Free Republic

Participants in the COP15 climate summit should not be subject to Christmas symbols such as fir trees... Although the COP15 climate conference is set to take place during the Christmas season, the Foreign Ministry believes the holiday and all its symbols should be kept well clear of the summit. That point was bluntly illustrated when a sponsorship providing numerous Nordmann fir trees for the conference was rejected by the ministry... Christmas is a religious holiday that has no place at a United Nations function...

A while back in (December, 1906) prominent members of New York's Jewish community organized a strike against Christmas exercises in the city's public schools. In light of state laws prohibiting the teaching of "religious doctrines or tenets of any particular Christian or other religious sect," they asked the Board of Education to bar school-based festivities that had in the past included such elements as religious hymns, pictures of the Madonna, holly, mistletoe, and Christmas trees. (They also maintained that any "symbols of Judaism, Mohammedanism, or infidelism" should be banned as well.) When the Board of Education failed to respond to...

Now that the holidays are upon us, it’s time to get annoyed with the consumerism, secularism and political correctness that continue to whittle away at the meaning of the holiday season. The secular and consumption-driven nature of the season has become so routine that one has to work hard to remember to take time for the traditions and religious observances that once defined the season. I thought I had seen every example of how religious meaning has been stripped out of Christmas until a friend showed me the label on a festive seasonal bottle of Coca Cola the other day....

NORTH ANDOVER (MA)— Town leaders learned the hard way this week: Don't mess with Christmas. Five days after the town ordered firefighters to take down their decades-old Merry Christmas sign from the fire station, they got the OK to hang it back up yesterday afternoon. "It seems like a happy ending," North Andover fire Chief William Martineau said, smiling as people drove by slowly, beeping and yelling out Merry Christmas. "It put a little joy back in the holidays." The controversy had people across the country talking about North Andover. Town Hall was flooded with angry phone calls this week....

Christians should not show timidity in cultural disputes over traditional Christmas songs, displays and Nativity scenes, the head of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights says. He charges such disputes are contrived by a small set of “mean-spirited people” who wrongly insinuate that many non-Christians are offended by Christmas. Many reports surface each year regarding local governments putting restrictions on traditional Christmas displays, and Christmas 2009 is no exception. A life-sized crèche was displayed for about 50 years in the public square of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. However, this year the display has been banned because one man said he...

A controversial Merry Christmas sign has returned to its traditional spot outside the Main Street fire station, after the town reversed an earlier decision to take it down. The decision to put the homemade sign back on display was made this afternoon, after residents protested its removal this morning outside Town Hall. "The townspeople have spoken," Selectman Richard Nardella said. Firefighters put the sign back up around 4 p.m.

CHRISTMAS IN JAPAN can be a little lonely and isolated for the Westerner here. What with the distance from “home” and cultural differences. Little things, here and there. Missing some of the usual things from back home, especially for people like one particular 'American in Tokyo'. This year 2009 is again no different. However, in many respects I must say there is nevertheless one little thing that is so refreshing about being stuck in Japan during Christmas—after a few years—and for the occasions one cannot make it back "home". It is almost like the clock has been refreshingly and...

NORTH ANDOVER — An annual "Merry Christmas" sign on a North Andover fire station has been ordered removed. Town officials told firefighters last week to take down the homemade sign after they said people complained. Fire Chief William Martineau said Monday that the sign was made by firefighters about 50 years ago and never had been an issue before.

President Barack Obama ... ... is slated to deliver a prime-time address on Tuesday night in which he'll lay out his plans for the American war in Afghanistan. The address before the United States Military Academy at West Point on Tuesday night will not only be used to announce the immediate order to deploy roughly 30,000 more troops, but the administration will also use the occasion to convey how it intends to turn the fight over to the Kabul government, the New York Times reported. But the administration may also face an unforeseen enemy as it lays out its long-awaited...

The war on Christmas continues. Here is a picture of the national Best Buy ad inviting folks to celebrate Thanksgiving and . . . Eid al-Adha, which is a Muslim festival of sacrifice. It’s actually a festival that sacrifices of goats in similitude of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. Best Buy adNow, I have nothing against Best Buy celebrating a Muslim holiday, in fact I think it’s a wonderfully inclusive thing to do. No, the problem I have is that in 2006 Best Buy discontinued the use of “Merry Christmas” in their holiday advertising. Here is a posting from...

Since the ACLU doesn't like the word "Christmas", let's send a Christmas Card to them in New York. Make sure the card is all about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ! Address: ACLU 125 Broad Street 18th Floor New York, NY 10004 Merry Christmas!

