In European countries such as Germany, Christmas is celebrated with fervor even as Europeans debate how much to emphasize the holiday's religious significance. But the conflict is complex.
Much derives from a long-running debate over dividing church and state, said Alexander Görlach, the founder and editor-in-chief of "The European" magazine and a visiting scholar at Harvard University. He is researching the future of secularization.
Legally, however, the First Amendment protects a speaker's right to present his or her views in a public forum regardless of the merits of the content. The genius of the First Amendment is the recognition that limitations on speech are impermissible not because all speech is inherently good, but because we don't want the government to decide which speech is worthy of protection.
