I admit I continue to be confused by religious people who don't understand that freedom of religion is a wee bit important. I guess I blame all this on feel good Christian ecumenical stuff. Bring back the good old days when Catholics and Protestants hated each other!
I didn't have any religion growing up, and while I never self-identified as Jewish, it's probably the closest thing to a familial religious/cultural affiliation I had. A wee bit of cultural Judaism, and then Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. I'm admittedly looking back on things with a bit more understanding than I had as a child, but I lived in places where Protestants (of various denominations) were dominant and places where Catholics were. And that dominance seemed to matter, enough so that the minority (in cultural power, if not numbers) religion members didn't feel so confident about their position. The community religion has a way of seeping into schools and other institutions in minor but nontrivial ways even if the School Board isn't actively trying to bring back prayer in the schools. Cultural traditions, even mostly secular ones, aren't as universal as people think.
