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Group wants end to 'Happy Holidays'
Maine Today ^ | December 04, 2004 | GARY REMAL

Posted on 12/04/2004 12:13:54 PM PST by yonif

AUGUSTA -- "Happy holidays!"

Bah humbug, says Maine Christian Civic League Executive Director Michael Health.

It's "Merry Christmas," says Heath, who recently kicked off a campaign in Maine to bolster traditional greetings in lieu of more politically correct salutations.

"Tired of the secularist scrooges who are taking over Maine's cultural landscape? So are we," Heath wrote in a recent message to league members. "That is why we are teaming up with the Alliance Defense Fund to fight Scrooge-like secular intolerance this Christmas season."

Heath said he wrote the message as his part of the national Christian group's campaign. The Alliance Defense Fund is looking for cases to test in court and Heath asked his members for examples.

"There is increasing hostility toward Christians that is expressed outside the church publicly. It's something that seems to be increasing, and increasingly American people are being asked to push expressions of Christ to the margins or out of view, and this is part of that," Heath said. "Our point is, people can say 'Merry Christmas' in schools or wherever."

Heath said Friday that he received a complaint from a member alleging a teacher -- at a school he declined to identify -- had instructed students not to use "Merry Christmas," suggesting "happy holidays" instead. He said he was sending that information to alliance lawyers.

The issue has struck a nerve among Christian Civic League members, judging from their reaction to a new Alliance Defense Fund lapel pin which says: "Merry Christmas Believe It. Say It."

"They gave us 500 pins and we handed them all out in just two days without any advertising on our part, so there's a lot of concern about this," Heath said.

Some of Heath's past campaigns have been controversial. In the past year, he was criticized for suggesting Gov. John Baldacci may have "one of those imaginary gay genes" and was suspended for a month when he began an effort to identify gay legislators and state officials.

"We've got to represent diversity and be tolerant of everything except, I guess, Jesus at Christmastime," Heath said. "I see it as the opposite of that; they're being tolerant of everything except Christianity or Christ."

The Christian Civic League director said legal challenges by the American Civil Liberties Union and others over use of religious symbols in public places are the most visible assaults on Christian Christmas. And he said Christians feel increasing pressure to avoid symbols of their faith.

"Over time, they've been radicalizing this. We started with freedom of religion. Now we're to the point where the default is you keep quiet about your deeply held beliefs," Heath said.

"They need to back off and the ACLU needs to back off and stop pushing so hard against anything that includes Christmas carols and those kinds of things, just like a scrooge."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Maine
KEYWORDS: christmas; morality
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To: dufekin
The Secular Taliban needs to get the message that they have worn out their welcome.
21 posted on 12/04/2004 12:42:13 PM PST by Liz
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To: yonif

hey, I know Michael Heath. He's a good guy.


22 posted on 12/04/2004 12:45:54 PM PST by Boxsford
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To: Aetius

A good reply to 'happy holidays' is...

'happy holy days to you too'


23 posted on 12/04/2004 12:47:11 PM PST by Future Useless Eater (FreedomLoving_Engineer)
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To: All

The issue has struck a nerve among Christian Civic League members, judging from their reaction to a new Alliance Defense Fund lapel pin which says: "Merry Christmas Believe It. Say It."


These are nice pins! Click here to see them.

24 posted on 12/04/2004 12:48:33 PM PST by EdReform (Free Republic - helping to keep our country a free republic. Thank you for your financial support!)
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To: Liz; farfromhome
Thanks to you both.

You have saved me "shoping" time. ;)

I copied them and will send them out with my Chistmas emails. One on top and one on the bottom.

25 posted on 12/04/2004 12:50:46 PM PST by G.Mason (A war mongering, UN hating, military industrial complex loving, Al Qaeda incinerating American.)
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To: PhillyJ; airborne; Born Conservative; Fiddlstix; little jeremiah

Ping


26 posted on 12/04/2004 12:57:06 PM PST by EdReform (Free Republic - helping to keep our country a free republic. Thank you for your financial support!)
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To: yonif
We've got to represent diversity and be tolerant of everything except, I guess, Jesus at Christmastime," Heath said. "I see it as the opposite of that; they're being tolerant of everything except Christianity or Christ."

Somebody finally nails it. We tolerate things like this in the media all the time:

Funny how the left can't tolerate "Merry Christmas" a couple weeks a year.

27 posted on 12/04/2004 1:08:36 PM PST by rcocean
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To: yonif

Why do I foresee a "Lump Of Coal" in this idjit's future?

Find his address and add his name to Michelle Malin's "Operation Lump Of Coal" http://www.michellemalkin.com.


