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December 18, 2006 -- A Westchester grandfather called Briarcliff Manor officials "grinches" yesterday after they not only refused to put up a Nativity scene in a village park - but took down all holiday symbols that were already there. Henry Ritell, 80, sued the village to force it to install the Nativity scene, which he had purchased, in Law Park, where a menorah and a tree decorated with Christmas lights were standing. On Friday, a federal judge ruled in his favor. He instructed the village to either remove the menorah, "a symbol of Jewish faith," or include Ritell's Nativity scene.

T.O. judge orders Christmas tree out of lobby Updated Thu. Dec. 14 2006 5:31 PM ET toronto.ctv.ca A Toronto judge has ordered a Christmas tree out of a downtown provincial courthouse lobby, saying it's not an appropriate symbol to non-Christians. The move by Justice Marion Cohen has upset staff, some of whom call the decision stupid and insulting. Cohen says she understands the small tree has stood in the lobby at 311 Jarvis St. for years during the Christmas season, but in a letter to employees says non-Christians are "confronted" with the artificial decoration, which makes them feel "they are...

"While an Olympic-medal-winning ice skater smiled and listened to Christmas carols, a Riverside city staff member silenced the singing group because she was afraid the skater would be offended because she is Jewish." "The choir had barely launched into "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" when a police officer and Michelle Baldwin, a city special-events employee, approached choir director Staci Della-Rocco and told her to stop the choir's performance." "Amber Eyerly, with the New York-based PR firm that helped promote the event, said that Cohen didn't make the request." "I felt so bad for my kids and that whole situation," Della-Rocco...

How did America, a nominally Christian nation, get to the point that a cheerful "Merry Christmas" is seen as intolerant and our gifts are placed under "holiday trees"? "The President and Mrs. Reagan extend to you their best wishes for a joyous Christmas and a peaceful New Year." In 1982, that was the message appearing on President Reagan's Christmas card to thousands of GOP faithful. In 1983, the "greeting" changed: "The President and Mrs. Reagan extend to you their warmest wishes for happiness at the holidays and throughout the new year." Thus did the Reagan White House stop sending Christmas...

There’s an outrageous story out of Seattle (my home base) that shows the way that good intentions can occasionally produce disgusting results. Because of the prevailing climate of political correctness, a decent guy and honorable clergyman looks like a horse’s rear end and has provoked appropriate indignation from millions of people. According to misleading news stories featured prominently in newspapers and on TV (including KING 5 TV News): “All 15 Christmas trees inside the main terminal at Sea Tac Airport (Seattle-Tacoma International) have been removed in response to a complaint by a rabbi. A rabbi wanted to install an eight-foot...

SEA-TAC Airport - All of the Christmas trees inside the terminal at Sea-Tac have been removed in response to a complaint by a rabbi. A local rabbi wanted to install an 8-foot menorah and have a public lighting ceremony. He threatened to sue if the menorah wasn’t put up, and gave a two-day deadline to remove the trees. Sea-Tac public affairs manager Terri-Ann Betancourt said the trees that adorn the Sea-Tac upper and lower levels may not properly represent all cultures. She said that since this is their busiest time of year and they don't have time to add...

HOLIDAY BLUES 'Christmas' is 'semantics' to Democrat Sen. Murray Spokeswoman insists this is time to celebrate 'the season' Posted: December 8, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern The omission by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., of the word "Christmas" when addressing those who watched this week's lighting of the 65-foot Pacific Silver Fir that this year is serving as the "Capitol Christmas Tree" apparently was no oversight. As WND exclusively reported, Murray rebuffed instructions given last year by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., that the national tree in front of the U.S. Capitol be referred to as the "Capitol Christmas Tree,"...

Leave Christmas alone, say Muslims By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent Last Updated: 1:45am GMT 13/11/2006 Muslim leaders joined their Christian counterparts yesterday to launch a powerful attack on politicians and town halls that play down Christmas. They warned that attempts to remove religion from the festival were fuelling Right-wing extremism. A Christmas tree outside 10 Downing street A number of town halls have tried to excise references to Christianity from Christmas, in one case by renaming their municipal celebrations "Winterval". They have often justified their actions by saying Britain is now a multi-faith society and they are anxious to avoid...

