Justice Gorsuch's concurrence in the Bladensburg Cross case argued, correctly, that the dispute should have been dismissed for lack of standing. The American Humanist Association's claim that its members were offended by the sight of a World War I memorial in the shape of a cross on public land did not, Gorsuch concluded, constitute a discrete harm. The shame is that there is no legal doctrine for dismissing a case for lack of maturity.
The atheist organization's decision to make a federal case out of its purported offense at the very sight of a cross on public land suggests that its members are either snowflakes or zealots, fragile or fanatical. Or both. The case illustrates the increasingly imperialist nature of secularism, which for some is itself taking on the attributes of a faith. H.L. Mencken characterized puritanism as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." Today's secularism is increasingly assuming a zealous character that cannot tolerate the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be devout.
This secular puritanism is evident not only in the Bladensburg Cross case but also in the legal harassment of believers in other contexts. Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop fame, for example, faces yet another lawsuit from activists who appear to be cold-calling businesses not to purchase their goods or services but rather to dare them into refusing to provide them. In Town of Greece v. Galloway, secularists sued in an unsuccessful attempt to stop religious invocations at town council meetings despite heroic attempts to make the prayers pluralistic. Similarly, as the Bladensburg Cross shows, secular puritans are hostile to any public expression of religion, which is inherently hostile to a wide range of faiths that depend on publicity.
Read Full Article »