CNN columnist Roland Martin writes this:
"What if families decided to forego gifts, and instead, used their shopping days giving back to those in need? What if more of us went into our closets, grabbed old toys and clothes, repackaged them, and provided them as gifts to those without? Instead of gorging on food, what if we used some of the dough to feed those who are in need? What if we blew off those gift cards to electronic retailers and signed up with Networkforgood.org, and gave someone a gift card to their favorite charity?"
Maybe he's on to something.
Maybe we need to start a real Christmas and let the secularists have their "holiday."
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Retailer's hit list
Focus on the Family has listed the retailers who are most "anti-Christmas" for this year. These retailers do not allow their employees to use the word Christmas, nor is the word in their stores, advertising or displays:
The list includes:
The list includes:
- Banana Republic
- Barnes & Noble
- Circuit City
- Dick’s Sporting Goods
- Disney Store
- Ebay
- Eddie Bauer
- Lane Bryant
Don't shop at these stores and let the shift supervisor know why you have elected to spend money elsewhere.
And don't forget to celebrate Merry Tossmas for their catalogues!
My best Christmas memory
Our friends at HighCallingBlogs.com sponsored a Christmas blogging challenge -- and we joined in the fray.
They asked for "Your best Christmas memory" and our post is here.
They asked for "Your best Christmas memory" and our post is here.
Here are links to the other participants:
Sally's Words
Sally's Words
Thursday, December 13, 2007
A Jew responds to Christmas
he following was written by Ben Stein
"I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejewelled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Christmas banned in England -- in 1647
In 1647, Christmas was outlawed by the English Parliament. Churches were stripped of ornamentation, and organs carted away; religious singing was restricted to the Psalms--an attitude the Pilgrim Fathers had already brought to the New World.Although the ban was soon forgotten, it took nearly two centuries for Christmas to recover its sparkle.
Christmas in the workplace
According to a story in the Jeffersonville, IN Star, About 85 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians and 96 percent of them celebrate Christmas.
The writer asks if we "Are they simply exercising their constitutional rights to free expression or do the celebrations and symbols in the workplace trample on the rights of others by excluding them?
What do you think?
The writer asks if we "Are they simply exercising their constitutional rights to free expression or do the celebrations and symbols in the workplace trample on the rights of others by excluding them?
What do you think?
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Atheists find comfort and joy in what?
Jeff Jacoby, the immensely talented Boston Globe opinion writer explores the possiblity of a nation without Christians. He writes, that when the Judeo-Christian values are jettisoned, our nation will also lose the "the system most likely to promote ethical behavior and sustain a decent society."
The result is anarchy.
Is that what you really want?
Jacoby continues, "The atheist alternative is a world in which right and wrong are ultimately matters of opinion, and in which we are finally accountable to no one but ourselves. That is anything but a tiding of comfort and joy."
read the column here
The result is anarchy.
Is that what you really want?
Jacoby continues, "The atheist alternative is a world in which right and wrong are ultimately matters of opinion, and in which we are finally accountable to no one but ourselves. That is anything but a tiding of comfort and joy."
read the column here
The 12 Rules of Christmas®
(With thanks to the Rutherford Institute, whose attorneys compiled this list)
The Rutherford Institute has compliled these lists, in case anyone wants to take Christmas away from individuals of this nation.
