The 'Christmas Wars'

Photo: Karen Bleier - AFP/Getty Images

Updated Dec. 12, 2008

Every year as the holiday season gets underway, debates break out across the country over the appropriateness of religious displays in public spaces, such as crèches and menorahs placed in town halls. But the so-called "Christmas wars" are only a small part of a much larger debate concerning the proper place of religion in public life, a debate that began at the nation's founding. How did America's founders view religion and its role in our country's development? And how does the debate over church and state continue to inform politics today?

The Pew Forum has assembled a variety of resources to put this debate in its historical and legal contexts.

Pew Forum Resources

Graphic
Being Good for Goodness' Sake?
Dec. 11, 2008
A 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project found that a majority of Americans say it is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values, but most Canadians and Europeans disagreed.

Legal Backgrounder
Religious Displays and the Courts
June 27, 2007
Over the last three decades, government displays of religious symbols have sparked fierce battles in the courtroom and in the court of public opinion. This in-depth legal backgrounder by Pew Forum Senior Research Fellow David Masci and George Washington Law School professors Ira "Chip" Lupu and Robert Tuttle outlines the history of the debate and examines significant court decisions.

Question & Answer
From the Ten Commandments to Christmas Trees: Public Religious Displays and the Courts
June 27, 2007
As a supplement to the backgrounder on religious displays and the courts, one of its authors, Robert W. Tuttle, spoke with the Pew Forum about how the current law might be applied in certain circumstances.

Event Transcript
The 'Christmas Wars': Religion in the American Public Square
Dec. 12, 2006
The Pew Forum invited Jon Meacham, managing editor of Newsweek and author of American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation, and Michael Novak, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Washington's God: Religion, Liberty and the Father of Our Country, to shed light on the debates over holiday displays.

Legal Backgrounder
The 'Christmas Wars': Holiday Displays and the Federal Courts
Dec. 12, 2006
A report on the legal underpinnings of the holiday debates written by Pew Forum Senior Research Fellow David Masci; Ira "Chip" Lupu, the F. Elwood & Eleanor Davis Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School; and Robert Tuttle, the David R. and Sherry Kirschner Berz Research Professor of Law & Religion at George Washington University Law School.