Democrats ban religious ornaments from Capitol Christmas tree

O-bama tree, O-bama tree...

Obama administration officials have decided that the traditional Christmas tree, erected each year on the front lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building, will not have any “religious” ornaments on it this year. 

Each year, children from a different state in the union are asked to design ornaments for the national tree. For 2009, Arizona was chosen to present 4,000 handcrafted ornaments made by elementary, middle-school, and high-school students to decorate the Washington, D.C. Christmas tree. Guidelines for the ornaments include specifications for their size, weight, composition, and the directive that "Ornaments cannot reflect a religious or political theme… Instead share your interpretation of our theme 'Arizona's Gift, from the Grand Canyon State.'"

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) have sent a letter to federal and state officials, including Arizona Governor Janice Brewer, demanding that they abandon the discrimination against religious viewpoints. "Banning Christmas from the Capitol Christmas tree is just absurd. Christian students shouldn't be discriminated against for expressing their religious beliefs," said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Jonathan Scruggs. "The First Amendment does not allow government officials to exclude schoolchildren's ornaments for the capitol's Christmas tree merely because they communicate a religious viewpoint."

While the display is still being referred to as a “Christmas tree,” there is no word yet on whether the traditional angel on the top will be replaced with a red star.

This just in: Federal officials are now confirming that the policy which would have prevented children from submitting decorations with themes such as "Happy Birthday, Jesus" and "Merry Christmas," for the 2009 Capitol Christmas Tree program has been rescinded. Friday, Eva Malecki of the office of the Architect of the Capitol told WorldNetDaily the ban on "religious speech" on the ornaments was an old rule that had been discontinued some years ago.

"There was some old information that was somehow distributed," she said. "It is not the position of our agency. There are no restrictions [on the ornaments]. That was old information, improperly distributed. We have rescinded those guidelines," she said. "We apologize for any misunderstanding."

Jim Payne, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service in the southwest region, said the local organizing committee simply took the restrictions provided by the federal office regarding size and requirements for the decorations, including the limit on religious speech, and re-posted them. "Now the Architect of the Capitol has rescinded those. We already have removed the references to religious themes from the website. We will take all items that are sent in," he told WND.

Pretty fast action.  We didn't even get the story posted, before the government folded.  Probably just a coincidence. 
 

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