Religious Freedom :
Christmas Celebrations: The Battle Over Religious Freedom

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December 2002

By Len Deo, President of the NJ Family Policy Council and Toni Meyer, Sr. Research Analyst

Christmas in America was once a time where expressions of the Christian faith could be respectfully displayed in public. However in recent years this freedom has been under attack. In the last few weeks, two federal lawsuits due to anti-Christian bias were reported in the news. One involves a lawsuit that is still unresolved in Loeminster, Massachusetts, where an eight-year-old girl was prohibited by her public school teacher from reading her book called “The First Christmas” to her class, even though other students were permitted to read books that talked about Hanukkah or Kwanza. The other involves a lawsuit filed in federal court on Dec. 9th , by a Queens family against the city of N.Y., because the school district expressly permits and encourages the display of the Jewish Menorah and the Islamic Star and Crescent while prohibiting the display of Christian Nativity scenes .

The lead attorney for the family, from the Thomas Moore Law Center said, the NYC school policy “relegates Christians to second-class citizens” and that “forcing schools to only allow secular symbols for Christmas while allowing religious symbols for other religions holiday observances shows a callous indifference and hostility toward Christians during one of their most holy seasons”. In a time marked by multiculturalism and pluralism, why do we see so many incidents of animosity against, and suppression of, Christian principles and even Christmas? Shouldn’t we as a society be more supportive of Christian principles if we truly seek to support the notion of religious freedom? And why are more and more local governments eliminating all religious symbols from their “holiday” displays?

The answer to these questions is simple, but sad. Too many citizens do not know the law or how it is linked to our country’s heritage. Our laws reflected the deeply held principles of our founders, which were rooted in the Judeo-Christian ethic and moral law. Our laws and system of government are so explicitly linked to these principles, that the Supreme Court has recognized the celebration of the [Christmas] holiday, and the singing of Christmas carols as part of our national heritage. Let us also not forget that the freedoms that we now enjoy (religious rights, the elevation of women, abolition of slavery, universal education, etc.), were established by our founders who were unabashedly public about their Christian faith.

Secondly, local leaders are more concerned about lawsuits by the ACLU than they are about protecting the rights of all their citizens, and mistakenly believe that censoring religion is the safest approach. As a result, a small group of people is imposing their humanistic beliefs on the vast majority of people, 75 % of whom profess to be Christian. Most courts, and more importantly the Supreme Court, have endorsed publicly sponsored holiday displays that include nativity scenes as long as they include secular symbols of Christmas such as Santa a reindeer, and/or a Christmas tree. In fact, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (which covers NJ) just ruled in 1999 that such a display in Jersey City was constitutional. Localities however, cannot deny requests of other residents of the locality to include their displays, whether it be a menorah, or a star and crescent. If the atheists and humanists wish to represent their belief in nothing, they can add that to the display as well.

The bottom line is it is unconscionable in this day and time for a school district to defend such blatant censorship. As for local governments who think it’s easier to exclude all religious displays, citizens must continue to voice their concern and get involved. Censoring religion violates the core of our national freedoms, and our Constitution states that we should never make a law prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Donate a nativity display to your town next year. The source of true freedom is worth defending, and in this country the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

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