El Dorado County sends letter to ACLU about their reconsideration of American Christian Heritage Month

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors (BOS) has sent a letter to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), informing them of plans to bring the American Christian Heritage Month proclamation back to their next agenda for a new vote.

"It's the right thing to do," said Supervisor Brooke Laine. While the vote on the proclamation won't be known to that meeting, it is expected to be rescinded.

Many residents, non-Christian clergy, the ACLU, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), among others, were concerned about El Dorado County's designation of the month passed during its July meeting. Since the BOS voted 4-1 for the proclamation, the voices of concern have risen from the community and national organizations.

They said, not only did the proclamation violate the Constitution's separation of church and state, but it also drew a divide in the community.

El Dorado County is a diverse community of almost 200,000 residents from El Dorado Hills to South Lake Tahoe.

In a letter, the ACLU of Northern California told the BOS they objected to the resolution, stating it “conveys that the County supports, promotes and endorses specific religious beliefs and, as such, violates the California Constitution.”

On Wednesday, September 13, the BOS sent a letter to the ACLU of Northern California, informing them the proclamation would be coming back to them at their September 19 meeting for consideration of reversal.

The letter from El Dorado County Counsel David Livingston sent on 9/13/23:

Thank you for your letter dated August 25, 2023, regarding El Dorado County’s proclamation recognizing American Christian Heritage Month. The County is sensitive to the concerns raised in your letter and troubled that the Proclamation had such an effect since, as stated by the Chairperson of the Board of Supervisors prior to adoption of the Proclamation, the Proclamation was “not a statement of [the County’s] exclusivity.” Indeed, as stated in the Proclamation, the Proclamation was intended merely as a recognition of “the impact of religious beliefs on America’s history” and an effort to acknowledge “the rich spiritual and diverse religious history
of our nation.” Such acknowledgements are not uncommon. (See Lynch v. Donnelly (1984) 465 U.S. 668, 674 (“There is an unbroken history of official acknowledgment by all three branches of government of the role of religion in American life from at least 1789.”).)

Nevertheless, in light of the community’s concerns and the unintended effect of the Proclamation, the Board of Supervisors intends to consider rescission of the Proclamation at its September 19, 2023, meeting. I trust that such action will address any remaining concerns you have about the Proclamation. Should you wish to provide the Board of Supervisors with any comments concerning that proposed action, you may submit those comments to the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors at cob@edcgov.us.

There are still concerns about the intent behind the proclamation, and that conversation will continue.

"I'm committed to an open conversation with any of the supervisors who voted for this," said Rabbi Evon Yonker of the proclamation. "There are ways we can celebrate who we are, how we arrived at this, and who we are as a community."

Rabbi Evon Yonker is with Temple Bat Yam, a Reform congregation in South Lake Tahoe. He said he was offended by the July proclamation, stating while there was Christian heritage and history in the country, Christian Nationalism had gone too far.

Part of that other side is Project Blitz, a coordinated effort by Christian Nationalists to shape state law. According to the group Blitz Watch, the nationalist group is using a "distorted definition of 'religious freedom' to undermine LGBTQ equality, attack access to reproductive healthcare, and push a false narrative that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. The El Dorado County proclamation contained much of the verbiage used in other jurisdictions used by the Constitution Party.