Quote Originally Posted by OakLeaf View Post
Angelus bells are a call to prayer; bells are rung on Sundays to call parishioners to worship, and some churches ring their tower bells as the Sanctus bells during the Mass. I don't think your local clergy would consider the bells and music "just for fun." Your non-Christian neighbors might not mind the bells - as I, a non-Muslim, enjoy hearing the adhan - but I can see how any of those might offend some people.

Wearing a veil is no more an "ostentatious trapping of religion" than wearing a shirt. It's a cultural standard of modesty.

I acknowledged before that secularism in Europe is very different from secularism in the USA. If churches aren't allowed steeples, then sorta fine - sorta, just because no one actually is building new churches, and fundamentalist Christians could safely enact such a law without it ever actually affecting them. But when different standards are applied depending on the race and religion of the people they're applied against, that's when I start to have a problem. And when immigrants and the children and grandchildren of immigrants are treated as "visitors" with rights subordinate to the native born - just as Mexican-Americans are here - that, I have a problem with, too.
Except, these are on the Baptist churches. There is one Catholic church in my town (20,000 people), and it's so far away from any residences or businesses that no one would hear the bells if they rang them (the church does have a bell on top of it, which I recall from my exploration of Catholicism in the '90s is used in certain rites and ceremonies). "Just for fun" was a little flip, but bells on churches are really just "traditional" here--not used for any real purpose.

Karen