Obama’s U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is now refusing to allow school children to give Christmas cards to veterans. Why? Because those those say “Merry Christmas” or “God bless you.” According to Breitbart, Religious liberty lawyers at Liberty Institute have sent the VA a letter demanding they immediately lift the ban.
Susan Chapman is a teacher at Grace Academy of North Texas and, at a parent’s suggestion, organized a project for students to take cards to wounded military veterans to thank them and cheer them up during the holidays. She attempted to deliver those cards to a VA hospital in Dallas on Dec. 22. However, VA staff reportedly stopped her when she entered the facility, telling her that gifts or messages with religious content were not permitted by VA policy.
“It is so sad that the VA is sending a message to our children that after all the veterans have done to fight for freedom across the world, the children have no freedom to say Merry Christmas to these honorable men and women,” Chapman said.
Texas-based Liberty Institute sent a demand letter to the VA, insisting they immediately drop this policy which allows a generic greeting but disallows references to Christmas, which is officially recognized as a national holiday under federal law.
Liberty Institute’s Director of Litigation, Hiram Sasser, responded in a statement, “The VA is once again engaging in unlawful religious discrimination. It is shameful that the VA continues to censor religious speech in Christmas cards when the VA knows it is against the law to do so.”