Posted on 11/23/2005 12:44:06 AM PST by raccoonradio
Jerry Falwell and an army of conservative lawyers drew a line in the snow yesterday, warning Boston and other cities: Don’t mess with Christmas.
And even before the first volley was fired, City Hall caved.
Just after a top lawyer for the conservative Liberty Counsel blasted the Hub’s annual “holiday tree” ceremony, a Menino administration official scrambled to do damage control.
“This is a Christmas tree,” Boston Parks Commissioner Toni Pollak insisted about the Nova Scotia spruce the city will light Dec. 1 on historic Boston Common. “It’s definitely a Christmas tree.”
However, the city’s official Web site refers to the event as “Boston’s Official Holiday Tree Lighting.”
“Calling a Christmas tree a holiday tree isn’t being inclusive. It’s disenfranchising people of faith. It’s like calling a menorah a candle stick,” said Mathew Staver, Liberty Counsel’s president and general counsel.
Falwell, the powerful Evangelical Christian pastor, has put the power of his 24,000-member congregation behind the “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign,” an effort led by the conservative legal organization Liberty Counsel. The group promises to file suit against anyone who spreads what it sees as misinformation about how Christmas can be celebrated in schools and public spaces.
If Falwell is looking to do battle in liberal Massachusetts, he’ll have plenty of opportunities.
In Westfield, a group of high school students was suspended for distributing candy canes with religious messages. A federal court ultimately found the suspensions unconstitutional.
Last year, an ACLU lawsuit led to a creche being banished from an elementary school display in South Norwood.
In Lexington, the Knights of Columbus filed a lawsuit challenging selectmen’s decision to bar them from erecting a creche on the town green, but a federal judge upheld the ban.
“Today, it seems like all religious symbols are being erased,” said Kathleen Hintlian, a Lexington mother of five who used to take her children to visit the creche each year. “I thought it represented hope and peace. And we need that especially in our world today.”
Falwell urged the 500,000 recipients of his weekly e-mail to “resist bullying tactics of the ACLU and others who intimidate school and government officials by spreading misinformation about Christmas.”
The ACLU of Massachusetts struck back, noting its support of two women who were fired from a Raynham racetrack several years ago because they refused to work on Christmas.
“We support both separation of church and state and religious freedom,” said Sarah Wunsch, staff attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts. “I think it’s wrong of Falwell – and against the spirit of the season – to cast this as us versus them.”
Boy that lends legitimacy to the ACLU. NOT!! One case, several years ago. What a laugh.
AMEN!
If we don't fight for our religious freedoms at home, then what is the point of fighting the Islamofascists for them abroad?
Having stores or schools choosing to be more general about "the Holidays" is not a religious freedom issue, nor is the horrible persecution athiests supposedly feel when they hear "jingle bell". Sorry, but this "issue" is bs and both sides use it to get attention and money. It is about #100 on the list of the ten most important issues facing our nation, and a total ridiculous distraction.
Oh, I don't know about that. If we don't learn how to stand our ground on the little things, how are we ever going to learn to stand our ground on the big things, like keeping our throats intact?
Too many times we've let the little things slide, saying we'll fight for the big things. The only problem is, while waiting for those big things we've forgotten how to fight at all.
Well I am not going to fight with other freepers about this, and won't argue beyond this comment, but I do disagree. To me this is like fighting over whether it should be Reagan or JFK to be added to Mt. Rushmore, when our cities are about to be in flames at the hand of our enemies. This is not important folks, it is something conservatives and the socialists both drag out each yr to each get a little boost. I don't disagree that it is an issue to be addressed ultimately, but frankly it is just not that important really. Don't be duped and manipulated by your knee-jerk emotions.
I think that is a good idea.
Welcome to FreeRepublic.
Thanks, and though I have lurked for a while I am pretty new posting. I know this could go on endlessy, and since it is mainly a pet peeve, I won't drag it out any more. I will leave that to others, if they wish to. It could become like the Protestant-Catholic flame wars that are so tiring, and I have no interest in going there.
AMEN!!!!
You are correct. Take care of the details. Take care of the fundamentals. Everything else will fall into place.
It may seem trivial, but it's the elephant's nose under the tent, and no battle against the Godless Left is small.
Yet, you went there. Why is it a “pet peeve?”
Your response is widely shared, but it’s wrong.
To use an example from the law enforcement world, for many years New York city cops would focus on the major crimes and let the small stuff slide. After all, why collar a kid breaking a window when there are rapists and murderers to be arrested.
After a while, New York city became know as the city that did not work. Its subways were dangerous and graffiti covered, its neighborhoods dangerous and its citizens discouraged. A new administration and new police chief came into the picture and implemented what became known as the “broken window” theory of policing. That said that broken windows, graffiti and the other small signs of societal decay were the harbingers of greater crimes. They went after the petty criminal as well as the murderers. And, by golly, crimes dropped, neighborhoods improved and now NYC is considered a pretty decent place to live again.
The fact is, there are no little insults to Christians. There are only those who don’t really care if Christians are insulted. It does not bother them. They have another agenda.
Please feel free to pursue that agenda, but try to avoid telling us why we should ignore the ACLU aggressively pursuing public displays of our faith.
The “Final Solution” did not come out of the blue. It started with Kristallnacht, which, if you know your German, refers to night of the broken windows.
I agree with that. We had the same abortive "Holiday Tree" thing here, pressed by Limo Liberals as if it were on behalf of the Muslims. The Muslims were very quick and very overwhelming to say it wasn't them and they were perfectly okay with "Merry Christmas" and our Christmas trees came back to being Christmas trees. The Muslims quite rightly recognized this as a move to drive a wedge between Muslims and Christians and they didn't want it either.
If you don't want to fight for your religion, then sit on the curb and chant "We want help" with the rest of the sheep; but don't tell me I have to sit down beside you and give up the battle because it's not important to you.
Ooh, good point.
So you're willing to FORCE stores to say "Merry Christmas" to you as you walk in the door? What about the religious freedom of the greeter, who may or may not be Christian?
The "Merry Christmas" crowd strikes me as increasingly petty and selfish.
...or did someone (DU maybe) assign you to follow the Christmas threads and torpedo anyone who still cares that Christians want Nativity scnenes displayed, and Christmas carols sung.....during Christmas...!!
...friend of tellico?
Then why bring it up??? You want to be heard but you don't want to hear...I'm impressed...
I want to respond to Tellico because in him (or her) I see the kind of passive/aggressive behavior of people who are easily offended. That is a defining characteristic of some people who insult you and then act aggrieved when their position is challenged.
He begins his farewell by defining his position as the “reasonable” one. Everyone thinks they are reasonable but that does not make it so. To assume that those who disagree are unreasonable seems to me a very close minded point of view.
Second, he conflates two posts (one mine) with another who mentions a change in Christmas greetings: “It is hardly worth arguing for example with someone who believes that "Happy Holidays" is the first step to concentration camps.”
This is typically disingenuous. Every insult does not lead to concentration camps. Virtually none do. But terrible historical instances of persecution did not happen in a vacuum. They happened because the ground was prepared for people to either hate others or to not care what happened to them because there was no sympathy for the group undergoing persecution. THAT is why the breaking of Jewish store owners’ windows is important. THAT is why, in the US, Christians – especially people who wish to publicly observe their faith, must not be mocked or belittled as a matter of corporate or government policy. That is why, when Tellico is busy saving the world from Islamic hordes, I will fight this little fight.
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