To Risk Offending People...

I'm going to say something controversial this morning. Is it worth it to liberals to fight to remove religious references from the public square? This may be a surprising comment given my past statements, in particular where I spoke to the inappropriateness of invocating religious doctrine when making a political argument. But what I am speaking to today is something different, namely is it really worth it to get bogged down in an extended debate over whether the word "God" is in the Pledge of Allegiance or on a quarter? Does it really hurt us to have the 10 commandments in a courthouse somewhere?

This is not to say that I believe it is a good idea to have such references. If we were going to add one now, I would oppose it. But when they've been there for forty years, is it really worth the heartburn to get rid of it? Does their existence really cause the kind of psychic damage to people requiring a major political effort to rectify?

I'm not unpersaudable on this issue. I just think that we are probably unnecessarily pissing people off and dwelling on issues that really are rather trivial. Liberals have bigger fish to fry. Poste