As Christmas Wars Rage, Schools Advised to Side With First Amendment and Religious Freedom
By Bill Fancher, Jim Brown, and Jenni Parker
December 23, 2004
(AgapePress) - At a time when attempts to stifle faith in the public square have been stronger than ever, the head of a Christian teacher's group is encouraging public school administrators to stand tall against those who would like to censor religious expression during Christmastime.
 Gary Bauer |
Bauer says efforts to remove Nativity scenes, Christmas music, and every vestige of the true meaning of the holiday are a manifestation of the culture war in which America is involved. The good news in all this, he notes, is that people are increasingly fighting back.
And that, the pro-family leader asserts, is what Christians must keep on doing if Christmas and American culture are to avoid being totally secularized. He is encouraging more believers to join the resistance and says each must "persistently and consistently, do everything from saying 'Merry Christmas' to everybody we run into, to -- more seriously and specifically -- ensuring that the local government officials, whether in the schools or anywhere else, don't get away with trying to take Christ out of Christmas."
Some of the most egregious examples of censorship and discrimination in 2004 have taken place in government-funded schools across the nation: Christmas carols banned in a New Jersey school district; teachers in a Florida district warned not to allow any Christmas decorations to be displayed; schools across the United States barring kids from giving out Christmas cards and using the greeting "Merry Christmas." These are just a few of the cases that were part of this year's onslaught against Christmas in public schools.
School Officials Need Not Cave In
Finn Laursen is a former school superintendent who now heads the Pasadena, California-based Christian Educators Association International. He believes many school administrators are allowing themselves to be intimidated by the "political correctness police" at the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and other secularist groups. But he insists there is no need for this to happen.
"There is a real fear of lawsuits," Laursen says, "and the truth of the matter is, when these threats of lawsuits come about from the ACLU and other similar organizations, what many schools do is immediately back down and say, 'Oh, my goodness -- we don't want to get into one of these. We'll just do as they say.' But they're really idle threats."
According to the Christian educator, no court has ever ruled that public schools must eliminate all references to Christmas or maintain religion-free zones on school grounds and, in fact, the First Amendment makes it clear that the government may not inhibit the free expression of religion. But that is exactly what many school administrators across the U.S. are doing, Laursen asserts -- practicing religious discrimination and trampling constitutional rights. "That is usually not the intent of the school district, their administrators, or their board," he admits, adding, "They just sometimes don't know any better and believe those that would intimidate them with lawsuits."
Nevertheless, the CEAI spokesman feels censorship of religious expression has gotten out of hand and is overdue to be curbed. "It's time, as a nation and as the body of Christ, that we need to stand up and say 'enough.' Enough is enough -- we also have attorneys," he says.
Defending the Faith
Laursen wants school administrators and other education professionals to know that allowing the celebration of Christmas and other constitutionally protected expressions of Christian faith in a public school setting will not put the school on the wrong side of the law, no matter what the ACLU says. On the other hand, he advises school officials that religious censorship and discrimination will do just that.
Other Christian leaders and groups have been trying to spread that message as well. Liberty Counsel, a legal organization dedicated to preserving religious freedom, recently announced its second annual "Friend or Foe" campaign to communicate that its litigation experts will be a friend to school districts and governmental entities that do not intentionally censor the religious aspect of Christmas -- and a foe to all those that do.
In a Liberty Counsel press release, president and general counsel Mat Staver states, “Christmas is constitutional. To allow the celebration of only the secular aspects of Christmas shows hostility, rather than neutrality, toward religion." Staver says government officials must respect America's heritage of faith, and Liberty Counsel is prepared to defend those that do.
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