Baptist Joint Committee Executive Director J. Brent Walker is a panelist for The Washington Post/ Newsweek online conversation, "On Faith." Each week panelists have the opportunity to answer a question posed by Jon Meacham and Sally Quinn, the moderators of the site.
This week's question was this: Should the White House, whose residents serve all Americans, display a crèche or a menorah or any strictly religious symbols during the holidays?
Walker's response follows:
Religious displays at "The People's House"
Of course the White House should be permitted to display a crèche, menorah, or other religious symbols in the East Room – or for that matter, anywhere within the four walls of the mansion.
Normally, under the First Amendment's ban on the establishment of religion, the government may not promote, sponsor or display thoroughly religious symbols such as a crèche. (The Supreme Court has ruled that Christmas trees and menorahs are sufficiently secular to be allowed.)
The White House is different. Yes, the federal government owns it, and in a sense, it is "the people's house." But not really. It's predominantly the residence of the government's tenant – the President and his family. I don't have free and unfettered access to the residence; I (unlike the Salahis) can come only by invitation of the family who lives there.
So, in this context, the crèche in the East Room is more like an individual displaying it in a private home or on one's lawn or a church doing so in the church yard.
Members of the first family are Christians, but President Obama is the leader of all Americans, complete with our dizzying religious diversity. Thus, as a corollary, I would hope the president would display symbols of many religions practiced by American citizens at appropriate times of the year.
It seems to me this is a far better way of doing religious holidays than to ignore any of them or to declare a "non-religious Christmas."