Neither did I. And that's why this article in today's Daily Mail online caught my eye and raised my eyebrows. This insidious effort on the part of the Nazis to superimpose their own atheistic symbols and thought categories onto Christendom's ancient Christian symbols associated with the celebration of the Nativity of Christ was ultimately a failure, mainly because the Nazis were beaten by the Allies before this program of "re-education" could gain traction and take effect. But it is a good reminder that one of Hitler's prime directives was to do everything in his power to neutralize the Catholic Church,...

Starry eyed children around the world are writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole, but this holiday season they'll not likely to get a response from Santa or his helpers. The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular effort begun in 1954 in the small town of North Pole, in Alaska's interior, where volunteers tackle up to 150,000 letters addressed to Santa. Postal Service officials cite privacy concerns loomed last winter when a postal worker in Maryland recognized a volunteer in the agency's Operation Santa program as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the...

FRANKFORT, Kentucky -- Gov. Steve Beshear has angered some Christians with his yuletide terminology. A giant evergreen that will brighten the Capitol lawn this winter won't be called a Christmas tree. Instead, the Beshear administration has dubbed it a "holiday tree." The Rev. Jeff Fugate, pastor of Clays Mill Baptist Church in Lexington, said Christians find the change troubling. "If you call it a holiday tree," Fugate asked, "which holiday are you talking about? We don't put up a holiday tree for Easter or New Year's or Thanksgiving. We put a tree up for Christmas." Beshear administration spokeswoman Cindy Lanham...

Arguments are scheduled Monday in the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on a school district's decision to censor Christmas carols – even holiday melodies without words. Attorneys with the Thomas More Law Center say they will argue to reverse a lower court ruling affirming a policy in the South Orange-Maplewood School District that banned the music after someone complained. The law firm says the school's ban was specifically aimed at preventing Christmas music, including simple instrumentals without words, during holiday concernts. The district had allowed the performance of traditional Christmas music for more than 60 years but...

In addition to tidings of peace and joy, St. Ambrose Church in Old Bridge has another message for the community this season: Don't even think about stealing the parish's new nativity scene. Not only are Mary and Joseph secured to the manger with steel cords, but the Baby Jesus also will be bolted to his crib and equipped with a high-tech GPS device to track anyone who might snatch him. "GPS. We call it God's Positioning System," the Rev. Bob Gorman, St. Ambrose's pastor, said. The Roman Catholic church is one of about 100 churches and synagogues around the country...

A Tennessee woman says she was fired just days before Christmas because of the way she was spreading Christmas cheer. The pin says "It's called Christmas, for Christ's sake". When Sutton admired the pin being worn by a customer, the stranger gave it to her. Neither knew its message would mean trouble for the cashier. When a customer complained, the employee was asked to remove the pin due to store policy that no employee should wear a pin supporting a religion. Sutton says when she returned from lunch that day, she was fired.

Millions of Americans go to church on Christmas Eve. They crowd shoulder-to-shoulder in pews to sing "Silent Night" and light candles and listen to soloists belt out "O Holy Night." More than a few watch nativity plays that recreate the birth of Jesus with a cast of 10-year-olds in bathrobes. When the service is over, they exchange hearty "Merry Christmas!" wishes before getting in their cars and heading home. And they stay home the next day. Or they drive to Grandma's, or go to the movies. But however they spend Christmas Day — "the feast of Christmas" on the Christian...

“The War on Christmas” (John 1:1-18)Everybody loves Christmas. Santa Claus, gift-giving, time off from work, time spent with family, honey-baked ham, and the cheerful holiday spirit. Yes, everybody loves Christmas. Or do they? Well, I guess it depends on which Christmas you’re talking about. Because there’s also that other Christmas, you know, the one that has to do with Christ. And that one isn’t all that popular with everyone. In fact, the anti-Christmas sentiment has become so common and so frequent that it can even be called a movement. And it has even been given a name: “The War on...

The right-wing crusade against the liberal "war on Christmas" is great for rallying the troops. Too bad the war doesn't exist. In 1959, the recently formed John Birch Society issued an urgent alert: Christmas was under attack. In a JBS pamphlet titled "There Goes Christmas?!" a writer named Hubert Kregeloh warned, "One of the techniques now being applied by the Reds to weaken the pillar of religion in our country is the drive to take Christ out of Christmas -- to denude the event of its religious meaning." The central front in this perfidious assault was American department stores, where...

