The Power of the EU Court of Human Rights Compells You…

Luckily for the United States, its government is nowhere near as wrapped up with religion as Italy's is. Sure, we have plenty of loons controlling things over here, but at least we have some separation of religion from government. It is no surprise that Italy, home of the Roman Catholic Church, is a religious country. One of the most religious ones in Europe. From long before Italy became a single country, till long after the fascists were removed from power, Italy has mixed religion and government.

Since the 1920s, Italian law has required crucifixes to be hung inside schools. Now, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that this violates the freedom of religion of the children and their parents' rights. Even better, the court ruled that the law restricted the "right of children to believe or not to believe. [emphasis mine]"

The conservative politicians and Catholic clerics have been up in arms about loosing their ability to shove their religion down the throats of children. In defense of their gruesome symbol, feature a man (or god or man or the son of a god that is the god but also a man) being tortured and killed for all to see, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said that "The crucifix has always been a sign of God's love, unity and hospitality to all humanity.… It is unpleasant that it is considered a sign of division, exclusion or a restriction of freedom."

Really? I wonder why someone might consider a Catholic crucifix divisive or that its use in schools imposes a restriction on the freedoms of students and parents. Perhaps it's because it symbolizes Christianity (or more specifically, Catholicism). You'll find no stars of David, crescents, or happy humanists on their walls. Just their one, preferred symbol of their one, preferred religion.

I'm even less impressed by the claim that a representation of a torture device shows their god's love. Worse, the Catholic crucifixes tend to have a dying man on them. At the very least, the other forms of Christianity tend sanitize their symbol. Sure, they god might have performed the sacrifice to cleanse humanity of sin, but one is tempted to think that there are some ways that don't excite Mel Gibson as much. Maybe he could have stopped humans from gaining sin by using his omnipotent powers or forgiven them without accepting a human/divine sacrifice.