Posted by GET NJ on December 01, 2005 at 21:29:57:

Can a City Celebrate Religious Freedom and Diversity?
Jersey City Says "Yes" / The ACLU Says "No"
Why Jersey City is Fighting for Religious Liberty

The New York Post

by Bret Schundler

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Jersey City because we don't just tolerate diversity -- we celebrate it! In particular, the ACLU is demanding that Jersey City remove religious symbols from cultural displays at City Hall.

Jersey City, the home of Ellis Island, is America's most ethnically diverse city. New York and Los Angeles have as many different kinds of people, but Jersey City is more ethnically balanced: European-Americans, African-Americans, Latin-Americans and Asian-Americans all comprise about a quarter of our people, many of whom are recent immigrants.

Not long after I was first elected mayor, the World Trade Center bombing created the possibility of a reaction against our Muslim community. I organized a press conference with religious leaders representing the diverse faiths of our people, and together we stressed that an entire community of faith should not be held accountable for the actions of individual criminals. Ethnic relations in Jersey City remained calm, and I received an award from the New Jersey Human Rights Commission for proactively heading-off a potential crisis. But following that scare, my administration began working even harder to develop Jersey City's sense of unity amidst diversity.

The foundation of America's nationhood is a set of common ideals: our broadly shared belief in equality, inalienable rights, and constitutional democracy. Ours is the most inclusive conception of nationhood the world has ever known. To be an American is not about being white or black, Christian or Jew, native or foreign-born, or even about speaking English at h0me. It is about citizenship in a country which is committed to specific principles of justice. To expand Jersey City's sense of unity amidst diversity, my administration has initiated a program to reinforce this proper understanding of American identity amongst our people.

A week before the Fourth of July (when fewer people are at the Jersey shore), the City sponsors an American Day Celebration to remind our residents that "out of many, we have become one" (e pluribus unum). We begin with a parade during which we encourage our residents to dress in attire evocative of their diverse ethnic heritages while marching mixed together -- not in segregated groups -- carrying the symbol of our national unity, the American flag. Following this parade, we gather for an American Family Picnic during which diverse speakers comment on the meaning of America's foundational ideals (again: equality, inalienable rights, and democracy), and lead us in remembering Americans who risked their lives to preserve freedom (e.g., generations of servicemen and women), or who struggled to expand social justice (e.g., national heros like Martin Luther King, Jr.). To climax these festivities, we swear-in resident immigrants as new citizens and welcome them into our American family, as American families do, by cutting a cake: in this case, a huge cake -- shaped and colored like the American flag.

These American Day festivities celebrate the oneness we find in commonly committing ourselves to America's foundational ideals. By recognizing one another as fellow children of God -- equal in sacred value and equal in God-given rights -- we achieve a sense of national family. But what is beautiful about families is not only that their members' possess a sense of shared identity, but that their members' love, accept, and celebrate one another as separate and unique individuals. For this reason, we celebrate not only our unity as a community, but our diversity as well. We follow up our American Day festivities with a year-long series of ethnic festivals through which we celebrate the beauty of our people's diverse cultural traditions.

When it's Pakistan Independence Day or the Feast of the Eid or Ramadan, we celebrate. When it's Israel Independence Day or Hanukkah or Yom Kippur, we celebrate. When it's Ireland Independence Day or St. Patrick's Day or Christmas, we celebrate. Indeed, we celebrate a rainbow spectrum of cultural holidays in a rainbow spectrum of ways: with parades and proclamations, with festivals and flag-raisings, with ethnic art exhibits under the rotunda of City Hall and diverse cultural displays on its front lawn.

This has made Jersey City a very celebratory place -- and a very fun place to live. But most importantly, it has made Jersey City a place where our residents' cultural differences separate them less and less as they are coming to appreciate more and more the truth that community is not threatened by diversity: for the foundation of true community is not sameness, but love.

