The other seasonal slight . . .

. . . goes, naturally, to Christmas. In South Orange and Maplewood, New Jersey, the school district's fine arts chairman, Nicholas Santoro, claims that because of complaints from parents over religious music in the schools, no religious carols will be performed at the school's Christmas concert. Such a decision bans songs such as Handel's Messiah, Joy to the World, Silent Night, or the Jewish hymn "Ma'oz Tzur" in favor of bland "holiday" songs such as Frosty the Snowman, Winter Wonderland, or Deck the Halls.

Is the chairman's decision legally sound? No. Federal courts have ruled that "public schools are not required to delete from the curriculum all materials that may offend any religious sensibility." The United States Supreme Court has noted that "[m]usic without sacred music, architecture minus the cathedral, or painting without the scriptural themes would be eccentric and incomplete, even from a secular point of view."

No court has ever banned the singing of religious Christmas carols as part of a public school's Christmas program. Yet year after year, uninformed and misguided educators assume that, because the ACLU will sue them if those songs are included, they must be tossed into the intellectual wastebin, along with the religious origins of Thanksgiving, apparently.

The Alliance Defense Fund, the American Center for Law & Justice, and Liberty Counsel are just three legal organizations that will represent a school district if the ACLU challenges the ability to include religious references in Christmas programs. By the same token, those organizations are prepared to sue any school district that infringes on a student's right to freely express religious beliefs in the same context. The same battles seem to be fought year after year, but as long as the ACLU continues its assault on public religious expression, these organizations will soldier on in the fight.