Lighting ceremony goes private after compromise [Seculars Protest Hanukkah Menorah]

ECNnews ^ | Dec. 25, 2005 | Stacie N. Galang

[Nachum]

Typical of the fight Chabad gets nation wide on lighting menorahs on public grounds. There are many menorahs lighted publicly this year than ever before and fewer fights like this.

[sully777]

How do Catholics breed?

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Is it due to a missionary zeal?

Sorry. It was served up.

Maybe Catholics are associated with Irish, Italian, Greek, and Hispanics that tend to have large families due to the general belief they use coitus interruptus as the only form of birth control (and not that they are rather fanatical in the bedroom HA!). However, Mormons have large families as well.

[sully777]

Howarth suggests/implies that De Molay et al regretted Beziers and all the destruction upon southern France and Aragon. They certainly didn't see the same thing happen to them later by Philip.

O'Shea and Weiss painted a picture of relative harmony in the regions controlled by the Cathars and the Templars. There was secular republicanism. Jewish and oriental thought flourished. They all made a fortune economically, which is probably the true reason for the invasions and the double-cross.

Isn't that always the case for such dark adventures: Greed, jealousy, and power. Thankfully, out of the ashes of Beziers and the double-cross rose the Phoenix of the United States, which ironically is the greatest contributor to Catholic wealth. What goes round goes round and round and round and...

Aubrey

[conservative in nyc]

I guess this person didn't think separation of church and state means a menorah couldn't be lit on public property (albeit a bit early):


U.S. President George W. Bush lights a candle while participating in a Hanukkah reception and lighting of the Menorah in the Bookseller's Area of the White House in Washington, December 6, 2005.

What's in the water in Massachusetts?

Happy Hanukkah

[sully777]

Howarth suggests/implies that De Molay et al regretted Beziers and all the destruction upon southern France and Aragon. They certainly didn't see the same thing happen to them later by Philip.

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Meant to say "they didn't see it coming that the same thing would happen"

[packrat35]

You cannot run culture through a blender and think that the tasteless grey muck that is created is somehow better than what you had before.

Very well said.

[A. Pole]

"I'm not entirely satisfied with it," Klatzker said. "But it's a step in the right direction."

Mr. Klatzker would be very happy in Saudi Arabia. I am sure that putting Hanukkah Menorah in public display is a big NO, NO over there. Maybe we need collection for one way ticket for him?

[Mad_as_heck]

Apparently its not a menorah anymore but an ACLU-friendly "Winter Holiday Candelabra."

[American in Israel]

Gee, isnt someone complaining about anothers faith Hate Speech? How come Hate Speech laws never apply to the hateful, but only to the people of faith?

[Albion Wilde]

How do Catholics breed? Is it due to a missionary zeal? ...Maybe Catholics are associated with Irish, Italian, Greek, and Hispanics that tend to have large families due to the general belief they use coitus interruptus as the only form of birth control....

Yay! You got it! Wanted more children; happy to have the one we have, but wanted more. Spouse had more birth control techniques than Lees in a Chinese phone book. That's Protestantism in the sack.

[Wilhelm Tell]

Today it seems that the left pines for the same religious strife that so many people left 300 - 350 years ago, the same newly legitimized strife that the news presents us from Indonesia, Iraq/Iran/Sudan/'Palestine' and dozens of other poster places for 'diversity'.

It is a leftist belief that for a communist revolution to happen in developed countries, first the old order has to be destroyed. That is why the left pushes for things that inevitably lead to chaos. If people have a tolerant, live-and-let-live attitude toward religion, that does not help the "revolution." So you get everybody condtioned to be offended at everyone else untl people do not feel like they have citizenship in common. Then when people start fighting and blowing up things, in march the neo-communists who will offer "peace" by banning all religion or by making up a pseudo-religion that everyone must belong to.

[ladyjane]

Your town sounds great - everybody getting along. Maybe it's something in the water. We should all be so lucky.

