J.C.
I'm not certain I agree with your language here.
The First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; "
"Respecting an establishment" means -- "With regard to" an establishment of religion. Congress cannot declare one religion -- i.e. Christianity, Buddhism, etc. -- the official religion of the the Unites States, its government or its people. The fear of the founders was "official religions" which existed in many other governments at the time. When a government acts on behalf of a specific faith and not all faiths, they are giving tacit authority to that religion. The Utah government has violated the principle of the "non-establishment clause," as it should be correctly called.
No, you don't know what you are talking about. No one is hiding from the First Amendment, you simply don't understand it. Nowhere in the idea of government that doesn't restrict free expression of religion is the idea that government is allowed to act as an agent of one religion, as Utah has done by using Christian symbols as memorials. One clause of the Amendment cannot violate another.
Free expression doesn't mean you can erect whatever you want, wherever you want. The government isn't limiting your free expression by NOT erecting a monument to your rest on public property. The idea is asinine.
