Posted on 12/13/2011 9:36:31 AM PST by massmike
Several L-S High parents have forwarded me the text of this email from their principal, Scott Carpenter, letting students and parents know the rules for celebrating “the winter solstice and several cultural and religious holidays.”
Here: read the email for yourself. Then tell me when Lincoln-Sudbury and the rest of uber-liberal Massachusetts went insane:
'Tis the season to celebrate the winter solstice and several cultural and religious holidays. The tradition of decorating the "senior spot" is a long-held one, and is acceptable as long as certain guidelines are followed. In the spirit of L-S culture, where we want to make sure no one feels excluded because of his/her identification or non-identification with a religious group, we have decided in previous years as a whole school (staff/ student committee on decorations) that decorations tied to a religious holiday (of any religion) do not have a place in the public areas in or around our school.
Please remember if you decorate, that winter scenes, snowflakes, lights are OK; anything connected to Hanukkah, Christmas, or other religious holidays is not OK. Please avoid Santa and Christmas trees, menorahs, stars of David, or other symbols of individual religious holidays. As in the past, decorations may be put up any time after December 15th. Also, prior to decorating, please run your plan by your housemaster.
Thank you for your understanding. If you have questions, please feel free to contact your housemaster. We look forward to seeing the enhanced "senior spot" at the end of next week! --The Housemasters and the School Decorations and School Climate Committees
(Excerpt) Read more at michaelgraham.com ...
Lincoln-Sudbury is moonbat ground zero.
Celebrate the death of the Sun on the winter solstice on the 22nd and then see it be re-born only three days later on the 25th!
I've got cousins from that area that prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt!
Fact: It is impossible to have a religiously neutral education.
Fact: Our nation's socialist K-12 schools establish the religion of atheistic secular humanism. Any child attending these schools must think and reason godlessly just to cooperate in the classroom.
Fact: Atheistic secular humanism is NOT religiously neutral.
Fact: Taxpayers are under the threat of armed police action if they fail to pay the taxes used to establish atheistic secular humanism in our nation's socialist schools.
Fact: Parents and children are under police threat to send their children to the socialist and atheist temples of worship ( oops! “schools”) unless they can pay the ransom to rescue them. Ransom: Extra expenses of private and home schooling ( AKA: jizya)
And....If any Freeper can send me a link to a government socialist K-12 school where the above is not true please send me a link. Oh! And...A nod to God, once in a while, in the form of a Christmas carol or two, or graduation prayer, does not make an atheist secular school into a God-centered one.
2nd, thank God i teach in a public school in the Ozarks where my door decoration has a student drawn manger scene to which the principal said....”Great job, looks good”.
Only in the mind of a liberal can, “...we want to make sure no one feels excluded because of his/her identification...with a religious group...” translate to absolutely no religious symbols at all for any religion.
Oh, except for pagan/Wiccan religious symbols related to the winter solstice celebration. THOSE are perfectly fine. Sheesh.
and it all makes for a pleasant and blessed holiday season.
“Santa and Christmas trees, menorahs, stars of David.....”
####
Interesting that, as usual, the listed “Christmas” items are non-religious, having little or nothing to do with Christianity, whereas the Jewish items are central to the Jewish faith.
Ok, so no Santy Claus and green neon reindeer.
A full-blown Nativity scene would be OK then, right?
Students and Parents can remind administrators
CHRISTMAS IS A FEDERAL HOLIDAY!!
And, I will recongize it, celebrate it, and announce it, anywhere and everywhere I like!
If YOU don’t like it, let me know when that FEDERAL LAW is changed!
Isn’t the winter solstice an actual thing that happens each year? It happens each year, all around the globe, why shouldn’t it have symbols related to it’s happening? Is Wiccan even a religion?
What are the symbols that are used in Wicca that distinguish it?
Off the top of my head I can think of pentagrams, cat eyes, trees, special candles, etc. I have a nephew who fancies himself a warlock and his wife a witch.
Yes, winter solstice is an astronomical actual event that happens each year, everywhere. The event is natural, not religious. However, many pagan religions that worship the sun or other aspects of nature have religious celebrations based on the winter solstice.
Also, Wiccanism is a legally-recognized religion in the United States and many other countries. The U.S. Supreme Court has not heard any Wicca-related cases that I am aware of, but some state Supreme Courts and Federal District Courts have ruled that Wiccanism is a religion and its believers have the right to practice it under the First Amendment. Here are a couple of cites:
Judge J. Butzner of the Fourth Circuit Federal Appeals Court confirmed the Dettmer v Landon decision (799F 2nd 929) in 1986. He said: “We agree with the District Court that the doctrine taught by the Church of Wicca is a religion.” Butzner J. 1986 Fourth Circuit.
A case was brought in 1983 in the U.S. District Court in Michigan. The court found that 3 employees of a prison had restricted an inmate in the performance of his Wiccan rituals. This “deprived him of his First Amendment right to freely exercise his religion and his Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection of the laws.”
My point (which I did not make clearly) is that some religions are “more equal than others” in the eyes of the left. Leftists tend to be more accepting of religions that they see as compatible with radical environmentalism. So they play the little song and dance of ignoring or accepting religious symbolism in holiday decorations from those religions while denying the same respect to Christians, Jews, and others.
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