Should Good Friday be a Government Holiday ?

[TheProgressivePatriot]

Other Religious Holy Days Should Good Friday be a Government Holiday ?

How would Christians react if the situations were reversed — if the holy days of another religion were made into a public holiday while Christians had to take personal or vacation days to observe something like Good Friday? Many minority religions are increasing in size across the country and their influence on American society will also grow. Today they are so small that they have to acquiesce to the demands of Christians that Christianity receive privileged treatment, but that is slowly coming to an end.

One day, some regions of America will have so many Muslims or Hindus that the "secular purpose" argument currently used to defend a Good Friday holiday will require that the government create an official holiday to accommodate the high absences of Muslims or Hindus. If the government doesn't, then arguments that Good Friday holidays have a secular purpose would be revealed as a sham.

Would we hear your whining on both coasts?

I bet we would hear the Christian right wing nuts from coast to coast.

The sham is making you whine now, why would anyone else be whining?

So apparently this is the level of discourse that I can expect from you? Very disappointing !

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Other Religious Holy Days Should Good Friday be a Government Holiday ?

How would Christians react if the situations were reversed — if the holy days of another religion were made into a public holiday while Christians had to take personal or vacation days to observe something like Good Friday? Many minority religions are increasing in size across the country and their influence on American society will also grow. Today they are so small that they have to acquiesce to the demands of Christians that Christianity receive privileged treatment, but that is slowly coming to an end.

One day, some regions of America will have so many Muslims or Hindus that the "secular purpose" argument currently used to defend a Good Friday holiday will require that the government create an official holiday to accommodate the high absences of Muslims or Hindus. If the government doesn't, then arguments that Good Friday holidays have a secular purpose would be revealed as a sham.

Would we hear your whining on both coasts?

I bet we would hear the Christian right wing nuts from coast to coast.

The sham is making you whine now, why would anyone else be whining?

So apparently this is the level of discourse that I can expect from you? Very disappointing !

Yes, I'm going to point out your Constitutional confusion as well as your whining. Deal with it.

 

[TheProgressivePatriot]

Other Religious Holy Days Should Good Friday be a Government Holiday ?

How would Christians react if the situations were reversed — if the holy days of another religion were made into a public holiday while Christians had to take personal or vacation days to observe something like Good Friday? Many minority religions are increasing in size across the country and their influence on American society will also grow. Today they are so small that they have to acquiesce to the demands of Christians that Christianity receive privileged treatment, but that is slowly coming to an end.

One day, some regions of America will have so many Muslims or Hindus that the "secular purpose" argument currently used to defend a Good Friday holiday will require that the government create an official holiday to accommodate the high absences of Muslims or Hindus. If the government doesn't, then arguments that Good Friday holidays have a secular purpose would be revealed as a sham.

Would we hear your whining on both coasts?

I bet we would hear the Christian right wing nuts from coast to coast.

The sham is making you whine now, why would anyone else be whining?

So apparently this is the level of discourse that I can expect from you? Very disappointing !

Yes, I'm going to point out your Constitutional confusion as well as your whining. Deal with it.

I'm waiting. Give it your best shot. For the record, I have tried to be civil and reasonable here. You, on the other hand have decided to be snarky and nasty. You must be a Trump supporter.

 

[Agit8r]

Hey, Muslims get their day of worship off for once

 

[TheProgressivePatriot]

What's Constitutional for Local Governments
State and local governments can observe Good Friday by closing offices and giving employees a paid holiday, even if they do not do so for any other religion. The government must, however, be able to point to a legitimate secular purpose in doing so; if no such purpose exists, then the courts will likely conclude that Good Friday was chosen as a public holiday in order to support or endorse Christianity (Bridenbaugh v. O'Bannon, 1993 and Granzeier v. Middleton, 1999).

But is the contention that Good Friday has a secular purpose valid? In Bridenbaugh v. O'Bannon :

Bridenbaugh tried to argue that most schools and most businesses are open on Good Friday, concluding that there was no particular reason to choose that Friday over any other unless it were for religious reasons. The Court disagreed, however, noting that there was no evidence that any other Friday was more popular and, hence, this one was at least as good as any other.

The Court did agree with Bridenbaugh's argument that by giving employees a paid holiday on Good Friday, the state essentially made it easier for Christians to practice their religion than members of other faiths. However, the Court did not agree that this was sufficient to prove a violation of the Constitution:

...the Establishment Clause does not prohibit Indiana from choosing Good Friday as the day for a legal holiday merely because that day coincides with what, to some, is a religious day. No court has ever held that the Establishment Clause is violated merely because a state holiday has the indirect effect of making it is easier for people to practice their faith.

Seriously? The decision was based on the idea that Good Friday was not picked for religious purposes? It has an “indirect effect “ on making it easier to practice their religion? It seems pretty flimsy to me. In Granzeier v. Middleton, the reasoning is equally suspect

Defendants presented credible evidence that Good Friday has become a day with secular effects in Northern Kentucky. Many school children are on Spring vacation the following week, and many Kentucky families start their vacations early, on Friday. Traffic statistics show that highway volume is very high on Good Friday. Courts and government offices do not expect much activity from the public, and the courts worry about the availability of jurors. Furthermore, the policymakers who set the holiday schedules testified that their goal was to provide a break for their employees at that time of year, conveniently scheduled on a day of light activity and proximate to many families' vacations.

