Posted on 12/13/2005 3:47:58 PM PST by yoe
Orlando, FL – Liberty Counsel has sent two separate demand letters to housing authorities subsidized by the Department of Housing and Urban Development demanding that they reverse their positions regarding Christmas.
Winter Park, FL – The Housing Resource Development Corporation has informed its senior citizens that they may not sing Christmas carols. Residents have also been told that they may not have outside religious groups or churches sing Christmas carols in the facility. Representing one of the residents, Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter stating that the housing authority is violating the Federal Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601 et seq, which prohibits religious discrimination. Prohibiting residents from singing Christmas carols will subject the facility to legal action. Violations are punishable by monetary damages, along with attorney’s fees and costs.
Mechanicsburg, PA – Bethany Towers provides housing to low-income seniors and persons with disabilities. Residents have been informed that they may not have any religious decorations in the main lobby or in the day rooms on each floor, where they congregate and meet, and may not have any religious symbols on the exterior portion of their own rooms. Throughout the year, residents decorate the exterior of their entry doors with cards and stuffed animals, but this year they have been told that they may not have religious Christmas decorations. Liberty Counsel has requested an immediate reversal of the decision.
Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, stated: “Some of these elderly citizens and persons with disabilities will celebrate their final Christmas in these housing facilities. It is unthinkable that these housing authorities would rob the elderly and the dependent residents of their joy in celebrating Christmas. It is hard to imagine what these officials are thinking when they tell senior citizens that they may not celebrate Christmas, and then in the same breath, seek to justify their discrimination on the basis of inclusion. Forbidding these senior and dependent residents from celebrating Christmas is the most exclusionary act imaginable.”
How about some email addresses and phone numbers?
This is just ridiculous and outrageous. Outrageous.
ping ... Jeb has incoming
This is so clearly a free exercise issue and not an establishment issue. Liberals are so screwed up!
Here is the one in Winter Park, Fl
Housing Resource Development Corporation
700 N Denning Dr, Winter Park, FL
(407) 740-8108
Could not find a webpage or e-mail address for them.
They need to get together and do what they want in their homes. There is safety in numbers and there would be all kinds of uproars if they get kicked out.
I agree with you Cindy. They should ignore the rules and congregate to sing carols. Then let's watch them get arrested?? Beyond outrageous, this is laughably stupid.
Here is the one in Mechanicsburg, PA
Bethany Towers
335 Wesley Drive
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
(717) 766-7698
http://www.wesleyservices.com/btower/
e-mail: info@wesleyservices.com.
Besides wiping Israel off the map( in other news....) we are wiping Jesus off the map also. Oh, this is sick, just sick...
Someone close needs to educate them about their rights and how to get on FR:')
Something about Freedom OF Religion?
That something name Bethany Towers forbid Christmas carol is beyond understanding.
And if they ignore this absurd 'command' the Development Corporation bureaucracy will do exactly what? Well, what can they do other than what they do best ... what they will do is call some meetings, file a report to another bureaucracy which will in turn call some meetings and file a report to an even more important bureaucracy .... and eventually there will be congressional hearings affording the opportunity for 'face time' for political hacks in the House and Senate .... and then everyone will leave a big wet fart and go home to change their undies .... except for a few of our senators who consider soiled undies to be not only normal, but preferable. I don't want to mention any names (Byrd) because I don't have any first hand evidence (Kennedy) but logically nothing else can explain (Kerry) the insanity going on in our country (Murtha) right now.
Nice adjectives, but a more accurate one is persecution, .... or oppression. Christians in some Islamic states probably have an easier time of it expressing their faith in public than we have here in the U.S.
God bless these Senior Citizens.
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