The National League of Cities / Black Local Elected Officials Caucus recently recognized our diversity program as one of the best in the nation. We call it the "The Slice of Heaven Festival Series" because all religions -- including Humanism -- envision heaven as a place where all the world's people get along. Like no other city in the world, Jersey City is a place where all the world's people live side by side. Now we are endeavoring to make Jersey City a slice of heaven by encouraging our residents to love, accept, and celebrate one another. And we are doing this not just by word, but by the city's own example -- which is why the ACLU is suing us.

It troubles the ACLU that when showing honor to our resident's cultural heritages, the City does not censor out recognition of religion as a part of such. To the ACLU's way of thinking, putting diverse cultural displays on City Hall's front lawn would be fine if we censored out all religious symbols. But we do not do so, which causes the ACLU to fear that a passer-by may presume that the City specifically endorses whatever religion is being represented by a symbol in that week's cultural display. In effect, the ACLU is suing Jersey City because it believes that the First Amendment's protection of religion requires the City to discriminate against religion, by discriminatorily whiting-out from City Hall cultural displays all recognition of religion as an important element in our people's cultural lives -- as if, counter to fact, it were not.

In Jersey City, we find the ACLU's reasoning patently absurd. Only ideological extremists could ever equate discrimination against religion with its protection. The First Amendment bars the establishment of a state religion, it does not demand that government ignore the existence of religion as a significant cultural fact. That is why City Halls all across America close for Christmas Day.

Indeed, I do not know how the City could celebrate the diverse cultural heritages of its people without recognizing religion as a part of such heritages. For instance, how could the City celebrate Jewish culture without recognizing Judaism as an element in it? And why would the City want to? The very reason we celebrate our people's cultural heritages is because we want, by the City's own example, to encourage our citizens to love, respect, and celebrate one another also: to understand that we can be one even while free to be different!

The ACLU argues that when an individual puts a menorah or a nativity scene in front of his home, it says to the world that that individual is, respectively, Jewish or Christian. Perhaps it does, or perhaps it just says that that individual wants to show respect for his neighbors, as when a non-Christian shop owner puts up Christmas decorations during the holiday shopping season. Yet, more on point relative to the case in Jersey City is the question of what it says to the world when an individual, in an extremely diverse community, puts a different cultural display in front of his home every week, including symbols -- secular and religious -- drawn from scores of different cultural traditions? What it most likely says is that that individual respects the diverse cultural heritages of his neighbors, and probably wants to encourage his neighbors to respect one another also. That is exactly what Jersey City is trying to say and do.

Not all of Jersey City's residents consider themselves religous. For instance, some residents reject the notion of a personal God and instead revere beauty as the greatest of goods. These residents are celebrated at City Hall, the same as all others. In particular, they are invited to publicly share their conception of the good through art displays in our Rotunda Gallery. In this way, they too learn that they can be public about their beliefs.

The ACLU's representatives have made a lot out of the fact that I am a believing Christian. I am. But my being a person of faith does not disqualify me from the right to engage in public debate. Nor does it make me intolerant. Indeed, it is an article of my Christian faith, as it was that of America's Christian Founding Fathers who authored and ratified the First Amendment, that religious freedom is a gift from God which no government can justly circumscribe. That is one of the reasons why I am so committed to resisting the ACLU's efforts to mandate discrimination against religion.

But it is not just Christians who are with me in this fight. In Jersey City, people of all faiths are financially supporting our legal defense against the ACLU, because it means a great deal, especially to our recent immigrants, that the City so proactively welcomes them, and by its example encourages all of its residents to do likewise. A few years ago, a rabbi who had emigrated from the Soviet Union while it was still under Communism made it clear why. "Mr. Mayor," he said, "I cannot tell you what it means to me to be invited to City Hall to light the menorah . . . . "

In the Jewish tradition, we are supposed to put the menorah in the most public window of the house, but in the Soviet Union, under the Communists, we could not do this for fear that we would be persecuted for our belief in God. In fact, we had to light the menorah in our closets so that no one would know of our faith.

It means so much to me, here in this country, to be invited to light the menorah at City Hall -- the most public place in all the City, the very seat of government power in this community -- and not to have to be afraid, because in this country the government, instead of persecuting people for their religious faith, commits its power to protecting each citizen's right to believe, and to be public about his or her faith.