So, good Friday is a (secular ) holiday because the children are on break the following week? Or, are the children on break because of the religious holiday? Give me a (spring) break!

The Court then further ruled that a reasonable observer would not conclude that the closings were made for he purpose of endorsing Christianity:

..holidays are established for the convenience of the citizens, and that convenience often is caused by individual motivations that may be a mix of secular and religious. ...A reasonable person who knew that many people in private and other public employment in the community had the day off and made plans to travel, and that the Courthouse had been closed on Good Friday for many years, would not think that the closing was an endorsement of religion absent an explicit endorsement such as the sign involved in this case. Because Defendants have been enjoined from future explicit endorsements, future closings will not make a reasonable person think that Defendants were endorsing religion.

A reasonable observer would not conclude…..? Seriously? I’m not the only one not buying it:

In his dissent, Judge Moore argued that the mere existence of a secular purpose was not sufficient to overcome a dominating religious purpose, a principle articulated by the Supreme Court in the case of Lynch v. Donnelly. Moreover, he also argued that the existence of a sound secular purpose had simply not been demonstrated - accommodating the travel plans of people who have time off because of other unconstitutional governmental observances of Good Friday does not render further office closings secular.

Also to be considered- should other religious groups have to wait for the day when they might be represented in more substantial numbers, or should we be guided by the principle that minorities, even small ones should enjoy the same constitutional protections as the majority.?

Other Religious Holy Days Should Good Friday be a Government Holiday ?

How would Christians react if the situations were reversed — if the holy days of another religion were made into a public holiday while Christians had to take personal or vacation days to observe something like Good Friday? Many minority religions are increasing in size across the country and their influence on American society will also grow. Today they are so small that they have to acquiesce to the demands of Christians that Christianity receive privileged treatment, but that is slowly coming to an end.

One day, some regions of America will have so many Muslims or Hindus that the "secular purpose" argument currently used to defend a Good Friday holiday will require that the government create an official holiday to accommodate the high absences of Muslims or Hindus. If the government doesn't, then arguments that Good Friday holidays have a secular purpose would be revealed as a sham.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Would we hear your whining on both coasts?

I bet we would hear the Christian right wing nuts from coast to coast.

The sham is making you whine now, why would anyone else be whining?

So apparently this is the level of discourse that I can expect from you? Very disappointing !

Yes, I'm going to point out your Constitutional confusion as well as your whining. Deal with it.

I'm waiting. Give it your best shot. For the record, I have tried to be civil and reasonable here. You, on the other hand have decided to be snarky and nasty. You must be a Trump supporter.

I'm waiting. Give it your best shot.

You're using the 1st Amendment,

I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

to complain about your state holiday. Do I need to explicitly point out your confusion?

 

[TheProgressivePatriot]

I bet we would hear the Christian right wing nuts from coast to coast.

The sham is making you whine now, why would anyone else be whining?

So apparently this is the level of discourse that I can expect from you? Very disappointing !

Yes, I'm going to point out your Constitutional confusion as well as your whining. Deal with it.

I'm waiting. Give it your best shot. For the record, I have tried to be civil and reasonable here. You, on the other hand have decided to be snarky and nasty. You must be a Trump supporter.

I'm waiting. Give it your best shot.

You're using the 1st Amendment,

I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

to complain about your state holiday. Do I need to explicitly point out your confusion?

Yes you do . Give it a shot. I can't wait . Not very impressed with you at this point. Change my mind. Challenge me with something tangible that makes sense.

 

[TheProgressivePatriot]

I bet we would hear the Christian right wing nuts from coast to coast.

The sham is making you whine now, why would anyone else be whining?

So apparently this is the level of discourse that I can expect from you? Very disappointing !

Yes, I'm going to point out your Constitutional confusion as well as your whining. Deal with it.

I'm waiting. Give it your best shot. For the record, I have tried to be civil and reasonable here. You, on the other hand have decided to be snarky and nasty. You must be a Trump supporter.

I'm waiting. Give it your best shot.

You're using the 1st Amendment,

I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

to complain about your state holiday. Do I need to explicitly point out your confusion?

Daily food for thought. If your focusing on the word "Congress" this should take the wind out of that sail.

This statements of the Fourteenth were adopted for a reason. They were not without force and effect. They were intended by the framers of the Fourteenth to extend the jurisdiction and protection of federal courts to all rights recognized by the Constitution and Bill of Rights against actions by state government.

First, "any law" includes the state constitution, which is its supreme law, subject to the U.S. Constitution.

Second, for the framers of the 14th Amendment the term of art, "immunities", meant all those rights recognized and protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, including those of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. The framers of the Fourteenth used the word "immunities" because the rights recognized and protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights are rights against action by government, which are "immunities", as distinct from contractual or tort rights.

If there is any doubt as to what the framers of the Fourteenth meant by their words, here are some more of their words, taken from debates in Congress and the press during the drafting and ratification debates on the amendment. What follows has been heavily based on Halbrook, Stephen P., Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms, 1866-1876, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998. Intent of the Fourteenth Amendment was to Protect All Rights

On Jan 12., 1866, Rep. John Bingham of Ohio began the drafting of the Fourteenth by a proposed amendment to the Joint Senate-House Committee of 15:

The Congress shall have power to make all laws necessary and proper to secure to all persons in every state within this Union equal protection in their rights of life, liberty and property.[1]

Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania proposed a similar guarantee:

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