Religious Rights at Christmas

About this time each year I conduct an informal search--both tragic and humorous-- for Christmas cards that have any reference to the birth of Jesus Christ. One store was kind enough to set aside a section of the Christmas card holdings and title it “religious.” If you think about it, that’s like setting aside a section of a bookstore for books. Of course, most people just don’t think about it.



Arguing against the secularization of the Christmas holiday by our culture is at this point like pushing a rope uphill, but it is still worth fighting as Christians for our right to observe Christmas as a sacred holiday.



From that battleground comes this story from Portland, Oregon:



An Oregon school district has agreed to change its policy prohibiting students from handing out religious Christmas cards to their classmates.



The case involves a 6-year-old kindergarten student who tried to hand out a card explaining the meaning of the candy cane at a class party last December. The card noted that candy canes are shaped like a "J" for Jesus, with white symbolizing Jesus' purity and red representing the blood Jesus shed for his followers.



"We are pleased to resolve this issue in a manner that safeguards the constitutional rights of our client and all students in the Gresham-Barlow School District," said Stuart J. Roth, Senior Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, which represented the student.



"It is unfortunate it took a lawsuit to bring about this change -- but it is encouraging that students will now be able to exercise their free speech rights in the classroom -- including the use of religious references and religious messages if they so desire -- without being censored."



Imagine that.

--James Jewell