Merry Christmas!
Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Posted on 12/20/2004 1:29:27 AM PST by JohnHuang2
My one-year-old hasn't built up much of a vocabulary yet -- "wow" and "hey" and "oh" are about the only words he's mastered. But they were all he needed the other night as we drove through Boston's Mission Hill section, gazing at the lavish Christmas displays lighting up so many front yards. On one block we saw Santas and reindeer and a giant polar bear ("Wow!"); on the next there was a beautiful nativity scene and dazzling lights made to look like fireworks ("Hey!"). Rooftops were trimmed with icicle lights, trees pulsed with color, and streets normally bland and unremarkable were lovely in their holiday glow.
I enjoy Christmas decorations -- and Christmas music, and the upbeat Christmastime mood -- and I say that as a practicing Jew for whom Dec. 25 has no theological significance at all. I have never celebrated Christmas, but I like seeing my Christian neighbors celebrate it. I like living in a society that makes a big deal out of religious holidays. Far from feeling threatened when the sights and sounds of Christmas surround me each December, I find them reassuring. They reaffirm the importance of the Judeo-Christian culture that has made America so exceptional -- and such a safe and tolerant haven for a religious minority like mine.
Unfortunately, it isn't only nativity scenes and Santas that make an appearance every Christmas. The holiday season also heralds the annual return of Scrooge and the Grinch. Or, as they're known in Bellevue, Wash., these days, Sidney and Jennifer Stock.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Another good piece. Thank you.
Jeff Jacoby is priceless.
Who would believe that, in my own lifetime, something so white bread and harmless as putting up a Christmas tree of saying "Merry Christmas" to someone in the U.S.A. would be considered an act of defiance? Or, worse, some would claim it was "pushing" religious beliefs on somebody?
The fact that the pop culture practically scrubbed Christ out of the script many years ago and replaced it with a worldly appeal to rescue another year for the merchants and retailers makes today's reaction of offense even more disturbing.
America, if you want the culture of our forefathers preserved, you are going to have to fight for it before Hollywood, the ACLU, People For The American Way and the NEA ban it forever.
After that, how much longer will it take liberals to lynch Christians who don't conform to *their* religion of government control of your thoughts and beliefs?
This is so well expressed. Thank God for reasonable, intelligent and wise people like Jeff Jacoby!
"America, if you want the culture of our forefathers preserved, you are going to have to fight for it before Hollywood, the ACLU, People For The American Way and the NEA ban it forever.
After that, how much longer will it take liberals to lynch Christians who don't conform to *their* religion of government control of your thoughts and beliefs?"
I have always known that the majority would draw "a line in the sand" with this stuff. My fear was that when it happened it would be tragic and violent. I have watched all this for 20+ years, realizing when I was very young what the "rebels" in my generation were up to. It is just astounding that it has taken so long for people to realize that a small minority among us with a big megaphone has caused so much trouble for individual liberty and freedom not to even mention the mischief alive and well in the legal community. In my view, to oppress my traditional ideas is to attack and steal my the use of my "intellectual property" no less than the government stealing the use of the physical property I might own, therefore, preventing me from the use of it. To me, it is a criminal enterprise which results in great expense and loss to me and a monetary and other gain for the "intellectual property" of others who are in the minority. It is a redistribution of "intangible intellectual property," and it is wrong, even criminal. I do not force my ideas on others and others should not be able to use the vast power I, as a citizen in this free nation, grant to my government and it's system of justice to oppress my expression. There is just one reason for this. They fear that their ideas will not win the hearts and the minds of people. So, their solution is to remove all competing ideas from the market. When we have a free marketplace of ideas, the ideas which best serve the population will win out..Those which are not widely accepted will become the ideas of the subculture.
"The Stocks are atheists who want Bellevue's city council to remove the Christmas tree from the lobby of City Hall. Since "it is impossible for everybody's religious belief to be displayed and non-religious belief to be displayed," Sidney Stock told reporters last week, "no religious beliefs [should] be displayed."
Someone sent this email to me this week and attributes these remarks to PAUL HARVEY..Many of you have probably seen this..It is so good..
"I don't believe in Santa Claus, but I'm not going to sue somebody for singing a Ho-Ho-Ho song in December..I don't believe in Darwin, but I didn't go out and hire a lawyer when my high school teacher taught his theory of evolution..Life, liberty or your pursuit of happiness will not be endangered because someone says a 30-second prayer before a football game..So, what's the big deal? It's not like somebody is up there reading the entire book of Acts. They're just talking to a God they believe in and asking him to grant safety to the players on the field and the fans going home from the game..'But it's a Christian prayer,' some will argue. Yes, and this is the United States of America, a country founded on Christian principles..According to our very own phone book, Christian churches outnumber all others better than 200-to-1..So what would you expect..Somebody chanting the Hare Krishna? If I went to a football game in Jerusalem, I would expect to hear a Jewish prayer. If I went to a soccer game in Baghdad, I would expect to hear a Muslim prayer. If I wernt to a ping pong match in China, I would expect to hear someone pray to Buddha..And, I wouldn't be offended. It wouldn't bother me one bit..When in Rome...
But, what about offending the atheists? Nobody is asking them to be baptized..We're not going to pass the collection plate. Just humor us for 30 seconds. If that's asking too much, bring a Walkman or a pair of ear plugs. Go to the bathroom. Visit the concession stand. Call your lawyer. Unfortunately, one or two will make that call. One or two will tell thousands what they can and cannot do. I don't think a short prayer at a football game is going to shake the world's foundations..Christians are sick and tired of turning the other cheek while our courts strip us of all our rights. Our parents and grandparents taught us to pray before eating and before going to sleep..Our Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. Now a handful of people and their lawyers are telling us to cease praying. God, help us! The silent majority has been silent too long. It is time we let the one or two who scream loud enough to be heard, know that the vast majority rules. It is time we tell them, 'You don't have to pray..You don't have to say the Pledge of Allegiance, You don't have to believe in God or attend services that honor Him..That is your right and we will honor your right..But, by golly, you are no longer going to take our rights away. We are fighting back..And, we will win!'..God bless us one and all, especially those who denounce us and Him..God bless America, which, in spite of her faults, is still the greatest nation of all..
I have no idea whether Paul Harvey wrote this..I just think it is a good expression of the oppression being wrought against the majority by a handful of people.
Thanks for the great post! Charles Krauthammer also had a good column regarding the same subject.
'Secular fundamentalism'
How apt a term. It evokes wild-eyed fanatics and, what do you know?, that's what the anti-Christians are.
And that is Lenin/Stalinism in its purest form - remove any idea that does not serve the interests of the state from the marketplace of ideas.
Merry Christmas!
Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Great article.
So true. Great article, thanks.
Amazing paradox, isn't it?
If we voice our opinion against gay rights we're considered intolerant, and insensitive to those "oppressed" people. But Goodness, if we stand up for our Christian ethics, or heritage, we aren't allowed to. Simply stunning.
I know, tolerance works one way only.
BTTT
That is the religion of the Judges it seems, Islam is serving the forces of the State at this point so it for now is preserved and cultivated. Islam is bringing the destruction of the Constitutional freedoms of All Americans. Not by its direct actions, but it is the fall guy for the Socialists. Our borders are held open and the fact that they are open are broadcast over the airwaves begging Jihadi to come and strike. First so new laws and powers can be granted to the Jackbooted thugs in the name of safety and so also the borders can be closed with an Iron lock later when the new "security" laws are in place.
This is not about Security, or we would not be granting our social security to illegal immigrants. This is about security, as in "Your papers Please, stand at attention while we search your person citizen..."
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