Liberals keep trying to fly that balloon but the tied has turned and now we just don't sit back and just take it anymore.
Posted on 12/07/2004 6:07:38 PM PST by missyme
ROME - An Italian teacher's efforts to make a Christmas carol more acceptable to young Muslim students by removing the word "Jesus" has rekindled the debate over religious symbols in the Roman Catholic country.
A middle-school teacher in the northern Italian town of Como set off a storm when she told Muslims in her class that if they preferred they could replace the line "this is the day of Jesus" with "this is the day of virtue."
"Jesus banned in Christmas songs" the daily Il Giornale, run by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's brother, said in a front-page headline Sunday.
"Substituting the word Jesus in a Christmas song is a serious mistake and an offence against the entire Catholic community," Como's mayor, Stefano Bruno, from the center-right Forza Italia (Go Italy) party, told Agi news agency.
Religion has been an increasingly prickly issue in Italy as immigrant communities grow.
A judge sparked a nationwide controversy a year ago when he ordered that a crucifix be taken off a school wall. Pope John Paul weighed in saying it was undemocratic and dangerous to try to erase a country's religious symbols.
Tension mounted again earlier this year when a nursery school refused to hire a Muslim woman, saying her headscarf could scare the children.
But before the latest standoff exploded into a full-blown controversy, the 10- and 11-year-old students resolved the issue by opting to stick to the original lyrics.
The director of the school, Pasquale Capria, told reporters on Sunday: "The foreign students themselves told me it wasn't a problem for them to sing Jesus."
Foreigners, many of them Muslim, represent about 20 percent of the students at the school. There are some one million Muslims living in Italy, a country of around 57 million people.
:oD
Oh, Missy. Jesus is not a religious symbol and the reporter doesn't get it. Jesus is the living Son of God the redemption of mankind. If we deny him, he will deny us. This has nothing to do with symbolism. This is reality.
I just love concerts where each singer gets to use whatever lyrics they desire. Like "Happy Birthday" where the singers aren't quite sure of the birthday kid's name.
Thanks missyme. May you have a blessed Christmas season.
Just ain't the same!
Whatever happened to the "silent protest?" If Muslims don't want to sing Christmas carols, then they can color the 72 virgins in their color books while Christian children honor their most holy day. Why does one have to be watered down for the other? Oh, nevermind, Muslims holidays are not watered down. Christian children have to dress up in Muslim garb and study the Koran, but let's not upset the Muslim children.
Agreed! What is up with people, We Celebrate Christmas because we celebrate the Birth of Jesus, maybe we should celebrate the Birth of Jesus in October (Proably the actual time of his birth) so the Pagan World can Celebrate Winter Solstice....
Liberals keep trying to fly that balloon but the tied has turned and now we just don't sit back and just take it anymore.
It is your belief that "this is reality".
For non-Christians to mouth professions of Christian faith as expressed in religious Christmas carols seems rather hypocritical, don't you think? It also, it seems to me, trivializes the real meaning of the songs for believing Christians, by turning them into jaunty little holiday jingles suitable for holiday shopping muzak.
I'd think Christians would want to separate their Christmas holiday from the commercialized secular celebration.
Oh no. They aren't doing this in Italy too.
I don't think I can take any more.
Since when is Jesus offensive to any one?
The article doesn't say whether this was a tax-funded school or a religious school or a private school. Of course there is no First Amendment there anyway, so it is kind of a free-for-all I would guess
That passed away with the Vietnam war. Now, we can't get the Legion of the Perpetually Aggrieved to shut up.
Damned right I do..........umm.......I mean........
I've seen YOUR posts; you have some sort of special dispensation, I just know it. :-)
Well since Muslims are torturing Christians burning down Churches cutting people's heads off with a kitchen knife.
threatning to terrorize the non-Muslim world I guess we have to accomodate them.. Or Bomb Mecca and Medina...
i want muslims dead.
i want the appeasers dead.
islam is the enemy, kill them all!!!!!!!!!!!
Intolerant Muslims will take over Western Europe. They have been trying for 1400 years. The Europeans are insane.
Meanwhile, El Presidente Jorge Bush-Fox is helping the criminal politicians in Mexico slowly take back America.
I should ask the RNC to refund my money because I thought I was backing *real* Republicans not RINOs.
Not at all. It boils down to whether you think Christianity is one of the essences of the founding of this nation or not. Perhaps you believe the liberal notions that the founders were not Christian in their thoughts and beliefs about our Constitution. Perhaps you believe that our rights are endowed by the government.
It also, it seems to me, trivializes the real meaning of the songs for believing Christians, by turning them into jaunty little holiday jingles suitable for holiday shopping muzak.
Non-sequitur and nonsensical.
Go out in the streets and carol(especially Silent Night), plant crosses on your private property, place manger scenes on private property-all near the religious houses of alien faiths, near schools, government buildings-especially Federal Courthouses in the 9th circuit. Place symbols visible from freeways. It will "drive em nuts!" Look what happened in Denver!!!
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