Mustang, Okla., 2004: Mustang’s Lakewood Elementary school puts on a Christmas pageant every year with a nativity scene, as well as references to Hanukah and Kwanzaa. But this year, the nativity scene is gone. School Superintendent Karl Springer banned it after the ACLU told him that the nativity scene and maybe even “Silent Night” could violate the First Amendment, and the school district’s lawyer concurred. Thousands of protest e-mails and phone calls pour in.
Eugene, Ore., 2000: After a lengthy debate among city officials over whether Christmas trees are a religious or secular symbol, City Manager Jim Johnson issues an order banning the trees on public property. He had no idea he would unleash a firestorm of protest: The city was mocked by The Wall Street Journal, among others, and the story drew international attention. The next year, the order is reversed, after a little research showed that, as Johnson put it, “the Supreme Court does not believe that a Christmas tree in and of itself is a Christian symbol.”
Covington, Ga., 2000: The ACLU tells a local school board that it cannot use the word “Christmas” on its calendar to describe the upcoming Christmas vacation -- and warns legal action if it does. For several years, the calendar has said “winter break” (after being changed in a fit of political correctness), but now school board member Richard Tiede wants it changed back. To him, this is a simple description of reality, not a matter of proselytizing: School is out during the last two weeks of December because the vast majority of students are celebrating Christmas.
The ACLU’s Craig Goodmark disagrees: “It would be violative of the First Amendment. It would coerce these children to participate in a Christmas holiday.” How a word on a calendar would force anybody to do anything is never explained.
But the war gets even more bizarre. When Gibson spoke at The Heritage Foundation on Dec. 6, he told of how parents in Plano, Texas were told in 2001 that the decorations they brought for the school’s “winter” party could be white, but not red and green.
The ACLU and its fellow travelers on the left are often successful at intimidating public officials who mean well but who don’t want a fight. (As a result, these officials sometimes wind up banning everything.) That’s why it’s important for politicians and bureaucrats, as well as parents, to find out precisely what is and isn’t legal in public displays of Christmas.
To learn the facts, you can contact the Alliance Defense Fund or the American Center for Law and Justice, among others. (Gibson lists several.)
You can’t count on ACLU officials, who are only too happy to see any signs of the Christian faith disappear, to counsel you on the finer points of the law. But don’t let that stop you from wishing them a Merry Christmas.