Oregon —
The Oregon City’s Pioneer Community Center hosted a holiday program that celebrated Christmas exclusively, causing FFRF to stand up to defend senior citizens from religious coercion.
A community member reported that the center’s Dec. 20, 2024, holiday lunch program was exclusively Christmas-themed and overtly Christian. Per a program from the event, the “Sing Along” portion of the holiday lunch included a performance of “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “Let There Be Peace on Earth,” and “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” among other religious Christmas songs. The event program featured a picture of the nativity and the phrase, “Jesus is the reason for the season.”
FFRF’s complainant stated that, in previous years, the center’s holiday program was more inclusive and featured songs that recognized other winter holidays, including Hanukkah. While the complainant reported being nonreligious, they expressed that they came from a Jewish background and that the Christian and Christmas-exclusive holiday event was upsetting.
“Hosting a government-subsidized holiday event for seniors that exclusively recognizes Christmas, has a sing-along including Christian hymns and states that ‘Jesus is the reason for the season’ places the center in direct violation of federal regulations,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote.
The center’s Social Service & Community Center Manager Cecily Rose wrote back after the complaint, thanking FFRF for reaching out. “We want to clarify that the inclusion of the referenced material was an oversight on the part of one of our vendors and was not approved by the city of Oregon City or its Parks and Recreation Department in any way,” Rose wrote. “We provided directions to our vendor for the sing-along portion of our all-inclusive holiday luncheon to provide holiday music and carols, with the expectation that secular music would be provided.”
