Posted on 11/27/2006 8:50:45 PM PST by NormsRevenge
CHICAGO - A public Christmas festival is no place for the Christmas story, the city says. Officials have asked organizers of a downtown Christmas festival, the German Christkindlmarket, to reconsider using a movie studio as a sponsor because it is worried ads for its film "The Nativity Story" might offend non-Christians.
New Line Cinema, which said it was dropped, had planned to play a loop of the new film on televisions at the event. The decision had both the studio and a prominent Christian group shaking their heads.
"The last time I checked, the first six letters of Christmas still spell out Christ," said Paul Braoudakis, spokesman for the Barrington, Ill.-based Willow Creek Association, a group of more than 11,000 churches of various denominations. "It's tantamount to celebrating Lincoln's birthday without talking about Abraham Lincoln."
He also said that there is a nativity scene in Daley Plaza — and that some vendors at the festival sell items related to the nativity.
The city does not want to appear to endorse one religion over another, said Cindy Gatziolis, a spokeswoman for the Mayor's Office of Special Events. She acknowledged there is a nativity scene, but also said there will be representations of other faiths, including a Jewish menorah, all put up by private groups. She stressed that the city did not order organizers to drop the studio as a sponsor.
"Our guidance was that this very prominently placed advertisement would not only be insensitive to the many people of different faiths who come to enjoy the market for its food and unique gifts, but also it would be contrary to acceptable advertising standards suggested to the many festivals holding events on Daley Plaza," Jim Law, executive director of the office, said in a statement.
Officials with the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest, which has organized the event for several years, did not immediately return calls for comment. The festival started Thursday.
An executive vice president with New Line Cinema, Christina Kounelias, said the studio's plan to spend $12,000 in Chicago was part of an advertising campaign around the country. Kounelias said that as far as she knew, the Chicago festival was the only instance where the studio was turned down.
Kounelias said she finds it hard to believe that non-Christians who attended something called Christkindlmarket would be surprised or offended by the presence of posters, brochures and other advertisements of the movie.
"One would assume that if (people) were to go to Christkindlmarket, they'd know it is about Christmas," she said.
A nativity scene set up by a private group as part of a Christmas festival is seen Monday, Nov. 27, 2006, in Chicago. Worried that ads being shown on television screens for New Line Cinema's 'The Nativity Story' would offend non-Christians browsing in the traditional German Christkindlmarket in the heart of downtown, the city asked the German American Chamber of Commerce to reconsider the movie studio's sponsorship of the festival. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
I have to agree, letting the movie studio use the nativitiy scene to advertise a movie is kinda tacky.
Can't be celebrating Christ's birth at Christmas, now can we? How come all the other religions get to hijack and/or destroy ours? (Hate crime alert)
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If you want on (or off) this Catholic and Pro-Life ping list, let me know!
If non-Christians would be that easily offended by the Nativity story, then why would they be browsing in a Christmas festival that has "Christ" in its name and that already has a Nativity scene???
At the end of the Thanksgiving Mass, we sang "America the Beautiful" as we have always done over the years. I was thinking of the possibility that, in the future, it may no longer be sung publicly in order not to "offend" certain individuals in our society.
As for this...
...because it is worried ads for its film "The Nativity Story" might offend non-Christians. ...
What the HELL are they celebrating?
I'll just scratch ya of my Christmas shopping list..
There!
:-)
Christkindlmarket Chicago
A German American Holiday Festival
Chicago's largest open-air Christmas festival was first held on Pioneer Court in 1996. Inspired by the famous German Christmas Market in Nuremberg, which dates back to 1545, Christkindlmarket brings a cherished German and European tradition with international flair and local color to Chicago. By special invitation of Mayor Richard M. Daley, Christkindlmarket moved to Daley Plaza in 1997. Christkindlmarket Chicago and the City of Chicago with the Mayor’s Office of Special Events have since shared a great partnership based on mutual cooperation.
Since 1999 Christkindlmarket’s Grand Opening is a special highlight during the celebration of the City of Chicago Annual Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony which always takes place on the First Friday after Thanksgiving Day. The Christkindl, the Christmas Fairy, is a cherished highlight during the Holiday Tree Lighting. The Christmas Fairy proclaims the opening of Christkindlmarket Chicago. The Christkindl is a holiday icon of the Christkindlesmarkt Nuremberg, Germany, Chicago’s sister market.
Popular from the very beginning, the two-week long Christmas extravaganza attracted more than 300,000 visitors in the first year. In 1997, Christkindlmarket Chicago became a four-week long event and the number of visitors quickly rose to 750,000.
Today, Christkindlmarket Chicago is the largest and most renowned Christmas/holiday market in the US attracting more than 1 million visitors from around the Chicagoland area, both coasts and around the world.
http://www.christkindlmarket.com/
btt
Thanks!
The truth is Satan knows his time is short, before he is locked up forever. He is getting very nervous and agitated.
'..because it is worried ads for its film "The Nativity Story" might offend non-Christians. ..."
These government thugs must be Nazi's....I HATE Illinois Nazi's!
Amen, brother............amen.
Again, what are "non-Christians" celebrating anyway?
I don't go to Yom Kippur events, nor do I attend Muslim whatever they have and demand they STOP because their beliefs might offend mine.
What am I missing here???
When was anything banned or was asked not to do something because it might offend Christians? Really goes to show who the intolerant ones are. They are the ones who don't want atheists, or muskies offended.
Not to offend, but the ACLU does reflect Jewish thinking. Ironically the more they assimilate to liberal values, the less Jewish they become.
Well, I should have probably left the Jews out of that question. It seems to me that it's the atheists and "others," not necessarily the Jews.
Thanks for pointing that out. (I'm very confused about why the Jews vote Democratic year in and year out.)
Santa Claus is located just 7 miles south of Interstate 64 in Southern Indiana. According to legend, this small community, originally founded by German immigrants in the late 1840s, got its name on Christmas Eve in 1852.
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