It is this, Mr. Mayor, which makes me love America!

The ACLU was not moved by the rabbi's sentiment. It was the day after he spoke that the ACLU sued Jersey City to stop our menorah lightings.

Bret Schundler is the Mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey

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Comments:
: Can a City Celebrate Religious Freedom and Diversity?
: Jersey City Says "Yes" / The ACLU Says "No"
: Why Jersey City is Fighting for Religious Liberty 

: The New York Post

: by Bret Schundler 

: The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Jersey City because we don't just tolerate diversity -- we celebrate it! In particular, the ACLU is demanding that Jersey City remove religious symbols from cultural displays at City Hall. 

: Jersey City, the home of Ellis Island, is America's most ethnically diverse city. New York and Los Angeles have as many different kinds of people, but Jersey City is more ethnically balanced: European-Americans, African-Americans, Latin-Americans and Asian-Americans all comprise about a quarter of our people, many of whom are recent immigrants. 

: Not long after I was first elected mayor, the World Trade Center bombing created the possibility of a reaction against our Muslim community. I organized a press conference with religious leaders representing the diverse faiths of our people, and together we stressed that an entire community of faith should not be held accountable for the actions of individual criminals. Ethnic relations in Jersey City remained calm, and I received an award from the New Jersey Human Rights Commission for proactively heading-off a potential crisis. But following that scare, my administration began working even harder to develop Jersey City's sense of unity amidst diversity. 

: The foundation of America's nationhood is a set of common ideals: our broadly shared belief in equality, inalienable rights, and constitutional democracy. Ours is the most inclusive conception of nationhood the world has ever known. To be an American is not about being white or black, Christian or Jew, native or foreign-born, or even about speaking English at h0me. It is about citizenship in a country which is committed to specific principles of justice. To expand Jersey City's sense of unity amidst diversity, my administration has initiated a program to reinforce this proper understanding of American identity amongst our people. 

: A week before the Fourth of July (when fewer people are at the Jersey shore), the City sponsors an American Day Celebration to remind our residents that "out of many, we have become one" (e pluribus unum). We begin with a parade during which we encourage our residents to dress in attire evocative of their diverse ethnic heritages while marching mixed together -- not in segregated groups -- carrying the symbol of our national unity, the American flag. Following this parade, we gather for an American Family Picnic during which diverse speakers comment on the meaning of America's foundational ideals (again: equality, inalienable rights, and democracy), and lead us in remembering Americans who risked their lives to preserve freedom (e.g., generations of servicemen and women), or who struggled to expand social justice (e.g., national heros like Martin Luther King, Jr.). To climax these festivities, we swear-in resident immigrants as new citizens and welcome them into our American family, as American families do, by cutting a cake: in this case, a huge cake -- shaped and colored like the American flag. 

: These American Day festivities celebrate the oneness we find in commonly committing ourselves to America's foundational ideals. By recognizing one another as fellow children of God -- equal in sacred value and equal in God-given rights -- we achieve a sense of national family. But what is beautiful about families is not only that their members' possess a sense of shared identity, but that their members' love, accept, and celebrate one another as separate and unique individuals. For this reason, we celebrate not only our unity as a community, but our diversity as well. We follow up our American Day festivities with a year-long series of ethnic festivals through which we celebrate the beauty of our people's diverse cultural traditions. 

: When it's Pakistan Independence Day or the Feast of the Eid or Ramadan, we celebrate. When it's Israel Independence Day or Hanukkah or Yom Kippur, we celebrate. When it's Ireland Independence Day or St. Patrick's Day or Christmas, we celebrate. Indeed, we celebrate a rainbow spectrum of cultural holidays in a rainbow spectrum of ways: with parades and proclamations, with festivals and flag-raisings, with ethnic art exhibits under the rotunda of City Hall and diverse cultural displays on its front lawn. 

: This has made Jersey City a very celebratory place -- and a very fun place to live. But most importantly, it has made Jersey City a place where our residents' cultural differences separate them less and less as they are coming to appreciate more and more the truth that community is not threatened by diversity: for the foundation of true community is not sameness, but love. 

