A Texas health center banned its employees from saying “Merry Christmas” in front of the patients.
Austin Travis County Integral Care (ATCIC) released a memo to their employees requesting them to not use the phrase “Merry Christmas” around the patients, reports KXAN.
The memo came after a non-Christian patient expressed displeasure with the Christmas decorations that were hanging at one of the clinics.
A spokesperson from the clinic said that they were just trying to be inclusive of all the patients at the health center; the spokesperson also added that the employees can still have “Merry Christmas” hanging from their desk or have Christmas decorations there.
The ATCIC generally works with people experiencing intellectual and developmental disabilities and other disorders.
The Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, had strong words for the health center’s latest policy.
“There’s this … sort of war on Christianity. You can bring up any other religion, and look — we want other religions to have their ability to speak out, but we don’t think that Christian beliefs should necessarily be pushed aside,” Paxton declared.
Paxton was most recently engaged in a lawsuit over whether a school nurse’s aide could display a Charlie Brown Christmas poster reading “for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. … That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” (RELATED: Judge Allows School To Hang ‘Charlie Brown Christmas’ Poster)
Paxton sued on Dedra Shannon’s behalf; he argued that the poster was protected by the Texas “Merry Christmas Law.” The law legally protects traditional holiday symbols in public schools as long as there are other religious and secular symbols displayed as well.
The judge ruled in favor of Shannon on the condition that she included the phrase “Ms. Shannon’s Christmas message” at the top of the poster.
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