The Christkindl, or Christmas Fairy, is welcome at a Christmas festival in Chicago. So is Santa Claus. But a film about the birth of Jesus has provoked city officials to lower the boom. Chicago officials deny actually ordering Christkindlmarket officials to cancel an exhibit of “The Nativity Story.” They just sort of asked them to dump it, kind of the way Da Bears ask an opposing runner to gently drop to the turf. Dose Bears would be embarrassed, however, by the sheer cowardice and political correctness on display this week in Chicago’s Daley Plaza. Here’s what happened. Christkindlmarket, based on...

The ACLU is at it again. With an outrageous boldness that only they could muster, the ACLU has set their sights on Christmas ... In their never-ending quest to completely eradicate all things religious from public life, the ACLU's latest lawsuit is an all-out frontal attack on the freedom of speech. Let me ask you - when did a children's Christmas program become illegal? When did the nativity story and Christmas songs become unconstitutional? Because this is the dangerous charge the ACLU has leveled. A children's Christmas program has been deemed unconstitutional by the ACLU. I have assembled a senior...

There's a passion for history at William and Mary-- and pride. King William III and Queen Mary II chartered the school in 1693. Their purpose: to train ministers in the Gospel and spread the faith among the Indians. Now, critics say the public school has turned its back on its Christian heritage. "What is convenient and comfortable has now taken precedence over what has been the core values and the core heritage of the institution," said Dr. Dave Gyertson, former Christian college president. "The logic of the decision means you can't have a sacred space at William and Mary," said...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — After being contacted by The Rutherford Institute and outraged members of the public, the U.S Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program has reversed its decision and agreed to accept the donation of talking Jesus dolls from the company one2believe. Public statements by representatives of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation had suggested that their initial refusal of the Jesus dolls was motivated by a concern that the dolls might offend Jewish or Muslim recipients. In a letter to the president of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, John W. Whitehead pointed out that the Foundation’s rejection...

A talking Jesus doll has been turned down by the Marine Reserves' Toys for Tots program. A suburban Los Angeles company offered to donate 4,000 of the foot-tall dolls, which quote Bible verses, for distribution to needy children this holiday season. The battery-powered Jesus is one of several dolls based on Biblical figures and manufactured by one-2-believe, a division of the Valencia-based Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company. The charity balked because of the dolls' religious nature. Vice President Bill Grein of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation says toys are donated to kids based on financial need and the...

WILLIAMSBURG -- College of William and Mary officials removed a 2-foot-high gold cross from the altar of the Sir Christopher Wren Building chapel this week, in an effort to modify the historic chapel into a nondenominational space. The cross is now kept in a nearby storage closet, near communion wine bottles and other religious articles.

The cross from the altar area of the Wren Chapel has been removed to ensure that the space is seen as a nondenominational area, Melissa Engimann, assistant director for Historic Campus, said in an e-mail to Wren building employees. “In order to make the Wren Chapel less of a faith-specific space, and to make it more welcoming to students, faculty, staff and visitors of all faiths, the cross has been removed from the altar area,” Engimann said.

Nadia Eweida: BA said she had failed to comply with their 'uniform regulations' A Christian woman has been banned by British Airways for wearing a small cross necklace to work - while muslims and sikhs are allowed to wear headscarves and turbans.Heathrow check-in worker Nadia Eweida was sent home after refusing to remove the crucifix which breached BA's dress code. Her treatment by BA - which styles itself as the "world's favourite airline" - brought condemnation both from Christian groups and members of other faiths last night. BA's chief executive Willie Walsh has upheld the action against Miss Eweida for...

A California school has fixed its T-shirt policy after two student were reprimanded for wearing the "inappropriate" Christian message that life is valuable, according to a law firm that defends religious freedom and parental rights. The announcement comes from Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, who said he saluted the district for resolving so quickly the First Amendment violation. The case developed at a Livingston, Calif., middle school when two students, sisters, were admonished by school officials for wearing the offending T-shirts. The message read: "Help Cure Abortion" on the front, and "Abortion: The leading cause of death in...

by Mark Finkelstein September 16, 2006 - 06:46 In a surreal clash of the sacred and the profane, the New York Times - that citadel of secularism - has declared in its editorial of this morning that Pope Benedict "needs to offer a deep and persuasive apology," for having quoted a 14th century Christian emperor who said: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” The Times is only being fair and balanced, I suppose. After...

A military jury today convicted a Navy chaplain of a misdemeanor count of disobeying his commanding officer for wearing his uniform while delivering a prayer "in Jesus' name" at an assembly in front of the White House. "But I had prior written permission to wear my uniform if it was a religious observance, (so) prayers are not a religious observance," Lt. Gordon James Klingenschmitt told WND after the military court-martial recessed for the night. "Therefore I disobeyed my commanding officer's order not to pray in uniform," he said. Klingenschmitt, who raised immediate concerns with this superiors when the Navy issued...