: The National League of Cities / Black Local Elected Officials Caucus recently recognized our diversity program as one of the best in the nation. We call it the "The Slice of Heaven Festival Series" because all religions -- including Humanism -- envision heaven as a place where all the world's people get along. Like no other city in the world, Jersey City is a place where all the world's people live side by side. Now we are endeavoring to make Jersey City a slice of heaven by encouraging our residents to love, accept, and celebrate one another. And we are doing this not just by word, but by the city's own example -- which is why the ACLU is suing us. 

: It troubles the ACLU that when showing honor to our resident's cultural heritages, the City does not censor out recognition of religion as a part of such. To the ACLU's way of thinking, putting diverse cultural displays on City Hall's front lawn would be fine if we censored out all religious symbols. But we do not do so, which causes the ACLU to fear that a passer-by may presume that the City specifically endorses whatever religion is being represented by a symbol in that week's cultural display. In effect, the ACLU is suing Jersey City because it believes that the First Amendment's protection of religion requires the City to discriminate against religion, by discriminatorily whiting-out from City Hall cultural displays all recognition of religion as an important element in our people's cultural lives -- as if, counter to fact, it were not. 

: In Jersey City, we find the ACLU's reasoning patently absurd. Only ideological extremists could ever equate discrimination against religion with its protection. The First Amendment bars the establishment of a state religion, it does not demand that government ignore the existence of religion as a significant cultural fact. That is why City Halls all across America close for Christmas Day. 

: Indeed, I do not know how the City could celebrate the diverse cultural heritages of its people without recognizing religion as a part of such heritages. For instance, how could the City celebrate Jewish culture without recognizing Judaism as an element in it? And why would the City want to? The very reason we celebrate our people's cultural heritages is because we want, by the City's own example, to encourage our citizens to love, respect, and celebrate one another also: to understand that we can be one even while free to be different! 

: The ACLU argues that when an individual puts a menorah or a nativity scene in front of his home, it says to the world that that individual is, respectively, Jewish or Christian. Perhaps it does, or perhaps it just says that that individual wants to show respect for his neighbors, as when a non-Christian shop owner puts up Christmas decorations during the holiday shopping season. Yet, more on point relative to the case in Jersey City is the question of what it says to the world when an individual, in an extremely diverse community, puts a different cultural display in front of his home every week, including symbols -- secular and religious -- drawn from scores of different cultural traditions? What it most likely says is that that individual respects the diverse cultural heritages of his neighbors, and probably wants to encourage his neighbors to respect one another also. That is exactly what Jersey City is trying to say and do. 

: Not all of Jersey City's residents consider themselves religous. For instance, some residents reject the notion of a personal God and instead revere beauty as the greatest of goods. These residents are celebrated at City Hall, the same as all others. In particular, they are invited to publicly share their conception of the good through art displays in our Rotunda Gallery. In this way, they too learn that they can be public about their beliefs. 

: The ACLU's representatives have made a lot out of the fact that I am a believing Christian. I am. But my being a person of faith does not disqualify me from the right to engage in public debate. Nor does it make me intolerant. Indeed, it is an article of my Christian faith, as it was that of America's Christian Founding Fathers who authored and ratified the First Amendment, that religious freedom is a gift from God which no government can justly circumscribe. That is one of the reasons why I am so committed to resisting the ACLU's efforts to mandate discrimination against religion. 

: But it is not just Christians who are with me in this fight. In Jersey City, people of all faiths are financially supporting our legal defense against the ACLU, because it means a great deal, especially to our recent immigrants, that the City so proactively welcomes them, and by its example encourages all of its residents to do likewise. A few years ago, a rabbi who had emigrated from the Soviet Union while it was still under Communism made it clear why. "Mr. Mayor," he said, "I cannot tell you what it means to me to be invited to City Hall to light the menorah . . . . " 

: In the Jewish tradition, we are supposed to put the menorah in the most public window of the house, but in the S


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