Just a thought.

Jack.


28 posted on 12/04/2004 1:12:52 PM PST by Jack Deth (When In Doubt.... Empty The Magazine!)
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To: Lindykim; DirtyHarryY2K; Siamese Princess; Ed Current; Grampa Dave; Luircin; gonow; John O; ...

Moral Absolutes Ping.

I've slacked off, so you're all going to be getting quite a few articles pung out, back to back.

Many Christ-mass articles. The ACLU hates God, there is no doubt about it. And a huge majority of people in America are Christians, and Christmas is such a tradition here, the ACLU and their ilk see it solely as a huge target to destroy.

I'm surprised they haven't hassled for a new calender dating system - I mean, 2004 years since WHAT?

Let me know if anyone wants on/off this pinglist.

Note: Funny thing is, I hate Christmas. No, don't get me wrong. I hate the Santa Claus, reindeer, decorations before Thanksgiving, advertising and merchandizing tidal wave, appeals to the crassest of materialism resulting in credit card frenzy, and making the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ into a mayhem of selfish indulgence.

But Jesus' Birthday? A favorite day! I think I'll make a huge banner and put it on my fence (replacing the Bush/Cheney sign) - "Merry Christmas"!!


29 posted on 12/04/2004 1:15:00 PM PST by little jeremiah (What would happen if everyone decided their own "right and wrong"?)
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To: yonif
Merry
CENSOREDmas

30 posted on 12/04/2004 1:28:07 PM PST by Dominick ("Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought." - JP II)
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To: G.Mason
Glad you liked it.

Merry Christmas.

31 posted on 12/04/2004 2:58:55 PM PST by Liz
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To: Liz; EdReform; little jeremiah
Playing With Fire (Militant Atheists Pushing America To The Brink)/ACLU

The midwife at the births of Nazi Germany, Red China and the Soviet Union was atheism. And this is where the zealots at the A.C.L.U. would ultimately lead us - to a godless paradise presided over by the legal arm of their organization and a host of incipient Hitlers and Stalins and their executioner goon squads.

All across the nation we are being besieged by hordes of malcontents using our out-of-control courts to enforce limitations upon our freedom to proclaim and practice our religious and political freedoms. In the last election we saw the reaction of a huge number of Americans to what they recognize is a tyranny of a minority determined to trample on the rights of the majority.


32 posted on 12/04/2004 3:05:14 PM PST by Grampa Dave (Writers of hate GW/Christians/ Republicans Articles = GIM=GAY INFECTED MEDIOTS!)
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To: EdReform

Thanks for the link. We're ordering some of those pins!


33 posted on 12/04/2004 3:09:51 PM PST by Lindykim (")
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To: Grampa Dave
The midwife at the births of Nazi Germany, Red China and the Soviet Union was atheism. And this is where the zealots at the A.C.L.U. would ultimately lead us - to a godless paradise presided over by the legal arm of their organization and a host of incipient Hitlers and Stalins and their executioner goon squads......... All across the nation we are being besieged by hordes of malcontents using our out-of-control courts to enforce limitations upon our freedom to proclaim and practice our religious and political freedoms. In the last election we saw the reaction of a huge number of Americans to what they recognize is a tyranny of a minority determined to trample on the rights of the majority.

The Secular Taliban will be stopped.

34 posted on 12/04/2004 3:18:31 PM PST by Liz
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To: texasflower

You exactly right!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS


35 posted on 12/04/2004 3:36:27 PM PST by Isabelle
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Comment #36 Removed by Moderator

To: yonif

Good to see people are fighting back.

Everyone has the right to never be offended, even by the most unoffensive things, unless they're Christians.


37 posted on 12/04/2004 3:54:57 PM PST by Guillermo (It's the 99% of Mohammedans that make the other 1% look bad.)
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To: little jeremiah
I think I'll make a huge banner and put it on my fence (replacing the Bush/Cheney sign) - "Merry Christmas"!!

I suspect that there would be a good market for a well designed vinyl "Merry Christmas" sign. I'd put one on my house.

38 posted on 12/04/2004 4:44:58 PM PST by jackbill
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To: Bearpause

Kwanzaa, eh?


39 posted on 12/04/2004 5:26:36 PM PST by Max Combined (Clinton is "the notorious Oval Office onanist ")
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To: yonif

I am giving scalpels to some of my best friends for Christmas, so they can dissect the issue a bit better and perhaps see the difference between wanting to destroy Christianity and feeling it is not fair to promote one religion over others in taxpayer-funded venues.


40 posted on 12/04/2004 5:31:09 PM PST by firebrand
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