Posted on 12/22/2009 10:44:47 AM PST by MsLady
LEBANON — “Silent Night” was not on the program at Pioneer School’s concert Tuesday, but it was sung anyway — by the audience after the kids were done.
Shortly after the children started rehearsals this fall, Principal Mark Finch had scratched the number after a parent complained that the carol’s emphasis was “too single-religion.”
Superintendent Rob Hess, in attendance Tuesday, said he didn’t see who started the carol but thought approximately 100 of the more than 700 people in the audience joined in.
Sam Long, a Pioneer volunteer and the grandmother of a Pioneer student, said the only reaction following the song was applause and cheers.
“I’m very proud they stood up for what they believe,” she said. “I am so proud, because have a godson fighting (in Baghdad) for our rights and to keep us free, and if we can’t sing just a little song, what’s he over there for?”
Dale Koger, an administrator, said Lebanon schools were reminded that it’s legal to sing about, or decorate with, the cultural trappings of a Christian holiday as long as those trappings are part of larger, nonreligious celebrations. Individual school administrators make their own judgment calls on the details.
Finch had said he made the program change in an attempt to create “a win-win for everybody” and no one complained about his decision at the time. He did not return messages asking for comment following the concert.
School Board members Mike Martin and Russ McUne said Thursday they felt Finch had overreacted.
“There were 18 songs on the program, of which one has a sacred theme to it and 17 don’t. Really, the complaint should go the other way: The program was too darned secular,” said Martin, who was in the audience. “To change that program for one person is almost a violation of everyone else’s rights.”
Board member Liz Alperin disagreed, saying she believes, if anything, some of the other songs should have been changed to reflect the celebrations of other cultures, to make sure all children felt included.
“It’s a holiday program, but it’s only celebrating one holiday. There are other holidays out there,” she said.
I’m so upset with these people. Here we have all these respectable conservatives telling us we can’t beat the liberals ever and the best we can hope for is a stalemate, and these little people just disproved that. Liberalism is nothing.
My first thought was, what other holidays is she talking about???
I wrote a short play on the subject which is fun to do at parties.
Christmas in Montana by Nikos Vlachos
Like Stupid B*tch Day, when they parade people like you around on the back of a turnip truck.
It is sad that it happened in my town especially this is still a very conservative place where almost everyone attend church on Sunday and local companies are close on Sunday.
bkmk
In schools where Jewish children are the majority of the children, I support Jewish holidays dominating the Christmas celebration season.
In schools where there is only a smattering of Jewish children present, there’s no need to replace a certain percentage of Christmas related content.
Are we not allowed to celebrate our culture?
Here in Harding Township, NJ, the local school’s annual Christmas concert (now called the Winter Concert, even though it was held a few days before winter actually began!), included two Kwanzaa songs (one extolling “collective labor”), and three Hanuka songs. Now Hanuka is a very minor Jewish holiday. How many ways can you sing about a dreydel? I am told that in Israel, the people view Hanuka as a strange, American aberration, blown out of proportion here, merely as a counterpart to Christmas. At any rate, there then were a goodly number of the usual secular seasonal songs involving chestnuts by the fire (which no one really does, do they?), and a one-horse open sleigh (which wouldn’t work on the streets around here, and has never been seen locally). There was only one truly religious Christmas song in the whole affair: Ave Verum, which is great, but as it is Latin, the grade-schoolers probably didn’t know what they were singing, and the audience was insulated from the possibility that they might be driven wild with religious fervor, and run out from the gym intent to establish a national church.
Thanks a heap, ACLU!
Well, at least they did not sing or play the Little Drummer Boy. I thank God for that.
That was a movement of God in the hearts of those people. Nothing against anyone, just a love of God. And totally fed up with being told what we can and cannot do because of, in this case, one person. If it offends someone, well I got news for them, Jesus offended a lot of people. And it would appear He’s still offending people.
Why am I beginning to feel like I’m part of a resistance movement behind the Iron Curtain or Berlin Wall?
Lady, you have no idea. And they plan on keeping it that way.
Nothing wrong with that, I love Hanukkah, I love the Jewish people. My savior was a Jew, the Lion of Juda. This isn’t about being against a religion. This is about freedom of expression. We can have Jesus in a glass of urine, we can use His name in vain, but, we can’t celebrate His birth without someone having a fit and the very reason this country was founded.
Many of my fellow New Yorkers and Americans also celebrate Hanukkah at this time of year, my friend.
Shalom Pee Wee - does Christians singing Christmas carols tick you off? What do they do in Israel for Hanukkah? Do you guys have Hanukkah carols? I’m told by many who say they are tolerant, that tolerance is a two-way street. Would you agree?
When the smattering of one of the “other” cultures, like Jewish, approaches 15 percent, and say Asian approaches 5-8 percent, and Hispanic (Christian, but no Santa Claus tradition, rather the 3 Kings) approaches 20 percent “our” particular culture may have a plurality but not a majority.
No one is denying anyone’s right to celebrate their culture, but ignoring the heritage of many of the students in a pubic school district would be wrong. I have no idea of the ethnic and religious breakdown in the school in question. I can only relate to the metro NY area.
I know I’ll get smacked down here for this, but PUBLIC school is not the place to celebrate anyone’s religious culture. Learn about it? Of course. Be exposed to it? Sure. Celebrate it? I think not.
I do like the fact that we were respectful of many different kinds of celebrations, but always felt we were lucky to live in such a urban area; I know many areas are just not so tolerant and diverse.
Only 100 out of 700 sang? That is just pathetic. America... great while it lasted. Grr!
Adeste Fidelis...
lol!
There are now more than 300 million Christians who are either threatened with violence or legally discriminated against simply because of their faith - more than any other religion. They are subjected to legalised discrimination, violence, imprisonment, relocation and forced conversion. Even in supposedly Christian Europe, Christianity has become the most mocked religion, its followers treated with public suspicion and derision.
More Christians have been killed in this century then all the other centuries combined. At least 55,000 Christians are killed each year for religious reasons. Christians in India, Indonesia and Pakistan run the highest risk of losing their lives.
Shalom to you too, but I am Christian (Catholic). And yes, tolerance should be a two way street. But it’s easier to be tolerant when you are the majority, and you feel you’re tolerating “them” and not the other way around.
I understand that Hanukkah is not a major religious holiday, certainly not on the order of Rosh Hashana or Easter. But it has taken on a bigger meaning to Jews in America, and has become part of their American culture at this time of year.
And don’t even start me on the millions of Christians (and Easter-Christmas Catholics included) who are decorated to the hilt for Christmas with snowmen and santas and colored lights, but no trace of a nativity anywhere in their home.
For way too many Christians, Christmas has become about shopping and family gatherings and cooking and presents and not about God’s greatest gift to man.
but PUBLIC school is not the place to celebrate anyone’s religious culture.
So why does the public school system recognize a Holy Day on the 25 of December? I really don’t care if public schools don’t have a Christmas recital, but would like the secular education establishment to decide whether it is really secular or a quasi secular organization. If minority rights always trump majority rights, then no one has rights. Just saying. I personally am a 6’5” pygmy who celebrates the Gilgamesh story of creation and I am really pissed no one sent me a happy Gilgamesh card this year.
Exactly. Why no Arbor Day carols for the kids who worship trees?
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