"Christian educators are weary and outraged at this latest affront to freedom of expression," said Finn Laursen, executive director of Christian Educators Association International, a 50-year-old national association of teachers from government and private schools.
Jewish and Islamic symbols are allowed, the district says, "because they have a secular dimension, but the Christian symbols are purely religious.” The communications director for New York City’s law department says, "There is a separation of church and state that is part of the Constitution. It’s a clear belief that people try to follow in schools and public office, and schools are saying they adhere to that belief.”
The lawyers for New York City assert "the suggestion that a crèche is a historically accurate representation of an event with secular significance is wholly disingenuous.”
"What’s disingenuous is to suggest that permitting symbols of some religions and not others is ‘separation of church and state’,” says Laursen. "And in a post-911 world, one has to ask what on Earth is going on when the school system in New York City (of all places) is in the business of validating Islam and discriminating against Christianity.
"What’s disingenuous is to dismiss the historical record of Christ’s birth and life found both in and outside the Bible, reducing him to the status of a myth. The eyewitness accounts described in the Bible are actually legal evidence, recorded under Jewish law that required establishment of facts by at least two or three reliable witnesses.
"What’s disingenuous is ignoring the United States Supreme Court, in Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984), which upheld the right of a city government to display a crèche scene in the context of secular symbols of Christmas, e.g. a Christmas tree, reindeer, Santa Claus, etc. In the policy upheld by the Supreme Court in Florey v. Sioux Falls School District, 619 F.2d 1311 (8th Cir. 1980) allowing students to sing religious Christmas carols in public schools, the 8th District Circuit Court said that "crèches, crosses, the Star of David, and other symbols may be used as a teaching aid or resource provided the use is temporary in nature and there is a clear educational purpose for it.
"If Christmas isn’t an educational opportunity, what is? Is Christmas to be an opportunity to teach about Islam and Judaism but not Christianity? The New York City schools policy is viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple,” says Laursen.
The Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center has filed a motion to temporarily restrain the city from enforcing its ban on nativity scenes. The Center asserts that New York City’s policy "promotes the Jewish and Islamic faiths while conveying the impermissible message of disapproval of Christianity in violation of the U.S. Constitution.”
"Educators and parents should be aware that there are a whole range of activities related to religious holidays that are constitutionally permitted in public schools, backed up by solid case law,” says Laursen. "These include singing carols, nativity displays, Christmas trees, religious speech, Bible reading, use of the words ‘Christmas Holidays’, distribution of religious Christmas cards, religious paintings and pictures, and wishing someone a ‘Merry Christmas’ in class. Somebody is trying to steal Christmas in New York City.”
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