Muslim leaders on Thursday condemned Pope Benedict over comments he made about Islam on a visit to Germany and demanded he apologize. The head of the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood called on Islamic countries to threaten to break off relations with the Vatican unless the pontiff withdrew his remarks. A top religious figure in Turkey suggested the pope should reconsider a trip he is planning to Turkey later this year. The Vatican issued a statement to say the Pope had never meant to offend Islam. In his speech at the University of Regensburg on Tuesday, Benedict quoted criticism of Islam and...

Neither O'Donnell nor ABC has apologized ABC's Rosie O'Donnell told a nationwide audience this week that "radical Christians" are the same as radical Muslims who piloted hijacked jetliners into New York's Twin Towers, who chop off the heads of individuals and who bomb innocent children in suicide attacks. O'Donnell made her comments as host of ABC's "The View." "Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America where we have separation of church and state," O'Donnell said. She had been saying that America was attacked "not by a nation." She continued: "And as a result...

It's been a while since the Romans made sport of feeding Christians to the lions, but there's a terrible new Colosseum-style feeding frenzy emerging – a new bloodlust for eliminating the plague of uppity Christians right here in the U.S. Mel Seesholtz You think I'm exaggerating? Take a look at what Mel Seesholtz, a Ph.D. and professor of English at Pennsylvania State University, offered up yesterday in the Online Journal, a website that boasts of being established in 1998 "to provide uncensored and accurate news, analysis and commentary." Seesholtz has his panties in a bunch over opposition by Christians in...

BBC did not know of 9/11 film's link to religious right David Leigh Wednesday September 13, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The BBC broadcast a controversial docu-drama, The Path to 9/11, this week without realising that it had been made by a member of the US religious right. The three-hour programme, shown over two nights on BBC2 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the attack on the twin towers, was purchased from ABC, a subsidiary of Disney. At the last minute the US television company was forced to re-edit sequences after claims of distortion from former president Bill Clinton and members...

Joe Cook has long since apologized for what he said last summer. Although he is director of the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, and strenuously opposed to anything resembling prayer in public schools or God in public life, he says he wasn’t speaking for the ACLU – or, curiously, even for himself – when he said what he said. He said it about some teachers, students, and school board members in Tangipahoa Parish who, on infrequent occasions, have offered public, “sectarian” prayers in their classrooms, at school banquets, or to open board meetings. “They [the Christians] have...

When Democratic Party leaders "found God in the 2004 exit polls," as Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. likes to say, no one expected instant results. Many of the party's early efforts to attract religious voters, after all, were scattershot and not a little awkward. No one knew quite what the "faith staffer"—a new breed of legislative aide—was supposed to do, and random-seeming insertions of Bible verses into floor speeches came off as Tourette's syndrome for Democrats. In the longer run, though, the new focus on forming relationships with religious communities and voters has been the right move for a...

he Catholic church has blasted a decision by the Procurator Fiscal to issue Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc with a caution for blessing himself. Polish star Boruc was rapped for making the sign of the cross at Ibrox in an Old Firm match last season. The caution was issued after a six-month police investigation into the incident, which is said to have angered a section of the Rangers support. Boruc is reported to have been completely baffled by the decision to issue him with the warning But the move has angered the church and prominent Scottish Catholics including outspoken composer James...

Hindu “Mass” Sparks Violent Altercation in Toronto Churchyardby Cornelia R. Ferreira George’s eyes were glazing over. The “Indian Rite of Mass” was in full swing at St. Ann’s Church in Toronto on Sunday, July 2, 2006, and he felt he was being hypnotized by the endless monotonous chants and the flowing hand movements of the Indian dancing girls. Feeling nauseated, he left the front of the church and walked to the back to clear his mind. Along the way he noticed people frozen in the pews as though in a trance. Scenes from the Hindu "Mass"Above: Triple AratiUnderneath: The "Our Father" ...

Christian Reviewer Rants About Liberal Hollywood LOS ANGELES -- Christian film reviewer Ted Baehr is no fan of this past weekend's top movie at the box office. Web Site: See Baehr's Review The Movieguide.org publisher said Will Ferrell's "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" is "a racist, bigoted work that ridicules the Bible Belt, Southern white men, Christianity, Jesus Christ, the family, and American masculinity." Baehr said the lead character's mocking prayer to baby Jesus shows anti-Christian bigotry and wonders why Hollywood isn't treating Will Ferrell like it's treated Mel Gibson, who has apologized for his anti-Semitic outburst. "Don't...

