An atheist group has sued in Colorado to stop Douglas Country public schools from participating in a care package program benefiting needy children in developing countries, on the grounds that it’s too explicitly Christian.
The American Humanist Association filed a legal complaint against at least three public schools for participating in a nonprofit project called Operation Christmas Child, which is run by the evangelical Christian group Samaritan’s Purse.
Samaritan’s Purse says the goal of its care package program, “is to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
The care packages are loaded with things like stuffed animals and other toys, school supplies and basic hygiene products. They are also packed with Christian-themed materials, like Bible story coloring books.
The AHA, for its part, said of its legal filing:
This action challenges Defendants’ policy, practice, and custom of advancing, endorsing, affiliating with, and sponsoring – both symbolically and tangibly — Christian organizations and their proselytizing and evangelical efforts. Defendants’ affiliation with and sponsorship, promotion and endorsement of said Christian organizations and their religious efforts, violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, as applied to Colorado by the Fourteenth Amendment.
The atheist group’s legal filing also said of one of one of its plaintiffs, an anonymous John Doe who is also a member of the AHA, that he, “is injured and aggrieved by the acts and practices complained of herein because his two children, Doechild-1 and Doechild-2, also Plaintiffs in this action, have been exposed to and influenced by Defendants’ promotion and endorsement of religion.”
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which specializes in defending religious rights, criticized the AHA’s lawsuit, and dubbed the atheist group a bunch of “Scrooges.”
“These boxes are filled with school supplies and basic hygiene items,” said Becket’s executive director Kristina Arriaga. “It’s heartbreaking enough that there are children who will receive nothing but a toothbrush for Christmas. The American Humanist Association would deny them even that?”
Operation Christmas Child, which was founded in 1993, has shipped more than 100 million gift packages to kids in more than 130 countries, according to the defense fund.
“We’re talking about school children putting together care packages for other children who are in need. If we can’t support that at Christmas, we are truly living in Scrooge’s world,” Arriaga said.
This isn’t even a first for the AHA, which has been going for these types of Christmas programs dating back to at least 2013.
Douglas CO Complaint as Filed -1 by Becket Adams on Scribd
