Orlando, FL – The seniors living at Orlando Cloisters can, once again, enjoy a Nativity and angels as part of their Christmas decorations. Late last week Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter to the center after learning that Orlando Cloisters banned religious symbols in the common areas and removed an angel from the top of the Christmas tree and near an elevator.

Following the demand letter, a Liberty Counsel attorney conducted a conference call with the center’s management and its attorney. The center continued to insist that it had the right to censor religious symbols. In one last effort to resolve the case without a lawsuit, Liberty Counsel called on HUD to intervene and set the record straight. HUD made the matter a high priority. Orlando Cloisters has now reversed itself and will replace the angel atop the Christmas tree and by the elevator, will allow a Nativity scene and other religious symbols and will retract its directive that banned religious symbols.

Last week the management at Orlando Cloisters issued a directive to strip the common areas of any religious symbols or words in Christmas displays. At the management’s direction, an employee at Orlando Cloisters cut the wings off the angel that was on top of the Christmas tree, and then the angel was replaced with Santa Claus. Angels were also removed from a display by the elevator, in a hallway on the third floor.

The Federal Fair Housing Act protects people against discrimination in housing, including religious discrimination. Facilities such as homes for seniors cannot legally censor out the Christian aspects of the Christmas holiday.

Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented, “It is difficult to imagine something more ridiculous than replacing an angel atop a Christmas tree with a Santa Claus in a skirt, but political correctness defies logic. Seniors deserve our respect and they deserve to celebrate Christmas. How someone can think that senior centers which receive federal funding from HUD are required to censor a federal holiday we call Christmas is beyond belief. Censoring Christmas in senior centers violates federal law. We call upon the federal government to issue Christmas guidelines designed to prevent religious discrimination that often occurs in senior living facilities.”