[RnMomof7]

How sad this is.

America is a Nation of faith, its "Founding Fathers" wanted the nation to be a place where faith could be openly practiced.
At what point do we rise up and ask the nations leaders to enact legislation that allows the open expression of our traditions?

Have a blessed holiday my friend

[dervish]

"As I understand it, the Jewish holiday was a rather minor one that was invigorated solely as a political act to counter the unity that would result from untrammeled celebration of Christmas"

Not so.

Observant Jews always celebrated Chanukah.

The current emphasis on gift giving is newly minted and has for some otherwise non-observant Jews become the be all just as it has become so for non-observant Christians celebrating Christmas.

Chanukah was always about celebrating and publicizing the miracle God made for the Jews by lighting the menorah and displaying it.

read more here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1546989/posts

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking the keyword Israel.

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This aspect he's right about.

"How many years of using a menorah as a civic decoration before the menorah is seen as a civic decoration?"
Rabbi David Klatzker of Peabody's Temple Ner Tamid.

[familyop]

"As I understand it, the Jewish holiday was a rather minor one that was invigorated solely as a political act to counter the unity that would result from untrammeled celebration of Christmas just as Kwansaa was an utterly invented holiday concocted solely to promote Black unity."

You can proudly say in all honesty that Christmas essentially came first! Most parts of the Christmas celebration date back over 2000 years--some practices over 4000 years!

Here's a history of Christmas (one of the rare Christian articles that actually contain citations to references and don't exclude most of the history) from a Christian University and from a Christian perspective.

Probe Ministries: Is Christmas Necessary?
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/christma.html

Here's another one from a Christian perspective.

Christmas
New Advent, Catholic Encyclopedia
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm
Excerpt:
"More important, but scarcely better accredited, is Erbes' contention (Zeitschrift f. Kirchengesch., XXVI, 1905, 20-31) that the feast was brought in by Constantine as early as 330-35."

Constantine the Great
New Advent, Catholic Encyclopedia
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04295c.htm
Excerpt:
"It is true that the believers in Mithras also observed Sunday as well as Christmas. Consequently Constantine speaks not of the day of the Lord, but of the everlasting day of the sun."

And here's a history of Chanukkah.

Hanukkah
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=265&letter=H

Enjoy! [g]

There is, by the way, one biblical reference to Christmas trees (Jeremiah 10).

[Alexander Rubin]

That is very well put, FRiend. You know, a lot of this crap wouldn't happen as fast if we didn't have sellout religious leaders, like one of the Rabbis mentioned in the article above, although he could just as easily be a priest, minister or whatnot, and that "holiday candleholder" a "holiday tree" or some BS like that.

[Convert from ECUSA]

Aw jeeze, not some yahoo getting all "offended" again!!! Not another "compromise" by a bunch of Neville Chamberlains cowed by an annoying loud-mouthed minority whose major malfunctions are forgetting to use Listerine twice a day and not getting enough fiber in their diets!

What I'd like to see.....a huge creche with a huge lighted menorah right next to it. With the mayor, the city council, and whoever, attending without fear, shame, or being intimidated. When I was a kid nobody got their undies in an uproar over nativity scenes or menorahs in public schools. These Gritches of both genders who spoil things for everybody this time of year need to hush up or go live in an atheistic "paradise" like the PRC, Cuba, or North Korea where they won't have to see some "religious" display, get "offended" and wet their drawers about it!

[Alexander Rubin]

Yep. A big ol' Christmas tree, next to a big ol' menorah. You could even throw the atheists a big ol' patch of nothing nearby, just to keep them happy.

[Convert from ECUSA]

Nah, that would not make them happy. The only thing that makes them happy is to spoil things for everyone else, making everyone else unhappy. Sort of a variation on the sterotype of Purtians, who cannot abide it that somewhere, someplace, someone is happy and enjoying themselves.