Operation Christmas Child.<\/a> However, one atheist group is working to put a stop to their actions. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an organization based in Wisconsin, released a statement saying that a concerned district community member reached out to them, complaining about North Short Elementary School\u2019s participation in Operation Christmas Child. The organization says that their participation in this Christmas effort is a violation of First Amendment rights. They also noted that other charitable options not tied to religion would be a better fit for the district.<\/p>\nTaking things one step further, Chris Line, the FFRF\u2019s staff attorney, wrote a letter to the Galena Park Independent School District superintendent John Moore. Attorney Line says that employing school staff for a donation drive to advance the mission of a religious ministry violates basic constitutional principles. FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gayle asked that the school swiftly discontinue fundraising for Operation Christmas Child. The organization also took time to criticize Reverend Francis Graham, president of Samaritan\u2019s Purse. In their criticisms, they said Graham was an outspoken evangelist who\u2019s made harmful comments about the LGBTQ community and COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n
This pushback against Operation Christmas Child isn\u2019t an isolated incident. In 2015, another secular humanist group successfully discontinued the program from a school in Colorado. In another disagreement over the presence of Operation Christmas Child at a Kansas school in 2020, the FFRF was effective in halting the program. This act led Becket, a nonprofit law firm that defends religious liberty, to grant\u00a0the 2020 Ebenezer Award\u00a0to the FFRF. The Ebenezer Award isn\u2019t exactly a good thing, more like a dishonorable mention.<\/p>\n
The future of Operation Christmas Child fundraising efforts at North Short Elementary School has yet to be determined. The Galena Park Independent School District hasn\u2019t responded to FFRF\u2019s demands. However, the original Facebook post that supposedly showed support for Operation Christmas Child appears to no longer be present on the district\u2019s official Facebook page. Christmas time is supposed to be a time for cheerful giving. A time where you put your differences aside and come together for the greater good of man. The FFRF isn\u2019t precisely disputing that, but they say that the school district should seek another charitable option instead of Operation Christmas Child. Whatever the outcome of this dispute is, both sides should remember that the only thing that matters is giving back to the less fortunate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Christmas is usually the time of year where people are the most giving, attempting to spread Christmas cheer wherever they go. Operation Christmas Child, an annual charity created by Christian relief agency Samaritan\u2019s Purse, says that its mission is to demonstrate God\u2019s love in a tangible way to children in need worldwide. Each year, families…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":14649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Atheist Group Attempts to Block Operation Christmas Child Fundraiser in Texas School District<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One atheist group is hoping to stop a Texas school district from participating in fundraising efforts for Operation Christmas Child.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atheist Group Attempts to Block Operation Christmas Child Fundraiser in Texas School District\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One atheist group is hoping to stop a Texas school district from participating in fundraising efforts for Operation Christmas Child.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/10\/atheist-group-attempts-to-block-operation-christmas-child-fundraiser-in-texas-school-district\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-26T20:06:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2020\/11\/gifts-presents-wrapping-bows-e1605811235224.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"465\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"lmckeithen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Atheist Group Attempts to Block Operation Christmas Child Fundraiser in Texas School District","description":"One atheist group is hoping to stop a Texas school district from participating in fundraising efforts for Operation Christmas Child.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Atheist Group Attempts to Block Operation Christmas Child Fundraiser in Texas School District","og_description":"One atheist group is hoping to stop a Texas school district from participating in fundraising efforts for Operation Christmas Child.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/10\/atheist-group-attempts-to-block-operation-christmas-child-fundraiser-in-texas-school-district","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2021-10-26T20:06:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":465,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2020\/11\/gifts-presents-wrapping-bows-e1605811235224.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"lmckeithen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/10\/atheist-group-attempts-to-block-operation-christmas-child-fundraiser-in-texas-school-district","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/10\/atheist-group-attempts-to-block-operation-christmas-child-fundraiser-in-texas-school-district","name":"Atheist Group Attempts to Block Operation Christmas Child Fundraiser in Texas School District","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/10\/atheist-group-attempts-to-block-operation-christmas-child-fundraiser-in-texas-school-district#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/10\/atheist-group-attempts-to-block-operation-christmas-child-fundraiser-in-texas-school-district#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2020\/11\/gifts-presents-wrapping-bows-e1605811235224.jpg","datePublished":"2021-10-26T20:06:06+00:00","dateModified":"2021-10-26T20:06:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/67183b7ec4ffc995620174c78f9cc68a"},"description":"One atheist group is hoping to stop a Texas school district from participating in fundraising efforts for Operation Christmas Child.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/10\/atheist-group-attempts-to-block-operation-christmas-child-fundraiser-in-texas-school-district#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/10\/atheist-group-attempts-to-block-operation-christmas-child-fundraiser-in-texas-school-district"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/10\/atheist-group-attempts-to-block-operation-christmas-child-fundraiser-in-texas-school-district#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2020\/11\/gifts-presents-wrapping-bows-e1605811235224.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2020\/11\/gifts-presents-wrapping-bows-e1605811235224.jpg","width":700,"height":465,"caption":"pxfuel"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/10\/atheist-group-attempts-to-block-operation-christmas-child-fundraiser-in-texas-school-district#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Atheist Group Attempts to Block Operation Christmas Child Fundraiser in Texas School District"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/67183b7ec4ffc995620174c78f9cc68a","name":"lmckeithen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/113\/113fb9cc9b1ebdaacbc1f17d658ad52ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/113\/113fb9cc9b1ebdaacbc1f17d658ad52ex96.jpg","caption":"lmckeithen"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/lmckeithen"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15102"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15108,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15102\/revisions\/15108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}