Perplexed by this argument from a fundie friend

[xangelusx]

I must preface this by saying that I wrote it off-the-cuff and some of it was just rambling free thinking.

I have an old friend with whom I attended church as a child. Decades later I am now an atheist, and she a 7th Day Adventist - we couldn't have more polarized views But we both love to debate each other and we keep it very friendly.

In any case, she brought up a point this morning that had me at odds with myself. Here was what she said:

President Obama has directed the United States Postal Service to REMEMBER and HONOR the EID MUSLIM holiday season with a new commemorative 44-Cent First Class Holiday Postage Stamp. True? So per Obama we can't do National Day of Prayer but we can honor Muslim holidays with no problem?

Now, I haven't fact checked that statement yet, so I don't know if the stamp thing is true. But whether it is or is not is irrelevant to my problem, so lets assume that it's true for the sake of the argument. (Also irrelevant is the fact that Obama didn't cancel the NDoP, but rather a judge declared it unconstitutional.)

I agree that the NDoP is unconstitutional. Calling for a national recognition of something implies that it is an inherent part of American culture, and in the case of the NDoP that is simply not the case. Since prayer is a religious observation (secularists may hope for something, but they wouldn't pray) then the NDoP presumes that all Americans are religious and that we are a theocratic society, which of course is false. (Preaching to the choir, I know.)

So my problem is this: Does the printing of a postal stamp (and keeping in mind that the USPS is a government institution) count as a national recognition of the subject? Or is it simply a celebration of something? After all, we have Elvis stamps and science stamps and bird stamps. As far as I know Jesus has never been on a stamp, but menorahs and Christmas trees certainly have. So we could say that a stamp is not a national recognition (Elvis may be an American icon, but he is clearly not representative of all Americans). One could even argue that we are free to use any stamp that we choose, and we are not forced to use religious stamps even if they are available.

OK, but then doesn't that argument also extend to the NDoP? We are free to not pray if we so choose. Any secularist worth his soulless husk will argue that prayer has no impact aside from a psychosomatic response, so what's the harm? OK, OK... I know it only supports the view that America is a Christian nation, and blah blah blah. So then lets take the argument the other way.

Should we ban the printing of any stamp that could be construed as having religious connotations? Some cultures worship the Sun, so should we not have a stamp with a sunny beach on it? What about Christmas? Should we cancel the national observation of Christmas? I know that it has pre-christian roots and plenty of post-christian elements, but it is widely recognized as a christian holiday. So no more christmas tree stamps? (I'm an atheist but I still celebrate Christmas with my family for a number of reasons which have nothing to do with religion.) What about bird stamps - wouldn't we be recognizing druids?

I guess the point is that it's a slippery slope. Religion and culture (both current and ancient) are so intertwined that it's impossible to separate the two cleanly. We do owe religion a recognition of sorts for it's impact on human history, for better or worse. If we wipe out all religious observances then aren't we also punishing ourselves by wiping out plenty of culturally relevant celebrations?

I'm playing the devil's advocate here a little bit, but you can't deny that the line of distinction is very blurry.