Traditional Christian symbols have in recent years been removed from virtually all government venues out of concern for separation of church and state. Now there are numerous efforts by these holiday killjoys to force private corporations and social institutions to keep employees from saying things like “Merry Christmas” because some non-Christians may be offended.

It’s time these Grinches read the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. …” That means every one of us has the right to freedom of speech, including that which expresses our many faiths. No one of us has the right to suppress another’s freedom simply because we are offended by it.

Somehow the idea that all Americans have the constitutional right to publicly express their religious faith got twisted into the opposite by our court system, which now routinely muzzles speech if it happens to be about religion. But when government controls what you can talk about, your speech is not free.

The First Amendment is seriously eroded every time a court rules as the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals did recently in barring a Nativity scene from New York public schools but allowing the same schools to display a Jewish menorah during Hanukkah and a Muslim star and crescent during Ramadan because they were supposedly “secular” symbols. The U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed this cowardly and blatantly discriminatory ruling to stand.

The First Amendment is meant to encourage more speech, not less.