"In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me
As He died to make men holy let us die to make men free
His truth is marching on."

Great choirs still sing this inspirational hymn on important state occasions (including the recent official visit of Pope Benedict) without credible insistence that they balance the lyrics with a performance of Adam Sandler's "Hanukkah Song," or Westboro Baptist's "Santa Claus Will Take You to Hell" (sample lyrics: "Don't leave your kids with this red fright/Just like the priests he'll rape 'em at night.")

The most obvious point about the annual quarrels over Christmas symbols and traditions involves the bizarre, passionate but unacknowledged desire by secularists to alter America beyond recognition. When the majority craves wreathes or crèches or carols or even prayer in schools, it hardly amounts to a drive to impose theocracy --- unless you consider the United States of the 1950's an example of repressive and dangerous theocracy. The Eisenhower era saw far more public reflections of the nation's Christian heritage than we sanction today and yet no sane observer could suggest that the nation of just fifty years ago featured an obnoxious or intrusive ecclesiastical establishment.

The separationist extremists seek a Christmas -free and religion-free America that never existed before – or else a nation that even-handedly mocks a great multiplicity of faiths, as did the proposed displays in Olympia. Given the radical departure represented by this vision for our future, the secularists should answer a basic question: what leads them to believe that an America with less religious symbolism and less Christian tradition would represent an improvement on the nation as it's always existed and flourished to the present day?

Of course, the state officials in Washington made the right decision to place a "moratorium" on new proposed displays for the Capitol but they reached this conclusion for the wrong reasons. The nativity scene and the menorah deserved pride of place in Olympia not just because their advocates applied first but because they represent viable religious traditions embraced by millions of citizens. The atheist sign accompanying these time-honored displays represents a denigration of faith, not an affirmation of anything.

There's nothing improper or unconstitutional about public officials granting more leeway for Christmas symbols than for accoutrements to the comic TV holiday "Festivus." The very idea of government of the people, by the people and for the people suggests official reflection of the values and preferences of the vast majority, as long as that reflection (in Justice Story's words) is "not incompatible with the private rights of conscience and the freedom of religious worship."

When bureaucrats join the public in rejecting the Big Lie of a traditionally secular America, we can all proceed to relish the joys of the beautiful Christmas season with less confusion and controversy than the "equal access" obsessives typified by those benighted bozos in Washington State.