Attacks on Christmas originate most often from the secular left but this year journalists have begun highlighting Yuletide criticism from disgruntled commentators on the religious right. These simultaneous assaults from both edges of the philosophical spectrum suggest that the sensible, middle-of-the-road approach to the holiday-- with its emphasis on jolly, joyous and distinctively American traditions-- remains worth cherishing and defending. In USA TODAY, religion reporter Cathy Lynn Grossman filed a story under the headline “Where is Christ in Christmas?” and the newspaper illustrated it with a moonlit image of Santa on a rooftop, planting a giant cross in the chimney....

Every year we are flooded with reports from across the nation about nativity scenes being vandalized. This year was no different. Here is a list of some of the incidents that came to our attention:· In Sandusky, Ohio a 50-year old figure of the Baby Jesus was stolen from a downtown park; it was found a few days later hanging from a ceiling fan in the apartment of the thief who stole it·  A Christian pastor in Loma Linda, California was beaten and left in critical condition while decorating his church· In Orange County, Florida a Christian church’s drive-through nativity scene was...

My 12 year old daughter has been part of a small choir that her piano teacher has put together. They have been singing Christmas carols at different venues this last week. Yesterday, after work, I picked her up and drove her to a Macy's for her to perform. As I was watching her little group do their numbers, the piano teacher's father informed me that Macy's had asked his daughter not to perform "Silent Night". I asked him if he was kidding and he said no. He told me that last Saturday, they sang "Silent Night" at a Starbucks, and...

'Tis the season to be Jesus stealing? Away in a manger, no Christ for the bed? It has become a new Christmas fetish -- neutering Nativity scenes by jacking Jesus. Just over the past week, dozens of mini-messiahs have been nabbed from Nativities across the country. Residences, churches and even civic displays in New York, Michigan, Nebraska, Indiana, Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois and Texas have been exploited by these Christmas scrooges. And such criminal acts are not restricted to America, as a baby Jesus was smashed and then stolen at the 12th-century St. John's Church in Cardiff, Wales, and a...

'Tis the season to be Jesus stealing? Away in a manger, no Christ for the bed? It has become a new Christmas fetish -- neutering Nativity scenes by jacking Jesus. Just over the past week, dozens of mini-messiahs have been nabbed from Nativities across the country. Residences, churches and even civic displays in New York, Michigan, Nebraska, Indiana, Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois and Texas have been exploited by these Christmas scrooges. And such criminal acts are not restricted to America, as a baby Jesus was smashed and then stolen at the 12th-century St. John's Church in Cardiff, Wales, and a...

The majority of Britons do not believe the Biblical story of the birth of Jesus, a survey has suggested. Of 1,000 people questioned, 70% doubted the account, according to the British Market Research Bureau. Almost a quarter of people who described themselves as Christians shared their scepticism.

A public school teacher in Mississippi marked down an eleven-year-old’s Christmas poem assignment and told the boy to rewrite it because he used the word “Jesus,” which, the instructor explained, is a name not allowed in school. Liberty Counsel, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, reports that sixth-grader Andrew White of Hattiesburg, Miss., chose to write the poem on the assignment “What Christmas means to me.” After White turned in his rough draft, however, his teacher circled the word “Jesus” and deducted a point from his grade. The teacher then explained that he needed to rewrite the poem...

Costco no longer puts “Christmas� on its holiday merchandising. Sellers want us to buy to help the financial slump but the reason for buying is not allowed to appear.A student wished me a “Merry Winter Break.�A mother of four tells me that even things like Santa have disappeared, just lights and wintery scenes. I did see a Santa on Wisconsin Avenue, and you could still sit on his lap for a photo. In retrospect, the Bing Crosby singing of “Happy Holidays� and even “White Christmas� was the beginning of the evaporation of Christmas. “Don’t impose Christmas on us� means “Keep...

Christmas is really a pagan holiday to celebrate the winter solstice and the end of the harvast. Jesus was probably born in late September. Even if Jesus was born on December 25th, an orgy of materialism showing friends and family how much you love them is not an appropriate way to celebrate his birth. Many Christians recognize this paradox, hence the emphasis to "put Christ in Christmas." This means evening devotionals about the birth of Christ, special candles, and other rituals. Yet this has the effect of elevating Jesus' birth above his death and resurrection. Most Christians do not...

Time again for my yearly "War on Christmas" post. I get tons of requests for this every year, so, here goes...: How the Grinch Stole Christmas Part Deux... EVERY WHO DOWN IN WHOVILLE LIKED CHRISTMAS A LOT, BUT THE GRINCH, WHO LIVED JUST NORTH OF WHOVILLE, DID NOT. THE GRINCH HATED CHRISTMAS THE WHOLE CHRISTMAS SEASON NO ONE KNOWS WHY, NO ONE KNOWS QUITE THE REASON. IT COULD HAVE BEEN THAT THE GRINCH WAS JEW, BUT HE WASN’T THE GRINCH SIMPLY HATED EACH WHO.