Following two rejections by the Ninth Circuit Court to permit a cross in the Veterans Memorial in San Diego, the Senate just passed conversion of the memorial to Federal government ownership, thus bypassing the objections of those who would deny acknowledgement of a religious symbol...

HONOLULU — Junior Stowers raised his hands and exclaimed, "Thank you, Jesus!" in court last month when he was acquitted by a jury of abusing his son. But his joy was short-lived when Circuit Judge Patrick Border held him in contempt of court for the "outburst" and threw him in jail. Stowers, 47, sat in the courtroom and a cellblock for about six hours until the judge granted him a hearing on the contempt charge and released him. The judge at a July 7 hearing dropped the contempt charge, a petty misdemeanor that carries up to 30 days in jail....

In the three weeks since Joan Clark Houk's plans to be ordained as a Catholic priest became public, the McCandless woman's media baptism has involved six interviews and one letter writer's claim that she was well educated in witchcraft. Joan Clark Houk, shown near the parish offices of St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland, is part of an international movement to ordain Catholic women. She plans to be ordained July 31. But Mrs. Houk, who celebrated her 66th birthday last weekend, remains resolute. On July 31, the cradle Catholic will join 11 other female candidates in an ordination ceremony aboard a...

Junior Stowers raised his hands and exclaimed, "Thank you, Jesus!" in court last month when he was acquitted by a jury of abusing his son. But his joy was short-lived when Circuit Judge Patrick Border held him in contempt of court for the "outburst" and threw him in jail. Stowers, 47, sat in the courtroom and a cellblock for about six hours until the judge granted him a hearing on the contempt charge and released him. The judge at a July 7 hearing dropped the contempt charge, a petty misdemeanor that carries up to 30 days in jail. Stowers couldn't...

The New York State Division of Human Rights has begun a probe of a privately owned skating rink that recently advertised a "Christian Music Skate" party. The agency is investigating Len Bernardo and his wife Terry, owners of Skate Time 209 in Accord, New York, apparently because the rink plays Christian music during certain designated hours. The Division of Human Rights has warned the rink, which also advertises Christian skating on Sunday afternoons, that it may be violating anti-discrimination laws. The agency also threatened to charge a local weekly newspaper that published the rink's advertisement of its Christian music skate...

ANN ARBOR, MI – Retired Navy Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton, highly decorated Vietnam War veteran, former POW and former U.S. Senator, in a personal letter sent on June 14th, asked President Bush to save the Mt. Soledad cross, which is the centerpiece of a national war memorial honoring our veterans. Rear Admiral Denton urged the President to consider saving the cross by means of the federal government exercising its power of eminent domain in order to maintain the land as a National monument. -snip- Rear Admiral Denton first came to the American public’s attention in 1966 as a POW during...

New bishop has feeble following By MICHAEL COREN Toronto Sun Saturday, June 24, 2006 Pass another cup of tea and a cucumber sandwich, please. Better still, make it a sherry because, darling, the Anglicans are in a spin. Last week the U.S. Episcopalian Church, the American equivalent of Canada's Anglicans or the Church of England, chose Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the new leader of its 2.3-million-member denomination. The lady bishop is an oceanographer by training and thinks that, "the great message of Jesus is to include the excluded." Golly, who knew? I thought the great message of Jesus...

POPE Benedict XVI today said violence was forcing Christians to flee the Holy Land and other countries of the Middle East and called for respect between cultures and religions. "The serious difficulties encountered by the Christian community" in the Holy Land of Israel and the Palestinian territories "because of lack of security, work, restrictions on movements and poverty are a source of anxiety for us", he said. The Pope was talking to participants at a meeting for assistance to the churches based mainly in the Middle East. "This situation makes the educational, professional and family future uncertain for the young...

ANN ARBOR, MI – A three–judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to stay Federal District Judge Gordon Thompson’s order to remove the Mt. Soledad Cross pending an appeal. Thus, the City of San Diego must remove the Cross by August 1, 2006, or face fines of $5,000 per day thereafter. In its decision, however, the Ninth Circuit scheduled oral arguments on the matter for the week of October 16, 2006, weeks after the Cross is to be removed. The 43- foot Cross was erected in 1954 and currently is the centerpiece of a national memorial...

