HOUSTON, Texas — In 2013 Texas passed the Merry Christmas Law, which allows teachers and students to openly celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah at school without fear of retribution. Now other states appear to be following in Texas’ footsteps with the introduction of similar legislation.
According to Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston), one of the lawmakers who helped pass the bill, Missouri and Tennessee have already passed comparable legislation. In eight other states, similar bills have been filed in one chamber or the other.
“It’s the first anniversary of Texas’ bill,” Bohac told Breitbart Texas. “We want to get a national debate going and inspire other states to pass their own versions of the Merry Christmas bill.”
Bohac was inspired to pass the Merry Christmas bill after noticing a string of lawsuits resulting from teachers celebrating religious holidays in school.
“Texas has a history of school districts landing in lawsuits for teachers handing out candy canes or writing Christmas expressions on military cards going overseas,” he said. “I have also heard from teachers saying that the school district had told them not to use red and green colors at parties….Some were even told not to put pictures Santa Clause in the classroom because they could be construed in some way as state-sponsored religion.”
In many cases, the American Civil Liberties Union was behind the lawsuits.
“We don’t need this crazy political correctness running amok during the holiday season where teachers and administrators can land in hot water for merely calling a holiday by its name,” Bohac said. “It’s nuts that our culture has come to this, but this is where we are and we have to push back against this anti religious freedom and do something about it.”
The state representative said he realized how extreme the political correctness had become when he picked up his son, who was in first grade at the time, from school. “He told me that they decorated their holiday tree with holiday ornaments,” Bohac said “I realized how absurd all of this was getting. I went into the school administrator’s office and said, ‘Can somebody tell me which holiday that tree represents?’ They were fearful of openly acknowledge and celebrate Christmas for fear of a lawsuit. So I set out to find a solution.”
Pointing out how quickly political correctness can spiral out-of-control, Bohac said, “If the whole goal is not making someone feel uncomfortable, we might as well quit celebrating Valentine’s Day because there are people who don’t have a valentine; we might as well stop celebrating New Years because there are some cultures that don’t celebrate the same New Years we do; and we should stop celebrating the Fourth of July because the Brits are certainly not as thrilled as we are about our independence.”
Bohac continues to keep pushing in his efforts to promote a culture where individuals are not fearful of celebrating Christmas.
He has written a book, which will be published next Christmas, called, “Merry Christmas, Y’all.” Bohac hopes the book will attract an audience of all ages and ultimately help “restore sanity and fun to the Christmas season.”
Follow Kristin Tate on Twitter @KristinBTate.
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