ABSTRACT
The fact that cases like Salazar and Lautsi continue to arise reveals something important about the state of religion at the start of the 2 1 st century. Long past the point when it was supposed to have disappeared as a public concern, religion remains a vital, even growing force. Governments continue to place religious symbols in courtrooms, classrooms, city halls and parks. And citizens continue to consider such symbols worth a fight. Even in Western Europe, perhaps the most secular place on the planet, millions of people object to removing religious symbols from public places. Other millions consider such symbols an affront to pluralism and a throwback to an unenlightened time. The key point is this: both in the US and Europe, religion’s continuing influence means that cases like Salazar and Lautsi will recur. Indeed, because of religious symbols’ peculiar power to elicit emotional responses-alternately to inspire, comfort or offend-we should expect such controversies to be passionate, prolonged and persistent.
