Falwell fibs about alleged Calif. public school Christmas ban

In mid December, TV preacher Jerry Falwell sent out an e-mail alert asserting that public schools in Sacramento, Calif., had issued an order to teachers informing them that they were not to utter the word "Christmas" in class.

"Imagine that," Falwell wrote to his supporters. "Christmas banned in a public school classroom. This interdiction is actually quite predictable because the word Christmas and the concept of a holiday bearing the name of Christ contradicts the situation ethics that pervades many public school classrooms. If there is no true right and wrong, there must not be a notion of a Savior or the need of a Savior."

It was an inflammatory charge that probably stirred up thousands of Falwell's followers. But there was one drawback: It seems to have no basis in fact. The alleged ban on Christmas in Sacramento never happened.

Falwell said the ban involved a "veteran first-grade teacher who was informed this week that she could not mention the word 'Christmas' in her Sacramento public school classroom." He gave no other details. The story popped up in other Religious Right publications in December, but it appears to be entirely without foundation.

Contacted by Americans United, officials at the Sacramento City unified School District said no such order had been issued. In a fax to Americans United, school officials wrote, "We have no knowledge of any teacher being told not to say `Christmas.' We've asked Personnel, Legal and elementary school associate superintendents. Also, no local media calls have been received. No memos pertaining to holidays were sent to schools this year."

Opponents of the Religious Right were also suspicious of the story because it sounded very familiar to a claim going around in far-right circles six years ago that public education officials in Alaska had banned the phrase "Merry Christmas" from schools. In 1997, an official with the Alaska Department of Education told Americans United that the claim was bogus and that no such directive was ever issued.

In other news about the Religious Right:

* A state legislator in Georgia has introduced a bill that would require any woman who wants to get an abortion to first go through a trial and have a judge sign a death warrant for an "execution" of the fetus.

State Rep. Bobby Franklin, a Republican from suburban Atlanta, remarked, "For the last 30 years, these little boys and girls have been receiving the death sentence, but there hasn't been a trial. They've been put to death without any due process. These are little boys and girls that we need to protect."

Even abortion opponents in Georgia criticized the bill. "I understand the sentiment expressed in the bill, I just don't know if it's the best approach," said Randy Hicks of the Georgia Family Council.

But at least one Religious Right leader seemed open to the idea and gave it favorable mention. Ken Connor of the Family Research Council wrote in The Pastor's Weekly Briefing, a publication of Focus on the Family, that felons convicted of serious crimes receive due process before being executed yet "every day, the innocent unborn are killed in abortion clinics without even the pretense of due process."

* Evangelicals have made a negative impact on non-Christians, a new poll shows. Pollster George Barna found that non-Christians gave "evangelical" Christians a 22 percent approval rating. The poll asked non-Christians to rank 11 types of individuals, among them military officers, ministers, "born-again" Christians, lawyers, evangelicals and prostitutes.

Evangelicals came in 10th place, just above prostitutes. "Born-again" Christians fared better, with a 32 percent approval rating. Toping the list were military officers, with an approval rating of 56 percent.

Copyright Americans United for Separation of Church and State Feb 2003
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