So here's the story

A private group in Utah decides to place memorials for fallen state patrol members. It gets permission to use some public land. The memorials happen to be crosses. Atheists sue to have them removed. The case itself isn't of that much interest to me, but the judges ruling is.

.S. District Judge David Sam ruled Tuesday, Nov. 20, against the atheists, holding that the crosses erected around the state of Utah to commemorate fallen state troopers can stand. Sam's decision held that the Roman cross is not a recognizable form of Christianity, at least in this context. "Just as the Christmas tree evolved into a secular symbol of celebration, the cross has evolved into a symbol capable of communicating a secular message of death and burial," Sam wrote. The Texas-based American Atheists Inc., which claimed the memorials violate the separation of church and state, promised to appeal.

Consider that for a moment. In order to maintain the memorials, the argument was made that a cross is not a Christian symbol. If I were a Christian I'd be furious over this. In a battle to force something sacred past the government, people have actually managed to win an argument that strips it of its sacredness. The cross is no longer about Jesus and Redemption, but now about death and burial. In short

now equals

If I go in a church and see a cross, I can assume someone is buried behind that wall. If someone is wearing a cross around their neck, I can assume that they're just a little bit dead inside. And that one scene in The Exorcist is both less creepy and a little more creepy at the same time.

The separation between church and state is not solely to protect the state from the church, but also the other way around. The only way for a religion to maintain any sense of the sacred is to move it far away from the government. Mandatory religiousness of any kind only serves to harm the religion, because you can't force faith upon people. It becomes what the courts have referred to as "Ceremonial Deism". Religious phrases have no meaning in government because their repetition eliminates it. This is why we can say "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Because the court ruled that the phrase "Under God" has lost any religious meaning. We aren't under God anymore legally that we're the "home of the brave", "imperialist bastards" or "Western devils". The "under God" in the pledge officially has quote fingers around it.

Christmas is not a sacred celebration of Jesus's birth, but a time to spend with family, with Santa Claus taking precedence over the guy who's birthday it actually is. "Merry Christmas" is now a political statement rather than a sincere wish of goodwill. Is it really better now?

So now you're on track losing the cross, Christians, because you want to continue bringing the church to a state that has proven it can't keep anything sacred. Please turn back. That stupid fish symbol is hardly a substitute.