Obama’s VA Facility Bans ‘Merry Christmas’


by KEN KLUKOWSKI
20 Nov 2015
Washington, D.C.

President Barack Obama’s Department of Veterans Affairs has banned employees at its facility in Salem, Virginia, from saying “Merry Christmas” to veterans.

It started as a broader ban that included Christmas trees. Federal law recognizes Christmas as an official federal holiday (5 U.S.C. § 6103) and provides federal employees with a paid day off to celebrate the Christian belief in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

Every year, a White House Christmas Tree and a Capitol Christmas Tree grace those two respective buildings in Washington D.C., and a National Christmas Tree is also officially lighted outdoors for the public to enjoy during that time of year.

Yet the “Executive Leadership Team” at the Salem VA Medical Center banned Christmas trees, as well as other Christian speech and celebrations. As reported by local media, an email sent by senior staff to the center’s employees reads in part:

…Public areas may only be decorated in a manner that is celebratory of the winter season. Displays must not promote any religion. Please note that trees (regardless of the types of ornaments used) have been deemed to promote the Christian religion and will not be permitted in any public areas this year.

Just hours ago, pressure from the center’s employees caused the management team to cave on the Christmas tree ban. Christmas trees are back in at the facility.

However, the email goes on to say that private religious expressions can only be uttered in “personal work areas.” That means employees can only speak freely in places where the public usually cannot enter and, even then, only if the recipient would clearly understand that the speaker is speaking in his personal capacity only.

In other words, an employee could be punished for wishing “Merry Christmas” to a veteran in the lobby or any other public area.

Even when those stringent curbs are obeyed, the email directive adds that private religious speech can still be banned if managers decide such speech “interfere[s] with carrying out official duties and responsibilities,” threatening penalties against people who offer religious greetings even behind closed doors.

The email also bars Christmas music, saying that if a supervisor has allowed an employee to have music in his workspace, such music must “be secular (non-religious).”

This Obama administration VA’s directive is inconsistent with controlling precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court. In the 1989 Allegheny case, the court narrowly (5-4) adopted the “endorsement test,” holding that government action violates the Establishment Clause when a reasonable observer would think the government is endorsing religion.

Yet even in that case—which many legal scholars consider hostile to religious faith—the court, by a 6-3 vote, held that the display of Christmas trees does not endorse any religion.

“The Christmas tree, unlike the menorah, is not itself a religious symbol. Although Christmas trees once carried religious connotations, today they typify the secular celebration of Christmas,” wrote Justice Harry Blackmun, upholding the government’s displaying a 40-foot Christmas tree on public land outside a courthouse.

“Numerous Americans place Christmas trees in their homes without subscribing to Christian religious beliefs, and when the city’s tree stands along in front of the City-County building, it is not considered an endorsement of Christian faith,” he added.

The message from the center’s top leaders says that VA employees who need further guidance about the removal of religious symbols should “contact the Chaplain Service at ext. 2165.”

“At a time when our VA should be doing everything it can to honor our veterans, it instead denigrates them and their service,” said Michael Berry, senior counsel with Liberty Institute, the largest law firm in the United States that litigates exclusively religious liberty cases.

“Any VA employee—whether they work at the Salem VA Center or elsewhere—who feels that their free-speech or religious-liberty rights are being violated, they should contact us immediately,” he told Breitbart News. The firm’s website is www.libertyinstitute.org.

Breitbart News legal editor Ken Klukowski also litigates religious liberty cases with Liberty Institute. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.



Read More Stories About:
Big Government, Supreme Court, Obama, Faith, free speech, religious liberty, first amendment, christmas, Constitution, U.S. military, freedom of religion, war on Christmas, Merry Christmas, Department of Veteran Affairs, Christmas Trees, Separation of Church and State,
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Obama's VA Facility Bans Christmas Trees and 'Merry Christmas' http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/20/obamas-va-facility-bans-merry-christmas/

Christmas related threads:

http://m.mingle2.com/topic/show/455264/
Christmas Wish List
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http://m.mingle2.com/topic/show/454369/ Too early for Christmas?
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http://m.mingle2.com/topic/show/453693/ Starbucks says ' Muh' To Christmas.?
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http://m.mingle2.com/topic/show/454123/ Is it Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?
Quote- For those concerned with PC & want to believe it is all inclusive... Hhaa.. laugh

Google, 'Obama Acknowledges Islamic Holidays', reading the headlines should be enough to sway you.

"White House petition: Make Eid national public holiday | Sun ...
htpp://national.suntimes.com › white-house-peti/..
-Oct 12, 2015 - There is a large population of Muslim people in the U.S and the two holidays that .... World NewsMyanmar military acknowledges opposition lead, says it will respect 'people's decision' ..."

Many articles on this & California has filed for it to be a public & national holiday separately.

Will we all say, ' Happy Holiday ' if we have Eid? Obama doesn't. He says 'Happy Eid ' on world wide TV while he is a President of a Protestant majority nation & 4 of HIS Marines are being buried who were killed by Muslims.
Politically Correct... ?

