Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders proclaimed that state employees could have the day after Christmas off this year as a paid holiday, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent her a letter demanding she rescind that proclamation immediately.
It's not so much the day off that bothered them; it was more the language in the proclamation that bothered them.
WHEREAS: More than two millennia ago in the little town of Bethlehem, far from the centers of power in first-century Rome, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born in a humble manger;
WHEREAS: Jesus was the Messiah and became a teacher and leader, and He would be crucified, suffer for the sins of all mankind, die and be buried, and rise again on the third day to sit at the right hand of the Father;
WHEREAS: But on that first Christmas, Christ's arrival was unassuming, witnessed only by Mary and Joseph, humble shepherds guided by angels, and three wise men from the East. It presaged his ministry, which was not focused on the wealthy or powerful but rather on the poor, powerless, and meek; and
WHEREAS: We give thanks for the arrival of Christ the Savior, who will come again in glory and whose kingdom will have no end, by celebrating His birth each year on Christmas Day.
And if you think that's amazing, Sanders's response to the Freedom from Religion folks demanding she deny Christ and stick to secular talking points was just as great!
Please know that I will do no such thing.
You say that my communications as Governor must be neutral on matters of religion. I say that, even if I wanted to do that, it would be impossible. Christmas is not simply an ‘end-of-the-year holiday' with ‘broadly observed secular cultural aspects,' as your letter states. It's not gifts, trees, and stockings that make this holiday special. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, and if we are to honor Him properly, we should tell His miraculous, world-changing story properly, too.
…
Though you may enter this season with bitterness, know that Christ is with you, that He loves you, and that He died for your sins just the same as He did for mine and everyone else's.
Merry Christmas,
Sarah Huckabee Sanders
The grinches at Freedom From Religion were furious of course.
‘This is precisely the problem,' says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. ‘The governor is not speaking as a private citizen or pastor. She is invoking her authority as governor to declare Christian beliefs as truth and to preach them directly to government employees and Arkansans of all faiths and none — and even to FFRF employees!'
Yes.
Yes, she did.
And it is glorious!
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