ADF: VA hospital should lift ban on Christmas carolers
Federally run Georgia medical center says veterans need ‘protection from unwelcomed religious material’
Attorney sound bites: Jeremy Tedesco | Matt Sharp
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter Monday to a federally run veterans’ hospital in Georgia that recently banned Christmas carolers from singing religious songs in its public patient areas to protect veterans “from unwelcomed religious material.” Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center told high school students from Augusta’s Alleluia Community School last week that they must choose different music if they want to perform in the public areas in light of the new policy.“Our nation’s veterans have time and again faced and defeated dangerous threats to the liberties we cherish as American citizens--children singing Christmas carols is not among them,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. “By banning these Christmas carols, the VA is trampling the very religious freedoms our veterans have sacrificed so much to defend. Contrary to what hospital officials are claiming, they are disrespecting--not respecting--constitutionally protected religious freedoms.”
According to news reports, the students sang religious carols at the hospital in 2011 and 2012 with no resistance from officials. This year, however, when the students arrived to sing at the hospital, officials provided them with a pre-approved list of 12 non-religious Christmas songs that the hospital’s Pastoral Service had reportedly “deemed appropriate for celebration within the hearing range of all veterans” and said the students could not sing any other songs except in the hospital’s chapel.
The Alliance Defending Freedom letter explains that “every federal court to examine the issue has determined that permitting religious Christmas carols to be sung at public facilities like the Medical Center fully complies with the First Amendment…. The Medical Center’s policy appears to be nothing more than political correctness run amok, and we thus urge you to immediately rescind the new policy instituted by the Medical Center’s administration.”
“The Constitution clearly prohibits the VA from targeting religious Christmas carols for exclusion from a public facility,” added Legal Counsel Matt Sharp. “We hope our letter will help clear up the misinformation upon which the VA is acting and that it will lift its unnecessary and unconstitutional ban.”
Alliance Defending Freedom has encountered numerous other instances of actual or attempted Christmas censorship this season in Kalispell, Mt., West Columbia, S.C., Rock Hill, S.C., Bordentown, N.J., and Wausau, Wis. Alliance Defending Freedom issued a letter in November to more than 13,000 public school districts nationwide to explain the constitutionality of religious Christmas carols and offer free assistance to schools that need help.
- Pronunciation guide: Tedesco (Tuh-DESS’-koh)
Legal Documents
Related Resources
ABOUT Matt Sharp
Matt Sharp serves as senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, where he is the director of the Center for Public Policy. In this role, he leads ADF's team of policy experts as they craft legislation and advise government officials on policies that promote free speech, religious freedom, parental rights, and the sanctity of human life. Since joining ADF in 2010, Sharp has authored federal and state legislation, regularly provides testimony and legal analysis on how proposed legislation will impact constitutional freedoms, and advises governors, legislators, and state and national policy organizations on the importance of laws and policies that protect First Amendment rights. He has twice testified before the U.S. Congress on the importance of protecting free speech and religious liberty in federal law. Sharp also authored an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of nearly 9,000 students, parents, and community members asking the court to uphold students’ right to privacy against government intrusion. Sharp earned his J.D. in 2006 from the Vanderbilt University School of Law. A member of the bar in Georgia and Tennessee, he is also admitted to practice in several federal courts.