UK - Has files for Eid (Muslim) & Dawali (Hindi), in the past. And the official Church Of England is Episcopalian.

So am I going to change my religion or verbiage or my thoughts.. concerning ONE of MY Holiest days. H@ll NO.

Kirk Franklin & Family - Go Tell It On The Mounta…: http://youtu.be/3NZ3IVISzQk/


Shalom.

PS. Happy Chanukah & Happy / Merry Christmas




Matisyahu "Happy Hanukkah" (Official Video) - New…: http://youtu.be/K1QRSl6hUZw/

Adam Sandler - Original Hanukkah Song Video: http://youtu.be/xDV_reO930A/

The Grinch Song: http://youtu.be/ZgP0aUKlmNw/

Ogrinch?

seems dumb to ban a tree,, and apparently they eventually thought so too

as to the religious expressions in government buildings,, thats pretty much been the case for decades now,,,back when they took prayer out of school...

seems dumb to ban a tree,, and apparently they eventually thought so too

as to the religious expressions in government buildings,, thats pretty much been the case for decades now,,,back when they took prayer out of school...

I'm not a Christian.
Nor, do I play one on tv...


But...



Merry Christmas, everybody!

"President Barack Obama’s Department of Veterans Affairs has banned employees at its facility in Salem, Virginia, from saying “Merry Christmas” to veterans."

That's not true.


http://www.snopes.com/obama-va-merry-christmas-tree-ban/

Merry Christmas!

.


And then they say things like,
" Back in the good ol' days " &
" This generation is messed up "
& " I don't know what happened "
They try to erase God..that is what happened. Poor b@st@rds


* Love that old play- 'My arms are too short to box with God*

---------------------------------
Yes..we heard you the first time.

The link you provided does not even try to 'refute' the banning (of free speech), as far as saying 'Merry Christmas'. It only attempts to defend Obama as far as Christmas Trees.

Here is a link that says 'blogspot' is BIAS.
And that they are a Mom & Pop operation run our of their home. Have NO investigative back ground & have been proven wrong & or lying before in defense of Obama.
David and Barbara Mikkelson....you will get a kick out of them & their cat

http://accuracyinpolitics.blogspot.com/2013/05/snopes-got-snoped.html?m=1/

This link says it took an emergency meeting to STOP Obama's ban on Christmas.
* Closed door heated meeting of 150 people*

The VA works for Obama. Obama continuously forgets that The United States of America, whom he works for is a PREDOMINANTLY
Christian (Protestant) Nation, as was our Founding Fathers.* No matter how many times he says Happy Eid on TV or wants it to be a National holiday *

After heated debate, Salem VA Medical Center allows Christmas tree after all | WSLS - http://wsls.com/2015/11/20/salem-va-bans-christmas-trees-as-holiday-decorations/

Quote: "Surprising perhaps in light of the fact that today — even the White House is bringing in a tree for the holidays"

i never trusted snopes, they are always twisting thing around for the lying liberals...

Maybe, David and Barbara Mikkelson will say ' The devil & their cat told us no one can say Merry Christmas to a veteran '

Jesus Christ.

First

This makes it seem like Obama had nothing better to do one day so he picked up the phone and said "cancel it! Cancel it all! No merry christmas! No treeeeeees! Weeeoooooooo! Shut it all down baby!"

And then


followed by



So Obama is credited as banning saying christmas and trees.
Then it's credited to Obama's entire department of Veterans affairs.
It finally falls on some kind of "executive leadership team" at a single medical center, communicated by a single email sent by "senior staff," which could be just one guy.

Talk about crap journalism.


And no one that actually read the letter that was sent out would ever believe or say "Obama Bans Saying ' Merry Christmas' & Trees"

http://mgtvwsls.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/salem-va-letter.jpg

Part of which reads:
"Religious expression will be permitted as long as it does not interfere with carrying out of official duties and responsibilities. Items must be displayed in a manner such that the viewing public would reasonably understand the religious expression to be that of the employee acting in their own personal capacity and not of the government itself."

Yeah..... and the whole IRS debacle was just a couple of hourly wage guys in Philly who decided they didn't like Repulsicons raising money for the opposition in an election year as well......

Not to mention that Benghazi was because of some youtuber making a video.....

Funny how that works under liberal leadership. The gnat becomes a Pterodactyl....

you notice that too huh?

I stopped pointing out partial truths and bad journalism , but Im glad someone else notices

yep,SNOPES is a strange Outfit!

when the government is too worried about "offending" someone rather than just letting people be happy, this sort of thing happens... if someone gets that unhappy by hearing merry Christmas, then perhaps they should either not come to a country that has been saying it for over 300 years, and the government should just not worry about what kind of greetings people say to each other... I'm sure they have better things to worry about than changing everything to make everyone happy, when it's very obvious not everyone is going to be happy...

Pure Grinchism I tells ya,pure Grinchism!