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FIRST ON FOX: Republican Governor of Arkansas Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to a group of lawyers who expressed disagreement with its recent decision to close government offices on Friday, December 26, to celebrate Christmas and give employees more time with their families.
After issue proclamation After closing government offices for Christmas, Sanders received a letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a group that promotes separation of church and state, calling for the move to be reversed and arguing that it was unconstitutional.
In a response letter obtained by Fox News Digital, Sanders told FFRF she would “do no such thing.”
“You say my messages as governor should be neutral on issues of religion,” Sanders wrote. “I'm saying that even if I wanted to do it, it would be impossible. Christmas is not just an “end of year holiday” with “widely observed secular cultural aspects,” as your letter states. It's not the gifts, Christmas trees, or stockings that make this holiday special. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, and if we want to properly honor Him, we must also properly tell His wonderful, world-changing story.”
Arkansas Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks at CPAC. (DOMINICK GWYNN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Sanders went on to call it ironic that she received a letter “claiming that I was alienating my non-Christian constituents by leaving a Menorah lighting celebration with people from all over Arkansas.”
Sanders wrote: “I doubt they will say my administration is alienating non-Christians. In fact, many would say the opposite: Only by expressing our own faith and celebrating other faiths can we make our state’s diverse faith communities feel seen and heard.”
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Republican Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders. (Associated Press)
Sanders ended the letter by telling FFRF that they “missed the point” of her Christmas proclamation, explaining that it was “not to intimidate readers with Christian doctrine” but “rather to point out the humility of Christ's birth and the amazing fact that the King of Kings was born not in a palace or temple, but in a humble manger tended only by poor shepherds.”
“While you may enter this time with bitterness, know that Christ is with you, that He loves you, and that He died for your sins just as He died for mine and everyone else,” the letter concluded.
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The letter from FFRF alleged that Sanders used her “official authority” to “promote a particular religious viewpoint in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to FFRF for comment.
