On The Front Lines
Rutherford Institute Issues 'Twelve Rules of Christmas' Guidelines for Holiday Celebrations
Rutherford Institute Clarifies Right to Religious Expression During Holiday SeasonCHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.--In response to a growing tendency among public schools and government officials to ban references to Christmas or Christianity during the holiday season, The Rutherford Institute has published "The Twelve Rules of Christmas," a simple, step-by-step guide to understanding what can and cannot be done to celebrate the holidays in public. "The Twelve Rules of Christmas" is available here.
"Whether through ignorance or fear, Americans are painfully misguided about the recognition of religious holidays," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "Every year we hear many complaints from parents about school officials banning any reference to the word 'Christmas.' There is an irrational bias against anything remotely religious unless it's sanitized and secularized, and unfortunately far too many parents, students and teachers erroneously believe they cannot do anything to celebrate Christmas in the public schools."
Whitehead referenced several incidents involving misguided attempts to censor expressions of Christmas. For example, Institute attorneys recently intervened in a situation in which a Florida elementary school omitted songs about Christmas from its holiday concert program while including songs celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the "winter season." Institute legal staff addressed the school's fear of violating the so-called "separation of church and state" by pointing out that not only does the First Amendment's Establishment Clause not mandate that all Christian religious references be banished from the classroom, but that the school's conspicuous exclusion of Christmas from the program was in itself a violation of the Establishment Clause. Incidents of censorship of Christmas in past years are equally reflective of the misunderstanding over the separation of church and state. For example, city officials in Tillamook, Ore., acting on a citizen complaint, ordered the removal of a Nativity display at a drive-thru espresso stand because the owner leased the property from the city. The city manager justified the order by saying, "It appeared to be a conflict between church and state." According to one Michigan parent, an elementary school music teacher, acting on instructions from the school principal, eliminated the word "God" from all songs in her school's holiday concert. Children were instructed to be silent rather than say "God" whenever the word appeared in the music. In Texas, school officials are reported to have encouraged some Jewish parents to assist in instruction when second graders were taught the religious significance of the Menorah. However, when a Christian parent offered to assist in a similar fashion regarding Christmas, he was turned away.
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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