1. Public school students’ written or spoken personal expressions concerning the religious significance of Christmas (e.g., T-shirts with the slogan, “Jesus Is the Reason for the Season”) may not be censored by school officials absent evidence that the speech would cause a substantial disruption.1
2. So long as teachers are generally permitted to wear clothing or jewelry or have personal items expressing their views about the holidays, Christian teachers may not be prohibited from similarly expressing their views by wearing Christmas-related clothing or jewelry or carrying Christmas-related personal items.2
3. Public schools may teach students about the Christmas holiday, including its religious significance, so long as it is taught objectively for secular purposes such as its historical or cultural importance, and not for the purpose of promoting Christianity.3
4. Public school teachers may send Christmas cards to the families of their students so long as they do so on their own time, outside of school hours.4
5. Public schools may include Christmas music, including those with religious themes, in their choral programs if the songs are included for a secular purpose such as their musical quality or cultural value or if the songs are part of an overall performance including other holiday songs relating to Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or other similar holidays.5
6. Public schools may not require students to sing Christmas songs whose messages conflict with the students’ own religious or nonreligious beliefs.6
7. Public school students may not be prohibited from distributing literature to fellow students concerning the Christmas holiday or invitations to church Christmas events on the same terms that they would be allowed to distribute other literature that is not related to schoolwork.7
8. Private citizens or groups may display crèches or other Christmas symbols in public parks subject to the same reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions that would apply to other similar displays.8
9. Government entities may erect and maintain celebrations of the Christmas holiday, such as Christmas trees and Christmas light displays, and may include crèches in their displays at least so long as the purpose for including the crèche is not to promote its religious content and it is placed in context with other symbols of the Holiday season as part of an effort to celebrate the public Christmas holiday through its traditional symbols.9
10. Neither public nor private employers may prevent employees from decorating their offices
for Christmas, playing Christmas music, or wearing clothing related to Christmas merely because of their religious content so long as these activities are not used to harass or intimidate others.10
11. Public or private employees whose sincerely held religious beliefs require that they not work on Christmas must be reasonably accommodated by their employers unless granting the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the employer.11
12. Government recognition of Christmas as a public holiday and granting government employees a paid holiday for Christmas does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.12.12
The Rutherford Institute has compliled these lists, in case anyone wants to take Christmas away from individuals of this nation.
1. Public school students’ written or spoken personal expressions concerning the religious significance of Christmas (e.g., T-shirts with the slogan, “Jesus Is the Reason for the Season”) may not be censored by school officials absent evidence that the speech would cause a substantial disruption.1
2. So long as teachers are generally permitted to wear clothing or jewelry or have personal items expressing their views about the holidays, Christian teachers may not be prohibited from similarly expressing their views by wearing Christmas-related clothing or jewelry or carrying Christmas-related personal items.2
3. Public schools may teach students about the Christmas holiday, including its religious significance, so long as it is taught objectively for secular purposes such as its historical or cultural importance, and not for the purpose of promoting Christianity.3
4. Public school teachers may send Christmas cards to the families of their students so long as they do so on their own time, outside of school hours.4
5. Public schools may include Christmas music, including those with religious themes, in their choral programs if the songs are included for a secular purpose such as their musical quality or cultural value or if the songs are part of an overall performance including other holiday songs relating to Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or other similar holidays.5
6. Public schools may not require students to sing Christmas songs whose messages conflict with the students’ own religious or nonreligious beliefs.6
7. Public school students may not be prohibited from distributing literature to fellow students concerning the Christmas holiday or invitations to church Christmas events on the same terms that they would be allowed to distribute other literature that is not related to schoolwork.7
8. Private citizens or groups may display crèches or other Christmas symbols in public parks subject to the same reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions that would apply to other similar displays.8
9. Government entities may erect and maintain celebrations of the Christmas holiday, such as Christmas trees and Christmas light displays, and may include crèches in their displays at least so long as the purpose for including the crèche is not to promote its religious content and it is placed in context with other symbols of the Holiday season as part of an effort to celebrate the public Christmas holiday through its traditional symbols.9
10. Neither public nor private employers may prevent employees from decorating their offices
for Christmas, playing Christmas music, or wearing clothing related to Christmas merely because of their religious content so long as these activities are not used to harass or intimidate others.10
11. Public or private employees whose sincerely held religious beliefs require that they not work on Christmas must be reasonably accommodated by their employers unless granting the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the employer.11
12. Government recognition of Christmas as a public holiday and granting government employees a paid holiday for Christmas does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.12.12
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