LA County, the EU, and the Naked Public Square

Once again I'm struck by the stark difference in the public expression of religious sentiment in Europe and the United States. The democractically elected heads of state in Europe have repeatedly rejected the Vatican's requests to include a descriptive reference to the continent's Christian heritage in the new EU Constitution. It is obvious that those heads of state would be subject to immediate recall votes if they took that stance over here, as evidenced by the public outrage over Los Angeles County's decision to remove a barely visible cross from the county seal in the face of a (groundless, in my view) lawsuit threat from the ACLU. Of course, expecting countries like France to allow the collective expression of a particular religion's positive contribution to history may be a pipe dream, since the French won't even allow individual students to express a particular religion's contribution to the make-up of their own identities.

Rob