LadyFish
Admiral
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2003
- Messages
- 6,894
It seems that many of us are once again feeling the pressure to take Christ out of Christmas.<br /><br />Despite what the ACLU, the media, employers and some local government would have you believe, Christians do have rights regarding this issue.<br /><br />WHAT ARE THE LEGAL RULES REGARDING KEEPING CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS?<br /><br />Christmas has always been celebrated in America as both a secular and religious holiday. In recent years, secular groups advocating the complete separation of church and state have been circulating misinformation about the legalities of public celebrations of Christmas, seeking to confine Christmas to the church or home and out of the public. As a result, many public officials have been mislead into believing the legal falsehood that Christ must be removed from Christmas in public schools and other public venues. Even some Christians, wanting to be inclusive of others, have acquiesced to confining Christmas to home and church. Christians have sometimes tempered their own verbal greetings and decorations in their own private businesses to reflect this new trend of celebrating a secular "winter festival" instead of the keeping Christmas as the religious holiday that it still should be for them.<br /><br />Despite these new assaults on Christmas, the Constitution does not require public officials to obliterate religious themes or displays from all Christmas observations in public areas. In fact, no court has ever ruled that the Constitution prohibits Christmas carols, Christmas displays, or Christmas greetings in public streets and parks, or in public schools, or commercial establishments. The Constitution does not tell Christians that they must keep the religious aspects of Christmas behind the walls of their churches and homes.<br /><br />What then does the Constitution really require of Christians at Christmas?<br /><br /> 1) The Constitution continues to guarantee both freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion. Therefore, public officials and school administrators may not censor the religious aspects of a national cultural holiday like Christmas. Private religious speech, such as saying "Merry Christmas," even in public or in public schools or workplaces, is protected speech.<br /><br /> 2) Including a religious component to holiday displays and concerts in communities or in public schools does not violate the supposed "separation of church and state," a doctrine often cited by separationists as part of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. In fact, in its most recent cases the United States Supreme Court has stated that the Establishment Clause requires neutrality, not prohibition. Instead of taking Christ out of Christmas, all the government is required to do is to practice neutrality. Therefore, a school or community may have seasonal decorations that include a crèche along with secular symbols of Christmas, such as snowmen, and symbols of other religious holidays, such as the Star of David or a Menorah. The nativity may not be banned while other seasonal decorations are permitted.<br /><br />Ninety-six percent of all Americans celebrate Christmas, according to a recent poll. Despite that overwhelming reality, many local government and school officials have prohibited any religious displays for Christmas. Public school classroom and community decorations often depict only non-religious symbols of a winter holiday, such as snowmen and reindeer. Extremists have even eliminated Santa, candy canes, and Christmas trees because of their peripheral religious connotations. Schools and public areas are eliminating any religious or seasonal music in their winter plays and concerts, and some calendars now refer to the "winter break" instead of Christmas. Many businesses and workplaces have banned the greeting "Merry Christmas" out of a fear of offending the only four in one hundred customers who might not celebrate the holiday. None of these extreme measures are legally required by the Establishment Clause, despite what secular legal organizations hostile to the public recognition of Christianity would have us believe. The reality is that Christmas in America has been both a federal and state-recognized religious holiday for centuries, with no conflict between it and the First Amendment Establishment Clause.<br /><br />YOU HAVE MORE RIGHTS THAN YOU THINK<br /><br />Praying HandsThe following Christmas activities are fully constitutional and may be practiced without fear of violating the doctrine of the separation of church and state.<br /><br /> 1) Your children may sing Christmas carols during holiday concerts in their school, and your community or workplace is not required to ban religious content from their holiday celebrations.<br /><br /> Religious Christmas carols may still be sung in public schools, government or private workplaces, and community celebrations without violating the Constitution. In fact, to completely obliterate religious content from a public program would violate the Constitution's Establishment Clause principle of neutrality between religion and non-religion. Holiday programs should contain additions, not subtractions. It is appropriate to add secular songs and songs that recognize the winter celebrations of other religions. It is not appropriate to subtract the presentation of Christian themes.<br /><br /> 2) Children may give religious gifts to their teachers or to other students, just as government workers and other employees may distribute religious greetings to co-workers. Private businesses, which are not affected by the Establishment Clause, may clearly keep Christ in Christmas without any requirement of constitutional neutrality.<br /><br /> 3) A public school student may write about his own Christmas observations or discuss them in a class presentation, and a teacher is permitted to provide an objective explanation of the religious origins of Christmas to students as part of a curriculum about the cultural and religious aspects of national holidays. Government officials may also recognize the religious aspects of this celebration.<br /><br /> 4) A public school or local community may include religious items in a holiday or winter display.<br /><br /> A classic discrimination in holiday celebrations is for local communities to decide not to include angels or stars in the decorations they place on community light poles or on school bulletin boards. Christians should continue to remind government officials that neutrality requires addition, not subtraction; accommodation of religion, not hostility. According to the United States Supreme Court, even a crèche is an appropriate and constitutional part of a school or community Christmas display.<br /><br />Just so you know, it continues to be constitutional to keep Christ in Christmas.
<br /><br />BTB, LF, good, timely post. Thanks!
