[DVaut1]

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A really simple example would be that my mom wasn't allowed to put a small christmas decoration on her desk because it was religous (not even sure if it was religous, was probably a little tree or santa since my mom doesn't go to church). However, any non-christian holiday decorations are allowed because they are afraid of being sued.

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Does your mom work for the state? If she doesn't, you should realize how empty this complaint is.

Not only that, the Christmas tree is a secular symbol that has no religious meaning.

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Moreover, any idea that is categorized as "religous" suddenly gets treated differently then any other idea. You can teach philosophy and ethics in school if you want, as long as none of the ideas are related to a popular religion. If they are, suddenly those ideas are treated second class.

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Really? Where?

There were no philosophy or ethics classes offered at my public high school. At the state university I attended, I took a few philosophy classes where discussions centered around non-secular ethics occurred quite frequently.

This just sounds like more of the right-wing fiction narrative in action to me.

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I haven't been to church in over a decade, and I don't care much for religion. But it's obvious as hell to me that mainstream religion gets the shaft from government.

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So your evidence that it's 'obvious as hell that mainstream religion gets the shaft from the government' is:

1) an anecdotal story that doesn't prove what you say it does, since if your mom doesn't work for the state, your mom's problem is with her company, not the state.
2) the notion that 'ideas get treated differently' -- which is merely just some subjective assessment that you couldn't prove anyway, and STILL doesn't give weight to the fact that the state oppresses religious groups.

Are these two things, taken together, supposed to provide compelling evidence of the obvious, widespread oppression of religious groups by the state ?

I think there needs to be some serious introspection from those claiming Christians are 'oppressed' in this country.

It seems like, to make the claim work, 'oppression' needs to mean something like 'we don't get what we want all the time'.