My daughter came to us on the first day of school telling us that one of her teachers had a cross and a Bible quote on the wall. I didn’t want to get my daughter into trouble by letting the principal know about it myself since they would attach my name to it and she might face retaliation. So I wrote to the FFRF, sent them a picture my daughter drew of the cross and the Bible quote (no phones in class, so she couldn’t get a photo).
Not only were they responsive quickly when I contacted them, within a few weeks, they sent an email to the school superintendent with all the relevant legal information as to why this teacher needs to take the cross and Bible quote down and without identifying who reported her.
I’m not a member due to some financial issues right now, but as soon as those clear up, I am going to join. They do good work.
Consider joining yourself: https://ffrf.org/
‘Public space’ and ‘government-funded space’ are not strictly the same.
It’s reasonable where it’s strictly educational, and no faith is getting preferential treatment. Qurans, bibles and other religious books in the library? Sure. A display on ‘religions of the world’. Fine.
A teacher having a small cross or scripture somewhere near their desk, in the same way they might have a picture of their spouse/kids? Probably fine, but only if you’d also be happy with Arabic or Hebrew scripture, or a Satanist pentagram.
Yeah, totally getcha, but also wouldnt want to see it lets say displayed on public roads, public parks, public trains etc. I cant really think of a public space that isn’t government owned or funded? Not saying things seen public by the way, e.g. a church while driving on a public road… which is obviously on private land, or someones house, while walking past it. But you betcha I wouldnt appreciate scripture on the sidewalk.
I drove past dozens of crosses every day on the side of public roads. They’re often covered in cheap plastic flowers or other trash. I wish they were gone. Memorialize your dead in your own space. That stuff shouldn’t be cluttering up public roadways.
I’d also be fine with it in the context of a historical lesson or a survey of world religions. It’s rather difficult to discuss history frankly without discussing religion’s outsized role in a lot of it. So perhaps an image of a knight riding under a cross wouldn’t be out of place, so long as it was properly contextualized.