01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, December 23, 2003

I commend the American Civil Liberties Union for going to U.S. District Court to challenge the Cranston City Hall religious display. The ACLU represents Cranston resident Grace Osediacz, who declines to identify her faith but calls it irrelevant. She says simply: Government and religion shouldn't mix.

Exactly. And I'll stick to that view even if the courts uphold Mayor Steve Laffey's policy of inviting people to put up holiday displays on the City Hall lawn and uphold the inclusion of a creche and a menorah amid such other items as toy flamingos in Santa Claus hats.

I must say: However meaningful the creche and the menorah are, the presence of the flamingos and plastic or nylon snowmen makes a mockery of whatever serious point the display is intended to convey. If tackiness were a federal crime, Laffey would be facing one stiff jail sentence.

Miriam Weizenbaum, an ACLU lawyer handling the case along with Amato DeLuca, is right in noting that the presence of flamingos or snowmen does not alter the essential fact that if you are going to do business in City Hall, you have to see the religious objects on display. "Every person among us is entitled to feel secure that when you go to your government, religion is not a factor," she says.

Government promotion of a religion or of religion in general invites ostracism, misunderstanding, and polarization.

I applaud Weizenbaum and local ACLU executive director Steve Brown for taking on this case. My guess: Most of their fellow Jews privately agree with their stand but would say, "Don't make a fuss."

It is ironic that Jews were involved in putting up not only the Cranston menorah but also the creche, the gift of a Jewish man in memory of his Christian wife, something that led Laffey to marvel, "That is really what America is all about."

I told Laffey that it may make for a charming story, but it doesn't make it right.

Meanwhile, a menorah has sprouted near a Christmas tree outside Providence City Hall. I can see why David Cicilline might be reluctant to say, "To hell with tradition. The Jewish mayor has arrived, so out with the Christmas tree, and take the menorah too." But I'm surprised that in his own office -- he calls it the people's office -- he has several small, artificial trees in a Nordstrom-designed display. "They're here to celebrate the holidays," he told me, asserting they are not religious but simply in the spirit of the season. Still, he said, now that there's more attention to the overall topic, "I don't know that I'd do it again."

Cicilline said he'd been troubled by the idea of having a menorah in front of City Hall but was assured by counsel that it is constitutionally OK.

The menorah belongs to Rhode Island's Chabad-Lubavitch movement. Rabbi Yehoshua Laufer, director, told me, "The message the menorah carries is universal and particularly applies to the great effort that the United States of America has undertaken to make this world a better place to live in. . . . Each candle dispels a lot of darkness. In our lives, every good deed that we do is like another candle lighting up the world."

I will think of this lovely sentiment in lighting the Chanukah candles at home this evening. But I don't ask you to subscribe to it, and I wouldn't ask the city or the state to help me spread that view, and I wouldn't ask Governor Carcieri to do what he'll do at 6:30 p.m. -- participate in a State House candle lighting. I wouldn't do it any more than I'd want him to hold Christmas Mass there.

We honor all religions best when we allow each to flourish alone. People with religion in their hearts do not need to go onto public property and wear it on their sleeves.

M. Charles Bakst, The Journal's political columnist, can be reached by e-mail at mbakst@projo.com