ELIZABETH, CO – The Colorado ACLU, a group that claims "to protect, defend and extend the civil rights and civil liberties of all Coloradans," is threatening to sue the Elbert County Charter School if the principal refuses to censor Christmas for the school’s children.
On November 10, 2003 the Colorado ACLU, in a letter joined by the Anti-Defamation League, alleges that, "Jewish students no longer feel safe or welcome at the Elbert County Charter School." The letter demands that Principal Les Gray censor Christmas, and the school "must take immediate steps to comply with the constitutional separation of church and state."
"This is the same old ACLU ploy of fear, intimidation, and disinformation," said Barry Arrington, the attorney representing the principal and the Elbert County Charter School. Arrington is an ally of the Alliance Defense Fund, America’s largest public interest religious liberty legal alliance.
Arrington said this week that the "ACLU’s suggestion is outrageous and inflammatory. These scarcely-veiled charges of anti-Semitism hurt the innocent and cheapen the painful experiences of those who suffer real bias."
As for the so-called separation of church and state, Arrington points out that those words do not appear in the Constitution or in the First Amendment. "The truth is that no court has ever ruled that public schools must ban the singing of religious Christmas carols, and no court has ever held that celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas as religious holidays requires recognition of all other religious holidays. The ACLU has a different vision for America and a different vision for Colorado than our founding fathers."
The letter demands that the school ban all references to Christmas in the school’s annual holiday program, including secular songs such as Jingle Bells. When Principal Gray declined to censor Christmas, a family is reported to have withdrawn their children from the school. Arrington said that one of the children, during a goodbye party, took a piece of cake to the principal as a friendly gesture. "That shows how ‘unsafe’ this child felt in the school. This isn’t about ‘safety,’ it’s about extremist political views. How tragic that these organizations would use children as pawns in their political game."
Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of Toward Tradition, the nation’s largest organization for building bridges between Jews and Christians, said he "applauds Alliance Defense Fund and its invaluable work in keeping America safe for all citizens."
Rabbi Lapin expressed his deep disappointment at the Anti-Defamation League squirming its way into this clash. "The ACLU is already notorious for its rabid hostility toward America’s Judeo-Christian tradition, but the Anti-Defamation League, originally founded to defend Jews, should know better" said Lapin. "The Anti-Defamation League has defected from its original worthy mission and is now shamefully collaborating with secular fundamentalists. Almost all Jews recognize that America’s Christian heritage is the main reason our country is not infected with the scourge of anti-Semitism seen in post-Christian Europe. Most Jews resent the League’s embarrassing and cynical attempt to shatter the atmosphere of mutual respect that has long characterized relations between America’s Jews and Christians. By its reprehensible assault on Elbert County Charter School, the Anti-Defamation League reveals itself to be pitifully out of touch with reality. It has become an obsolete relic in the Jewish community."
According to Gallup polls, 96 percent of all Americans – people of many faiths and no faith at all – celebrate Christmas.
The Alliance Defense Fund serves people of faith; it provides strategy, training, and funding in the legal battle for religious liberty, sanctity of life, and traditional family values; it works with many allied legal organizations across the United States.
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