, and we never played a game that wasn't preceded by the Lord's Prayer in the locker room.
Again, there is no law against religious books in school. Only the providing of religious books by the school, to the exclusion of other views.
The rulings are geared to state sponsorship and state endorsement of a religion, not to the practice. I have no problem with this. I've never had any problem with access to any religious materials because of it - and my worship tends to take place in places of worship - not government facilities. In addition, I tend to follow the Biblical admonition that prayer and worship is a personal and private matter.
Appreciate the discussion. My only comment would be that while you are taking up for the view of this issue adopted by some Christians who promote state endorsement of their religion, you may want to closely examine whether their view would accept and tolerate your rather broad interpretation of these issues. In my experience, it wouldn't. (An aside - the area where I grew up had a small Indian population, and the principal of my high school was an Indian Christian. He took a very harsh view of any display of Hindu culture by the Indian students - perhaps because of his own experiences in India. But his view of the primacy of Christianity was very typical, and he clearly believed it should be enforced through government institutions. Judge Moore expressly believes the same thing.)
There are. Recently a woman who had been fired from her government job for wearing a cross was reinstated after a higher court decision. But there are laws against wearing religious symbols here and there.
- any public school student can pray in school. There is no prohibition whatsoever against this. The only prohibition is against the school - teachers, principals, etc. - leading the students in prayer.
There have been cases of students wanting to have lead a prayer at gradution and it has been ruled unconstitutional. Also a case of a student at graduation wanting to make a reference to Jesus or God and she was prevented. Students can pray but it can't be any regular part of the school, and they are intimidated or pressured, ot outright prevented from any religious expression in many cases. I have read of a case where a little boy was stopped from telling story from the Bible when it was his turn to tell a favorite story.
Again, there is no law against religious books in school. Only the providing of religious books by the school, to the exclusion of other views. \
I have read about a teacher being punished (fired? I can't remember) for reading a Bible at his(her) desk during reading time. Also seen accounts of Bibles being taken away from school libraries. I can't even imagine what they'd do with a Bhagavad Gita or the Ramayana.
My only comment would be that while you are taking up for the view of this issue adopted by some Christians who promote state endorsement of their religion, you may want to closely examine whether their view would accept and tolerate your rather broad interpretation of these issues. In my experience, it wouldn't.
I am well aware of this! But even if some (hopefully not a lot) of Christians would not afford relgious tolerance, still I afford it to them, and the more religion is recognized in general as a good and necessary influence on the human race, the better off we all will be. In fact, the reason the world appears to going to hell in a handbasket is due to the rejection of religion (and that includes being a hateful fanatic who kills in the name of religion).