Tis the season for school officials shutting down Christmas programs that mention Jesus.
At Robious Middle School in Virginia it’s okay to sing about Rudolph and Frosty but it’s not okay to sing about the Little Lord Jesus.
Parents at the school received an email recently alerting them that Christmas songs mentioning Jesus would no longer be permitted.
David Allen told television station WWBT that he received an email from the school’s chorus teacher explaining that the school had decided to avoid singing “anything of a direct sacred nature in order to be more sensitive to the increasing diverse population at the school.”
He said, “I’m trying to rationalize how you can encourage diversity and yet be exclusionary in one specific area,”
Attorney Michael Berry of First Liberty Institute wrote a letter to the Chesterfield County School District, of which Robious Middle School is a part, explaining that
“Federal courts have upheld the constitutionality of public school holiday programs that include the use of religious music, art, or drama,” Berry wrote, “so long as the material is presented in an objective manner ‘as a traditional part of the cultural and religious heritage of the particular holiday.’”
There has been considerable controversy in past years regarding the placement of Christmas nativity scenes, the use of religious imagery, and even the appropriate choice of Christmas greetings.