Because "public life" now entails virtually every part of our lives, erasing references to God entirely from public life means virtually eliminating them from America. Imagine, if you will, a gala birthday party given in your honor. The guests will sing, dance, give presents, eat, drink, and have the merriest of times. The hitch: your name will not be mentioned, the gifts will not be for you, the celebrants won't be thinking about you, and everyone would sort of prefer that you not come. That's all that will be left of Christmas if various groups have their way. All across...

Just in time for the Christmas season, Washington State Gov. Christine Gregoire has insulted Christians all over the world. Inside the state Capitol building in Olympia there is a traditional holiday display featuring a tree and the Nativity scene; perfectly appropriate since the federal and state Christmas holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. But this year Gregoire decided to add another item to the display. Standing alongside the baby Jesus is a giant placard designed by atheists that reads: "There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion...

This past week, Gov. Chris Gregoire of Washington State allowed—in the spirit of multiculturalism and intellectual-immolation for which the Northwest is (in)famous—a large sign to be placed next to a Nativity scene and a Christmas holiday tree (and a menorah) in the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington: "At this season of THE WINTER SOLSTICE may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds." Yes, I am truly shocked: I cannot believe that a Nativity scene and...

OLYMPIA, Wash. - A controversial anti-religion placard was reported missing from the state Capitol Friday - then later found - and now the sign's sponsor wants the State Patrol to provide special protection for it when it is returned. The uproar came as several other groups clamored for permission to post their own holiday displays at the state Capitol. The anti-religion sign, posted by the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wis., was reported missing Friday morning then was turned over to a Seattle radio station by an unidentified man at about 10 a.m. Annie Laurie Gaylor, a spokesman for...

(CNN) -- An atheist sign criticizing Christianity that was erected alongside a Nativity scene was taken from the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington, on Friday and later found in a ditch. An employee from country radio station KMPS-FM in Seattle told CNN the sign was dropped off at the station by someone who found it in a ditch.

Here is a sample of how diversity is being celebrated this December: · Elementary school students in Plainfield, Illinois are decorating a “Holiday” tree that represents 18 countries. · A “Holiday Revelry” will be performed at the Framingham Civic League in Massachusetts; it is a “multicultural” event that includes “PAC Sword Dancers” and “traditional” Christmas songs such as “Pat-A-Pan.” · “Winter Traditions” will be celebrated at the Fort Collins Museum in Colorado. They include “Celebrations of Light” that highlight “traditions, cultures and celebrations from across the world.” · At a high school in Ocean City, Maryland, the annual “Winter Concert”...

Dan Barker of the Freedom from Religion Foundation on December 1, 2008's Fox & Friends stated that the nativity scene represented 'hate speech' and 'a direct attack on good human values.'

IN (LifeNews.com) -- In what could easily become the most offensive Christmas offer ever a Planned Parenthood affiliate is offering Christmas gift certificates. Purchasers can use them to give the gift of abortion even though the group claims that's not its purpose or intent. "Looking for an unusual, yet practical gift this holiday season? Planned Parenthood of Indiana (PPIN) is now offering gift certificates for services or the recipient's choice of birth control method," the abortion business says.The gift certificates can be purchased in increments of $25 online at the group's web site or for any amount at some of...

Costco has 520 stores nationwide. But you will not find "Christmas" in a single store. That's because Costco says it will not use the term "Christmas" on its website or in its stores. Instead, Costco is telling customers it purposely chooses to use the generic "holiday" verbiage. You know, they stock holiday gifts, not Christmas gifts. Last week, a customer wrote to Costco and asked this direct question – "Does Costco use the word 'Christmas' in your store advertising or on any signs anywhere in your stores during the Christmas season? That's a pretty simple question, yes or no." Kory...

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- An atheist group has unveiled an anti-religion placard in the state Capitol, joining a Christian Nativity scene and "holiday tree" on display during December. The atheists' sign was installed Monday by Washington members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national group based in Madison, Wis. With a nod to the winter solstice - the year's shortest day, occurring in late December - the placard reads, in part, "There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

NEW YORK - In a season that inspires earnest letters about toys, one notable batch is being sent not by kids to Santa’s workshop but by parents to the executive suites of real-world toy makers. The message: Please, cut back on marketing your products directly to our children. The letter-writing initiative was launched by the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which says roughly 1,400 of its members and supporters have contacted 24 leading toy companies and retailers to express concern about ads aimed at kids. “By bombarding them with advertisements ... you are placing parents like me in the...

