Posted 2:19 PM by Susan Darst Williams

MERRY ABSURDITY

A case of Christmas censorship that involves me and my adorable 4-year-old is so sad, it’s almost funny. We take Maddy to a secular preschool that has excellent developmental and pre-literacy activities. There are 105 families; I’d guess five or so of them are from foreign countries, mostly in the Middle East.

Well, I volunteer as the board secretary of the preschool PTO, and put out a simple one-page newsletter every month. The PTO president and preschool staff preview it, and then photocopy it on donated paper and distribute in parents’ mailboxes at the preschool. Last month, for Thanksgiving, I brought them yellow paper. This month, it was green.

But I got a call this morning that they were censoring this month’s newsletter . . . because I committed the crime of typing ‘’Merry Christmas’’ along with ‘’Happy Holidays’’ and ‘’Happy New Year’’ on there. The graphics alongside these greetings were snowflakes -- not Nativity characters or even a star.

What, did they think those snowflakes looked like CHRISTIAN snowflakes? Or that I was trying to proselytize?

The confusion and Political Correctness over religious freedom of expression in this country have just gone ‘way overboard in recent years.

Now school staff is looking at information I’ve provided them, including an excellent legal brief from Family First of Nebraska, and the following websites. Hopefully, they’ll use my suggestion for a compromise: print up 100 copies of the newsletter with the ‘’Merry Christmas’’ still on there and put those in the boxes of all the parents whose religions they don’t know to be different than Christian. Then white out the ‘’Merry Christmas’’ and make the remaining five copies, for the families known not to celebrate. Voila!

But if that won’t fly with Corporate, then I guess, on principle, we’re out of there. We quit. When you try to use reason and goodwill and still can’t pierce through the fog, there’s no sense continuing to send them your money -- and more importantly, your child.

Hope the public schools grasp this concept, and soon, or there may be an exodus out of there the likes of which, and the consequences of which, are practically unimaginable.

Here are those good resources:

Memorandum, ‘’Constitutional Rights of Students, Teachers and Public Schools to Seasonal Religious Expression’’
Alliance Defense Fund; distributed in Nebraska by Family First
Obtain a copy by email for a suggested $5 donation: impact@familyfirst.org

Liberty Counsel, ‘’Friend or Foe’’ Christmas campaign
www.lc.org

Rutherford Institute, ‘’The Twelve Rules of Christmas’’
www.rutherford.org
(This group’s chief John Whitehead was on the O’Reilly Factor last night)

Hope you’ll use these resources if something like this crops up in your neck o’ the woods in what is SUPPOSED to be ‘’the hap-happiest time of the year.’’

And by the way:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!