The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) put an early end to Liberty Middle School’s Operation Christmas Child program – a project organized by Samaritan’s Purse that allowed students at the school fill shoeboxes with Christmas gifts for underprivileged children living in oppressed and embattled nations around the world.
Message to students: It’s wrong to bless
FFRF staff attorney Chris Line managed to intimidate and misinform Pratt Unified School District Superintendent Tony Helfrich to cease the toy drive taking place the school located in Pratt, Kansas, claiming it was unconstitutionally inviting students to collude with Christian evangelism.
“Organizing a donation drive that for all intents and purposes employs school staff and resources to convert people to Christianity violates basic constitutional principles,” Line argued in his letter to Pratt. “It is inappropriate for public school teachers to use their authority to encourage students to donate to religious groups.”
The major objections FFRF has with the Operation Christmas Child is that the boxes include a booklet with a Christmas-themed gospel message, and that it is part of the ministry of Samaritan’s Purse – a Christian nonprofit organization led by Billy Graham Evangelist Association President and CEO Franklin Graham.
“The FFRF continues … its mission against organized religion … by preventing toys from being shipped to various children around the world for Christmas,” the Western Journal reported. “One thing that Liberty Middle School and the FFRF fail to realize, however, is that atheist groups like the FFRF are not impartial – they have their own set of values and principles and [are] forcing them on others while preventing Christians and other religious groups from being afforded the same opportunity.”
FFRF insists its own mission of rooting God out of public schools and subverting or secularizing the message of Christmas is a noble cause.
“While it is laudable for a public school to promote student involvement in the community by volunteering and donating to charitable organizations, the school cannot use that goal as an avenue to fund a religious organization with a religious mission,” FFRF expressed in its letter. “Certainly, there are other secular nonprofit organizations that offer charitable opportunities.”
This unsubstantiated claim and humanist advice aimed at secularizing America’s youth was heeded and embraced by the public school superintendent, who caved to being bullied by the atheist group.
“Regarding our students’ participation in ‘Operation Christmas Child,’ we are discontinuing that effort upon learning that its mission is more sectarian in nature than we realized,” Helfrich wrote to FFRF in a Nov. 7 letter.
FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor applauded Helfich bowing down to her organization’s atheistic agenda.
“A lot of these groups rely on school authorities being ignorant about their mission,” Gaylor proclaimed in a news release issued by her group. “We appreciate how swiftly the district discontinued the fundraising after our alert.”
But cutting Operation Christmas Child out of the school’s Christmas was not enough, as FFRF threatened that any mention of the God of the Bible on school grounds is an offence that will be punished.
“[Liberty Middle School must] cease participation in Operation Christmas Child or taking any other actions promoting Christianity like including religious references over morning announcements,” FFRF’s letter to Helfrich added, noting that “many egregious constitutional violations [are] occurring” on the middle school campus.
Many children’s only hope and blessing on Christmas …
According to Operation Christmas Child Vice President of Programs and Government Relations Edward Graham – grandson of the late Rev. Billy Graham – the “shoebox ministry” has had a greater outreach to children than his iconic grandfather’s decades of preaching the message of Jesus Christ across the globe.
“More kids have heard about Christ through these shoebox distributions than ever heard about Christ in stadiums with my grandfather,” Graham told The Christian Post in an interview.
To date, underprivileged children from more than 160 nations – four out of five nations on Earth – have been touched with Operation Christmas Child’s shoebox blessings, which have been collected from churches and schools annually and distributed by Samaritan’s Purse to millions of youth across the globe.
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Copyright American Family News. Reprinted with permission.
Yep, giving to impoverished children around the world is a bad thing, right FFRF staff attorney Chris Line??????? These jokers from FFRF, would rather see impoverished children die, than be helped by a Christian organization. The FFRF is not any different than the devil!!!!!!!
Though with the # of charities, who’ve for decades helped those “Impoverished kids”, i keep wondering, HOW THE HELL can there still be thousands upon thousands in need?
Question, Why is it so wrong to spread happiness and love to fellow person?
“FFRF threatened that any mention of the God of the Bible on school grounds is an offence that will be punished.”
Oh Really?? And just who are you going to get to punish me if I mention GOD on the playground??
I kinda have a hard time “turning the other cheek”.
Not to worry, when faced with the option of actually facing something to die for, they who believe that death is their end, melt like snow fakes in a desert, and backpaddle faster than a crawfish behind the rocks they came out of. Even Stalin had to resurrect the church during WWII because not even the peasants would die for socialism or willingly become canon fodder for communism,,, over 3 million deserted and never came home.
Because these secular people today are lonely and frustrated, desperately need God but refuse to adore him, so they hunger for a larger purpose in life and, ironically, accept the counter-culture and counter-church as their new salvation and cannot stand to be in the company of people counter to their spiritual rebellion. They would rather rule in the socialist hell of their own making than serve in a heaven made by another, not even if made by God himself. Their misery only love the company of same like themselves, thus the clinging to same sex, same politics, same race, same failures. Different of anything they create in their imaginary existence threatens them to their core ,which like rotten apples has plenty of worms to associate with.
BUT WHERE were these shlacks, when all those teachers were ENCOURAGING AND bullying students, into joining IN ALL THOSE ANTI-Gun rally’s, all those “ANTI Trump events etc???
So how do you have a Christmas without a Christ?,,,,You just create a new religion without a Cross, a resurrection without a body, an Easter Sunday without a crucifixion, a liturgy without a world to come, a city of man without a city of God, a religion to invoke a religion, where politics becomes the new religion,,, one that renders unto Caesar even the things that are God’s. Looking for salvation today in and through the trusting of corrupt secular politics is like Herod asking the Magi to trust him and tell him where the Christ child is born upon their return to their countries so he can worship him in words, insuring an innocent kill in the cradle in deeds of everything that inspired and grew to make America and the best parts of the world Great not AGAIN, but in the first place. Just another attempt by seculars to control the argument and most important the fund raising. The next step is to kill the concept of Christmas itself, but then they would have to tear out the hearts of at least 80 % of the nation who would cease to give from their now lost hearts, and beguiling Democrats would then have no money or wealth taken in for secular socialist redistribution from the Christian heartful to the secular heartless whose devilish image they were forced and brainwashed to reflect.
To this day I still can’t figure out how these “atheist” get so offended and worked up over something they insist doesn’t exist.
Cause, the feel NO ONE SHOULD worship/acknowledge him.
Agreed: It would be like me getting all offended because there is a Leprechaun on a box of “Lucky Charms”, because I do not believe in Leprechauns.
Democrats hate GOD or any mention of GOD, because the word of GOD is against the Democrats immoral character and actions. Note that Democrats approve of and promote hate, baby killing, sexual perversions, rioting, burning, looting, lying, dishonor, disrespect of anything that doesn’t agree with their deranged self-righteous agendas.
They are directed by their master, the devil, who makes them illogical and believing in lies.
To fully advance the Dishonorable Democrat’s destructive agendas of socialism, open borders, gun control, radical feminism, abortion-on-demand, the LGBTQ lifestyle, unfettered sexual identity, “gay marriage” and the like, the pagan Liberal left Democrats must do away with our Constitution, GOD, common sense, morality, Christian values and free religious exercise altogether.
Under the guise of “anti-discrimination.”
they will believe when christ returns to claim his throne he will make his enemies his footstool.
every head and every knee will bow to him and those who dont will perish.
There won’t be any who don’t bow to Him. They won’t have the choice. “Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord.” They will still perish, but they will know why.