Separation of Church and State

For over sixty years, every Christmas season, a park of bluffs overlooking the ocean in Santa Monica California was dominated by expansive Nativity scene displays proudly developed by the city's Christian church communities. In 2011, however, things were a little different in that the Atheist groups of the Santa Monica area decided to contest the privilege of the Christian community to completely take over the park with their public religious statements. The city officials had originally allocated the spots to the Christian communities, but the Atheist movement argued for a lottery system for the spots to be designed. (Atheists nudge out Nativity scenes)

The separation of church and state is one of the most prominent debates in American history since the ratification of the First Amendment on the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment states that Congress will not make laws respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise of any religion. While it only states Congress, it arguably applies to all other governing or authority entity that considers itself influential on the rights of the people such as state and city officials. Even though people believe there should be a separation between the ideals of the church and the laws of the government, the phrase “separation between church and state” never actually appears in the Constitution. What the law states is meant to prohibit governments from favoring one religion over another in anyway.

While designing a lottery system would have been a good idea to prevent the city officials of Santa Monica from favoring one group over another, the Atheist groups manipulated the system by filling the lottery with several applications of their own and in turn gained control over the majority of the spots available leaving only 2 Christian spots and 1 Jewish spot. And then, instead of using their spots to promote their beliefs, the majority of the Atheist spots were left empty.

As it does make sense for the Atheist groups to want the Santa Monica bluffs to be free of opposing religious statements, a lot of issues with the right to free expression arise from how it was handled. The fact that the Atheist groups were able to take control over most of the spots on the bluff show that the spots were not evenly distributed and the lottery system had not worked out justly. An even representation from the various religious perspectives would have shown a united community and unbiased view on behalf of the city officials. Minimizing the Christian churches tradition to only a couple spaces limited the amount of free expression the Christians were allowed to have and gave more power to the Atheist groups. Many of the Atheist designated spots were also left empty, which stripped the privileges of other religious communities to celebrate their beliefs. In order to ensure that the first amendment rights of the people were recognized by the city officials, the spots on the bluff should have been evenly distributed between interested religious communities to prevent one group from monopolizing the system and seemingly taking opportunity away from others and placing their ideas and beliefs above those around them.