A Christian law firm is vowing to combat efforts by the American Civil Liberties Union to censor the Christmas holiday.

The Alliance Defense Fund (alliancedefensefund.org) is lining up hundreds of attorneys across the nation to represent people who are barred from doing such things as setting up Christmas displays or even saying "Merry Christmas." 

ADF senior attorney Jordan Lorence says no court has ever prohibited schools from making references to "Christmas vacation" or allowing students to sing Christmas carols.  But he says radicals have been trying to rewrite the First Amendment.

"The words 'separation of church and state' do not appear in the U.S. Constitution," the attorney states, "and the true concept of the Establishment Clause has never been stretched -- even by the liberal courts that we have -- to [the extent of] the ACLU's 'dream' of censoring and expunging all religious expression in public schools and other public places.  That just hasn't happened."

Lorence says the ADF is ready to derail the ACLU's attempts to pressure school officials into censoring references to Christmas or banning Christmas carols.

"We have a recent poll that shows that 96% of all Americans celebrate Christmas.  This is going on in an overwhelming fashion after Thanksgiving and through the end of December in the general culture," he says.  "Why do public schools have to deny that reality?  The courts haven't said that, [and] school officials don't have to react to this kind of intimidation to try to stop it."

ADF has released a booklet of information on what interpretations of the U.S. Constitution do and do not prohibit regarding free speech and Christmas.  The group has also released a memo to school officials across the U.S., notifying them of the constitutional right to recognize holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas.

© 2003 Agape Press.