Controversy Leads to Rescheduling of Children's Christmas Play in Little Rock
By: Jonathan Athens, KARK 4 News
Updated: December 4, 2012
A Little Rock church says it has rescheduled its production of a children's Christmas play amid the media buzz and controversy over some elementary school teachers' offer to take kids to that play on a school day.
Atheists believe some first and second grade teachers at Terry Elementary stepped over the line separating church and state when those teachers sent home letters offering to take children to a production of "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!" being staged at nearby Agape Church.
The church tells KARK it has canceled its December 14 production and has rescheduled two shows to be held on Saturday, December 15 instead.
The dust up started after a parent expressed her concern to the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers that her daughter might be singled out for ridicule if she opted not to attend the production.
Stay with ArkansasMatters.com and KARK 4 News for more updates on this story.
Continuing Coverage:
O'Reilly Factor Tackles Topic of Little Rock Charlie Brown Play Controversy
AR Church & State Fight Over Charlie Brown Play Generating Buzz
Arkansas Society of Freethinkers Denies "War on Christmas" Charge
Charlie Brown Christmas Show Causes Church and State Controversy
Atheists believe some first and second grade teachers at Terry Elementary stepped over the line separating church and state when those teachers sent home letters offering to take children to a production of "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!" being staged at nearby Agape Church.
The church tells KARK it has canceled its December 14 production and has rescheduled two shows to be held on Saturday, December 15 instead.
The dust up started after a parent expressed her concern to the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers that her daughter might be singled out for ridicule if she opted not to attend the production.
Stay with ArkansasMatters.com and KARK 4 News for more updates on this story.
Continuing Coverage:
O'Reilly Factor Tackles Topic of Little Rock Charlie Brown Play Controversy
AR Church & State Fight Over Charlie Brown Play Generating Buzz
Arkansas Society of Freethinkers Denies "War on Christmas" Charge
Charlie Brown Christmas Show Causes Church and State Controversy
Comments
in a nutshell... christmas is a federal holiday created by our government... thus christmas events can be supported by schools.... the white house has a christmas a tree... why dont they protest that???
donny d.
December 5, 2012 at 4:57 pm
What people fail to understand and what is not taught in our schools is that the separation of church and state was put into place to prevent our Nation from forming a government controlled church such as the Christian church of the United States. Unfortuneately our Supreme Court defined it differently in many cases regarding the separation of church and state since 1879. This is just an extension of the attacks of the Christian religion that has happened in other parts of our Nation, and now states in the Bible belt are the new target for this group of atheists that want to slowly worm their way in to our lives and society to destroy anything related to our belief in God. This is a challenge to all Christian men and women to take a stand now or wonder where your freedoms have gone later.
Darryl D.
December 5, 2012 at 7:03 am
I am a Christian and I also believe in the separation of church and state. I would not be in favor of my child being taken out of class, where I as a taxpayer am funding their education, to be take to a church during the school day to attend a church sponsored event. If parent's want their children to attend events such as this, it would behoove the parent to take their child. It is not the school's responsibility to entertain. The school's responsibility is to educate. Furthermore, I have visited the agape church and I would not want my child to attend an event there unless I as the parent were to accompany them.
John U.
December 4, 2012 at 4:29 pm
It was mentioned above that a letter was sent home OFFERING to take children to the production, so that means if she didn't want her child to go she should of a) not signed the permission slip or b)kept her child home the day of the field trip, they were not forcing her child to go, Some people over react to simple stuff
michelle p.
December 4, 2012 at 1:23 pm
