ACLU warns of lawsuit unless principal censors celebration
Posted: November 21, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
The Colorado ACLU is threatening to sue a school if the principal refuses to censor Christmas for its students.
In a joint letter with the Anti-Defamation League, the state American Civil Liberties Union alleged "Jewish students no longer feel safe or welcome" at the Elbert County Charter School in Elizabeth, Colo.
The Nov. 10 letter demands Principal Les Gray censor Christmas and insists the school "must take immediate steps to comply with the constitutional separation of church and state."
It insists the school must ban all references to Christmas in its annual holiday program, including secular songs such as "Jingle Bells."
"This is the same old ACLU ploy of fear, intimidation and disinformation," said Barry Arrington, the attorney representing the principal and the school.
Arrington, an ally of the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, said 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," he said.
The Colorado ACLU did not return a call from WND seeking comment.
Arrington argues the words "separation of church and state" do not appear in the Constitution.
"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," he said. "The ACLU has a different vision for America and a different vision for Colorado than our founding fathers."
One family reportedly withdrew its children from the school because of Gray's refusal to censor Christmas. However, during a goodbye party, Arrington noted, one of the children took a piece of cake to the principal as a friendly gesture.
"That shows how 'unsafe' this child felt in the school," Arrington said. "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."
A leading Jewish voice, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of Toward Tradition, said he is deeply disappointed at the Anti-Defamation League's role in the matter.
"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, whose group is the nation's largest for building bridges between Jews and Christians.
The Anti-Defamation League, he said, 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," Lapin said. "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."
The Anti-Defamation's actions, he said, show it to have become "pitifully out of touch with reality" and "an obsolete relic in the Jewish community."
_______________________________________________ Sndbox mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://sandboxmail.net/mailman/listinfo/sndbox_sandboxmail.net