WARWICKSHIRE, U.K., November 28, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new advertisement from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), sometimes described as the “British Planned Parenthood,” depicting a semi-pornographic Christmas scene is being used to tout free morning-after pills and condoms for the Christmas season.The ad shows the lower half of a man clad in "Santa" get-up grasping the rear of a woman in a mini-skirt whose leg is entwined around the “Santa” figure, set against the backdrop of a typical Christmas living room scene.  "Santa only comes once a year ... but that's all it takes!" reads the ad, implying...

68% Prefer “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays” Thursday, November 27, 2008 Christmas is just around the corner, and a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 68% of American adults prefer stores to show signs saying “Merry Christmas” rather than "Happy Holidays." Only one-quarter of adults (25%) favor signs that say “Happy Holidays.” Those figures are virtually unchanged from our survey conducted this time last year. Men (71%) favor “Merry Christmas” slightly more than women (65%). From a politically partisan perspective, Republicans (84%) overwhelmingly prefer “Merry Christmas” more than Democrats (51%). Far more Democrats (43%) wish for “Happy Holidays”...

The FGCU administration is banning all holiday decorations in common areas on campus. There will be no lights, no wreaths, and no decorative signs - just business as usual. We found out why the university made the potentially controversial decision. Officials with the university say the holiday "Giving Tree" in Griffin Hall is being replaced by a bulletin board called the "Giving Garden".

<p>An annual parade of boats on a Long Island river that dropped "Christmas" from its name has apparently lost lots of supporters.</p> <p>About 1,000 people showed up Sunday for the Patchogue (PACH'-awg) Boat Parade of Lights. That's 500 fewer than usually showed up when it was called the Patchogue Christmas Boat Parade.</p>

Christmas Wars On: Thomas More Law Center Asks Christians to Retake the Public Square for ChristmasNovember 25, 2008 ANN ARBOR, MI — For the last several years, the Thomas More Law Center, a national nonprofit public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has been successfully defending the right of Christians to display nativity scenes on public property and to celebrate Christmas in public schools. In years past and still today, the Law Center has asked thousands of supporters to go on the offensive – where there has been no nativity display before, ask the government for permission to...

In the last few years, the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ has been celebrated as “winter holidays” with “holiday trees” and “season’s greetings.” December has become the month of the “Christmas wars”: In some schools and public squares, Nativity scenes and Christmas carols are forbidden or replaced by non-religious displays and songs. By now, we are used to seeing movies, TV shows, novels, papers, magazines, websites, works of modern art and stage plays mock religion, especially Christian symbols and practices. The Catholic Church authorities are often portrayed as criminals involved in different kinds of malicious activities. Anti-Christian legislation isn’t...

Liberty Counsel is already waving a green flag for Christmas and a red flag for its opponents through this year's "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign." Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver, who is also dean of the Liberty University Law School, has launched the sixth annual campaign to determine what stores want to take "Christ" out of Christmas. "We'll be the friend of those entities that honor Christmas and do constitutionally what they're supposed to do; and the foe of those who intentionally try to censor Christmas, whether it's in the public square or whether it's in the retail," he explains. Liberty Counsel's website...

Anti-Christmas district hit with federal lawsuitSchool officials banned carols, even for instrumental groups December 20, 2004The New Jersey school district that banned Christmas music, even by instrumental groups, from its holiday concerts has been hit with a lawsuit claiming officials have demonstrated hostility toward religion. Thomas More Law Center filed a federal lawsuit Friday on behalf of Michael Stratechuk and his two children, who are students in the South Orange/Maplewood School District. According to a statement from Thomas More, the suit claims the district's action is unconstitutional. As WorldNetDaily reported, this year the district expanded its no-Christmas music policy to...

WELLINGTON — In this village, Jesus has returned with the help of modern-day technology.Last year, the baby Jesus figure disappeared twice from the Nativity scene in front of the Wellington Community Center, never to be seen again. This year, the new blond, blue-eyed statue was outfitted with a GPS tracking device that monitored its every movement.The evening after Jesus' birth, the baby moved.At 6:45 a.m. Thursday, a village employee noticed that the statue was missing. Building maintenance supervisor Gus Arnold logged on to the monitoring system and saw that it was taken from the manger at 10 p.m. Wednesday.Arnold homed...