Send a Christmas Card to the ACLU

Netlore Archive: Forwarded email urges recipients to flood the ACLU offices in New York with Christmas cards because 'they are working so hard to get rid of Christmas'

Description: Email flier
Circulating since: Dec 2005
Status: Pointless
Analysis: See below


Email example contributed by Leslie Y., 20 December 2005:

Subject: Christmas Card Wanna have some fun this CHRISTMAS? Send the ACLU a CHRISTMAS CARD! As they are working so very hard to get rid of the CHRISTMAS part of this holiday, we should all send them a nice, CHRISTIAN, card to brighten up their dark, sad, little world. Make sure it says "Merry Christmas" on it. Here's the Address, just don't be rude or crude. (It's Not the Christian Way, ya know?) ACLU 125 Broad Street 18th Floor New York, NY 10004 Two tons of Christmas cards would freeze their operations because they wouldn't know if any were regular mail containing contributions.. So spend 37 cents and tell the ACLU to leave Christmas alone. Also tell them that there is no such thing as a Holiday Tree. . . . It's a Christmas Tree

Email example contributed by Bob S., 18 December 2005:

Subject: about sending Christmas Cards Hey, wanna have some fun this CHRISTMAS? Send the ACLU a CHRISTMAS CARD! As they are working so very hard to get rid of the CHRISTMAS part of this holiday, we should all send them a nice, CHRISTIAN, card to brighten up their dark, sad, little world. Two tons of Christmas cards would freeze their operations because they wouldn't know if any were regular mail containing contributions.. So spend 37 cents and tell the ACLU to leave Christmas alone. Here's the Address. ACLU "Wishing You Merry Christmas" 125 Broad Street 18th Floor New York, NY 10004

Comments: This email first began circulating in December 2005 then reappeared, strangely enough, in August 2006. The question I'm most frequently asked about it is whether or not the address given for ACLU headquarters is correct.

It is.

The second most frequently asked question is whether it's true that part of the ACLU's mission is to "get rid of Christmas."

It is not.

Granted, the American Civil Liberties Union has litigated a plethora of cases challenging the placement of religious displays (including Christmas nativity scenes, etc.) on government property. But the point of this, based on the ACLU's own position statements, has never been to ban the celebration of Christmas itself. The point is to maintain the separation of church and state; to protect the religious freedom of all Americans by challenging the governmental sanction of any particular religion.

In the words of Fran Quigley, executive director of the Indiana ACLU, "the ACLU is committed to preserving the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom for all. We agree with the U.S. Supreme Court's firm rulings that this freedom means that children who grow up in non-Christian homes should not be made to feel like outsiders in their own community's courthouse, legislature or public schoolhouse."

Some Americans disagree with that point of view, of course, while others perhaps agree in principle but feel the ACLU pursues its mission with too much zeal. Those who wish to voice their objections by mailing Christmas cards to ACLU headquarters are well within their rights to do so.

They should not deceive themselves by subscribing to the notion that a mass mailing will "freeze the ACLU's operations," however. It didn't happen when conservative radio host Mike Gallagher instigated a similar campaign in 2003. It didn't happen last year when this email first went into circulation. There's no reason to suppose it will work any better in 2006.

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Sources and further reading:

A Fictional 'War on Christmas'
USA Today (editorial), 18 December 2005

How the ACLU Didn't Steal Christmas
American Civil Liberties Union, 7 December 2005

The Anti-Christmas ACLU
Newsmax.com, 10 December 2003

Last updated: 09/05/06

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