LAS VEGAS, June 22, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The name of Christ is so offensive to modern secular ears that Clark County School District officials, who knew it was coming, cut off the microphone during a valedictorian address before they or anyone else could hear it.   Brittany McComb is a Christian and a top student graduating from Foothill High. She knew that her valedictorian address would probably be cut short, but was determined to go ahead and mention the one name that is for her above every other name.   "I went through four years of school at Foothill and they taught me...

SAN DIEGO A three-judge federal panel on Wednesday rejected a last-ditch appeal by the city of San Diego to keep a giant cross standing on city property after a 17-year legal tussle. The city is under federal court order to move the 29-foot-tall cross from a La Jolla hilltop before Aug. 2 or face $5,000 daily fines. The failed appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was intended to stay that order and allow the cross to remain standing until appeals currently pending in state courts can be heard. City Attorney Michael Aguirre said that Wednesday's ruling, issued...

The Episcopalians are in disarray as their primate shows her feminist credentials THE Episcopal Church in America descended into chaos last night after leading bishops on both the liberal and conservative wings dissassociated themselves from a last-gasp effort to avert a schism with the worldwide Anglican Communion. Just hours after its newly elected woman head preached a sermon in praise of “our mother Jesus”, the Episcopal Church agreed to “exercise restraint” in appointing any more gay bishops after a tense day of debate and argument. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, welcomed the resolution with gratitude and what appeared...

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Alliance Defense Fund is stepping in to defend the constitutional rights of a second-grade student who was prevented from distributing Easter candy with religious messages to his classmates. “Schools should not be treating religious speech as second-class speech,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Delia van Loenen. “For school officials to tell a second-grade boy that he is not allowed to pass out Easter candy to his classmates because it contains a religious message is a blatant violation of his constitutional rights.” The boy’s mother contacted ADF for assistance on behalf of her son. Van Loenen sent a...

Ruling on a 15-year-old ACLU case, a federal judge today ordered the city of San Diego to remove a mountain-top cross within 90 days or face a fine of $5,000 a day.U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson said, "It is now time, and perhaps long overdue, for this court to enforce its initial permanent injunction forbidding the presence of the Mount Soledad cross on city property," the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Judge Rules Christian Prison Program Unconstitutional; Appeal Planned "The courts took God our of America's schools -- now they are on the path to take God out of America's prisons." -- Mark Earley, Prison Fellowship President By Jody Brown June 5, 2006 (AgapePress) - Evidently it matters not that a well-known and highly successful prison ministry believes one of its premier programs is constitutional and well within the guidelines of the First Amendment, or that statistics bear out the effectiveness of the program. A federal judge has ruled the program is unconstitutional -- and now the program that equips prisoners...

DES MOINES, Iowa - A judge has ruled that a Bible-based prison program violates the First Amendment's freedom of religion clause by using state funds to promote Christianity to inmates. Prison Fellowship Ministries, which was sued in 2003 by an advocacy group, was ordered Friday to cease its program at the Newton Correctional Facility and repay the state $1.53 million. "This calls into question the funding for so many programs," said Barry Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which filed the suit. "Anyone who doesn't stop it is putting a giant 'sue...

COLUMBUS, OH: Bishop Katherine celebrates transgender Jesus By Hans Zeiger VirtueOnline Correspondent www.virtueonline.org COLUMBUS, OHIO (6/21/06)-While addressing a morning Eucharist at the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop-elect Katherine Jefferts Schori declared, "Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation. And you and I are His children." With Jefferts Schori as the leader-to-be of the Episcopal Chuch, it seems that the church will move beyond gender-inclusive language to transgender-inclusive language. Yesterday however, the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops refused to even consider a resolution that would affirm the exclusive Lordship of Jesus Christ as "the only...

Quote from the Morning Eucharist Sermon on June 21, 2006 (at General Convention 2006) by Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori: "Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation -- and you and I are His children."

TVC ASKS PATAKI TO STOP HARASSMENT June 21, 2006 - Washington, DC – The Traditional Values Coalition asked New York Governor George Pataki to rein in a state agency which is threatening legal action against an Accord, New York skating rink because it plays Christian music during a “Christian Music Skate” party. The New York Division of Human Rights threatened Len and Terry Bernardo, owners of the Skate Time 209 rink in Accord, with an investigation because the rink plays Christian music during certain hours. The agency also threatened to charge a local newspaper which advertised the event for “aiding...