The Freedom From Religion Foundation says Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ response to its letter protesting her unconstitutional Christmas closure proclamation shows her flagrant disregard for state/church separation.

The national constitutional watchdog contacted her last week on behalf of its Arkansas membership to note that her proclamation to close government offices on Friday, Dec. 26, had crossed a constitutional line — not for giving workers a four-day holiday but because of its inappropriate theological content. Sanders stated as fact that “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born in a humble manger” on what she called “the first Christmas,” that he suffered “for the sins of all mankind” and rose again “to sit at the right hand of the Father,” that “we give thanks for the arrival of Christ the Savior, who will come again in glory” and that “state employees may spend this holiday with their families giving thanks for Christ’s birth” by the closure of state offices on Dec. 26.

FFRF asked Sanders to rescind the proclamation and refrain from issuing sectarian proclamations in the future. Sanders’ response to FFRF’s letter is a troubling affirmation that she views the governor’s office as a platform for preaching rather than as a position of trust bound by constitutional limits and respect for a religiously diverse public.

In her response, Sanders explicitly rejected the constitutional obligation of religious neutrality, asserting that it would be “impossible” for her communications as governor to remain neutral on matters of religion and insisting that Christmas must be officially framed as a celebration of the divinity of Jesus Christ. She further concluded her letter by proselytizing to FFRF’s Legal Counsel Chris Line, telling him that “Christ is with you,” that Jesus “loves you,” and that Jesus “died for your sins.”

“This is precisely the problem,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The governor is not speaking as a private citizen or pastor. She is invoking her authority as governor to declare Christian beliefs as truth and to preach them directly to government employees and Arkansans of all faiths and none — and even to FFRF employees!”

Ironically, in her response, Sanders writes, “I will end by saying that you missed the point of my proclamation. It was not to browbeat readers with Christian doctrine, but rather to point to the humility of Christ’s birth and to. …[K]now that Christ is with you, that He loves you, and that He died for your sins just the same as He did for mine and everyone else’s.”

Comments FFRF Legal Counsel Chris Line: “State offices are not churches, and gubernatorial proclamations are not sermons.” Adds Line, “Gov. Sanders’ response demonstrates exactly why the Establishment Clause is so important. It’s meant to prevent the government from favoring one religion or officially preaching religious doctrine to our diverse citizenry.”

While Christmas is a designated federal holiday that states may recognize in a secular and inclusive manner, Sanders has taken advantage of the holiday to instead recite core Christian doctrines as official state speech. She even instructs employees to spend the holiday “giving thanks for Christ’s birth,” which no public official is empowered to do under the secular Constitution. In fact, President Thomas Jefferson famously noted that “civil powers alone have been given to the president of the U.S. and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents.” What Jefferson as president had no authority to do, certainly Sanders has no authority to do as governor. The Arkansas Constitution further bars any interference with the right of conscience or preference given by law for any religious mode of worship.

Sanders paints a picture of herself as a champion of religious diversity by noting that she recently attended a menorah lighting.

“Celebrating a menorah lighting does not excuse using the machinery of government to advance Christian faith over all others in an official proclamation,” Line adds. “True religious freedom means the government does not tell citizens what to believe, whose ‘sins’ were redeemed or which religious story is ‘proper.’”

Arkansas is home to non-Christians as well as Christians, including the 18 percent who are religiously unaffiliated or are atheists or agnostics. Huckabee’s proclamation impermissibly turns bible-believing Christians into insiders and nonreligious and non-Christian citizens into outsiders.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with 42,000 members nationwide, including hundreds of members in Arkansas. FFRF’s purposes are to defend the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

The post Gov. Sanders doubles down on unconstitutional official Christmas sermon  appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.