Early Christmas Victory

We have already started receiving requests for assistance regarding the Christmas holiday.  The issues range from students being told that they cannot sing songs with Christian themes as part of a winter concert to cities telling citizens of their community that they cannot display nativity scenes. The good news is that we are getting each of these cases resolved quickly.  I want to share with you a letter that we received from Craig Rogers of Ada, Oklahoma.  As you can see in the letter, Craig was concerned because of the denial by city officials of a nativity scene, and heres what he had to say:

 

RE:  PRAISE REPORT NATIVITY SCENE IN OUR PARK THANKS TO YOU!

 

Dear Everyone at the ACLJ:

 

            I just want to report that by presenting your six-page education letter entitled Equal Access for Holiday Celebrations to the Christmas Light Committee, a Nativity scene is being built by the city of Ada, Oklahoma, for the Christmas light display.

 

            Without getting too dramatic, this is the story:  Moving from California, I was surprised that there was no Nativity scene in the city parks Christmas light display.  About six weeks ago, I approached the mayor, who seemed cordial and supportive about a Nativity scene.  She told me there were problems a while back and to talk to the city attorney.  The city attorney told me to talk to the park manager.  He told me that it wasnt going to happen, but I could come to the Christmas Light Committee.  During this time, I called the ACLJ and was told to download information from the website.  I appeared before the Christmas Light Committee with ten copies of the ACLJ letter.  Another gentleman, who had the same desire, came with a list of Nativity scenes and surrounding cities. 

 

            The first ten minutes of our talk fell on deaf ears.  Their body language and expressions told us that they werent interested in what we had to say.  This was just a formality to pacify us. 

 

            Well, I passed out the letter and directed them to turn to page 6 where the Supreme Court said it was okay for a Nativity scene to be placed with other secular displays.  Their heads actually nodded.  Two days later, the park manager informed me that the city was building a nativity scene.  A councilman confirmed this after he spoke to the city attorney.

 

            I want to give a big thanks to the ACLJ and also encourage everyone to confront his or her city council.  The longer you wait, the longer the perception that a nativity scene is illegal will persist. 

 

                                                  Craig Rogers

 

This is just one of the dozens of examples of Christmas cases that we are getting quickly resolved at the ACLJ.  For information about Christmas displays, please click here.