Operation Christmas Child (OCC), a religious-based group, delivers Christmas presents in shoeboxes to underserved children around the world. It is being run by Franklin Graham. Regularly, it gets donations from various people. Its recent donation is from Liberty Middle School, a middle school in Pratt, Kansas, United States. This donation from the school caused an upset for atheist group, Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) who petitioned the superintendent of the school.
In its petition, the atheist group asked the superintendent to suspend the donations because OCC has religious inclinations. Also, it stated that OCC is aimed at drawing people to Jesus with its presents in shoeboxes. In its words, "the donations made by the students promoted and endorsed Christianity in its schools."
FFRF staff Christopher Line has released a statement to this effect. He said: "The purpose of the shoe boxes is to attract children in the developing world to convert to Christianity. Organizing a donation drive that for all intents and purposes employs school staff and resources to convert people to Christianity violates constitutional principles."
The Superintendent of the school, Tony Helfrich has concurred to the statement by the FFRF staff. He said that "upon learning that its mission is more sectarian in nature, we realized."
However, Graham has expressed his disappointment over the outcome of the donation. On Fox News 'The Ingraham Angle', the religious leader stated that he "doubted our country will ever come together. I think were so divided now and its only going to get worse and the hatred that we see from manyin the public square toward Christians is incredible.
"I'm not going to back down. I'm just going to keep telling people that God loves them and He cares for them and Christ died for their sins," he said.
Nevertheless, he asked the students at the Kansas middle school not to be discouraged. They can still send in their donations directly to the ministry.
Furthermore, Graham stated that OCC does not necessarily solicit donations from schools. Anyone can do it. In this situation, some students at the school were interested in sending donations and they involved their school.
It will be recalled that in 2013, another atheist group complained about a public schools involvement with OCC. During this donation, schools in West Columbia, South Carolina, and Douglas County, Colorado, were asked by the American Humanist Association to withhold donations or face legal action from the group. The schools followed the order.
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