Gov. Sanders Refuses to Rescind Christmas Proclamation

On Monday, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement refusing to comply with a Freedom From Religion Foundation letter asking her to rescind her Christmas proclamation.

The governor’s proclamation tells the Christmas Story about the birth of Christ, and it ensures State offices will be closed December 25 and 26 in observance of Christmas.

In response, the Wisconsin-based atheist organization sent Gov. Sanders a letter claiming her proclamation violated the First Amendment by sharing the story of Christ’s birth. The group demanded she rescind the proclamation.

In her response, Gov. Sanders told the Freedom From Religion Foundation it would be “impossible” to keep religion out of Christmas.

“Christmas is not simply an ‘end-of-the-year holiday’ with ‘broadly observed secular cultural aspects,'” Sanders wrote. “Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, and if we are to honor Him properly, we should tell His miraculous, world-changing story properly, too.”

This is not the first time the Freedom From Religion Foundation has targeted the free exercise of religion in Arkansas.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is currently suing the State of Arkansas to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the Capitol lawn in Little Rock, and it recently joined a lawsuit to prevent public schools and buildings in Arkansas from displaying the Ten Commandments.

In 2022, the atheist group issued a statement celebrating the defeat of religious freedom amendment Issue 3, which narrowly failed at the ballot box in Arkansas.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has opposed public prayer at meetings and gatherings in Arkansas.

In 2017 the group demanded that then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson stop sharing Bible verses on his Facebook page.

In 2016 the foundation went after Washington County election officials for using churches as polling places.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has even complained about the fact that that Arkansas’ public school students can study the Bible academically — even though it is one of the oldest texts in existence and has had a profound influence on human history.

Gov. Sanders is right when she says Christmas is about Christ. There shouldn’t be anything controversial about acknowledging that.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.