ABC's Barbara Walters Slams White House Christmas Card for including Scripture

www.lifesite.net ^ | 12-14-07 | Colleen Raezler

[dynachrome]

LOS ANGELES, CA, December 14, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Barbara Walters likes to receive Christmas greetings from high-profile celebrities and leaders, but apparently not if they refer to the Bible.

On Thursday's episode of ABC's The View, Walters expressed dismay that President and Mrs. Bush would send out greetings containing Scripture.

During the segment, Walters showed the other gals some of the "highfalutin Christmas cards," and explained the White House card:

[AliVeritas]

WooHoo an address, thanks:

[AliVeritas]

Hey Yehuda! Just got my Hillary Card.

[AliVeritas]

Wait... I have others....

[AliVeritas]

Oh... it's a shame that Cabrera got busted with importing 6,000 pounds of coke three weeks after the party, but whadaya gonna do?

[AliVeritas]

Of course, there's no party like a Johnny Chung party.

[eleni121]

This Orthodox Jewish Freeper does not celebrate Christmas, but I wish all of my Christian FRiends a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

---

Well thanks so much from this believer in a certain Jewish carpenter...

[AliVeritas]

Oh I get it, you mean the Christmas card came with a portable baptismal font to waterboard you with?

That’s what I said for three weeks at Ground Zero. They’re free to blow us up and kill every chance they get, can’t ask them to compromise their beliefs.

Charity is not just about giving... but receiving.

[AliVeritas]

I’m with you. For Baba:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDqu7kNX5zI&feature=RecentlyWatched&page=1&t=t&f=b

[DouglasKC]

This is addressed to all who posted to me the last couple of days.  I think there's somethings that need to be cleared up.

 

 I am a Christian who doesn't celebrate Christmas for religious reasons.  I believe it is honoring the Lord to observe the holy days that the Lord created and gave in the books of the Bible. I believe the Bible teaches that God wants everyone, Christian and otherwise, to observe his holy days. Christmas is not one of these holy days that he created  therefore I do not observe it. For the most part these are the same holy days that people of the Jewish faith observe. This is a heartfelt and sincere belief born out of extensive research, bible study and the actions of the Lord in my life.

I have also been a contributor to the FreeRepublic.com for nearly 10 years.. I have posted hundreds of  articles and responded to thousands of others.  I've supported FreeRepublic monetarily and more importantly I've recommended it countless times to other conservatives over the last 10 years as well as linking to and from it probably hundreds of times.

When this article was posted I found it amusing.. I read the story with amusement because I too get Christmas cards from organizations and businesses. My reaction isn't to get angry about it. My reaction isn't to call them up and berate them. My reaction IS generally one of indifference. I assume that they're simply being nice or trying to generate business. They don't know me so I don't care. I certainly wouldn't react as Barbara Walters did at getting a perfunctory Christmas card. Her reaction was and is ridiculous..

So I read the thread and comments with some amusement. However my amusement stopped when I  read this post:

 

"I gave a co-worker a gift card to a coffee joint inside a christmas card. She said, I don’t celebrate Christmas, I’m Jewish.  I said, well, I’m a Christian and I’m celebrating MY holiday by giving a gift to you. If you don’t want it, I will give it to someone who is grateful."

 

Now this, to me, was downright rude of this Christian. He tried to give a Christmas GIFT to a Jewish person. She apparently explained that she was a Jew and didn't observe Christmas. This wasn't good enough for the Christian. He wanted to STILL give her a Christmas gift. He then finishes off by essentially calling her ungrateful.

So I responded back in this post:

 

"Sorry to be blunt here, but what did you expect? Did you want the Jewish person to acknowledge your holiday? Did you want them to thank you for being such a great person?

Next time a Muslim person gives a gift in honor of the prophet Muhammad you sure as shooting better accept it or you too will be deemed ungrateful."

Over the top?  I don't think so. I can just imagine his co-workers shock and embarrassment at being called ungrateful.  I could imagine my embarrassment if I were in this same situation.  No matter what you think I OR religious Jews SHOULD do,  I find it unacceptable that you would expect us to do something that goes against our faith and conscience.

A secular Jew than chimed in and made this suggestion:

The vast majority of Jews aren't in any way offended by "Merry Christmas" greetings. ...or anything Christmasy, for that matter. Best just to let the few who are be scroogebergs and don't worry about it.

I researched and came across several references that showed that yes indeed, many Jews are offended by having Christmas forced on them. I quoted a couple of passages from some "Ask the Rabbi" websites. One such post was:

"Christmas is not a Jewish holiday. Many Christians think if Christmas as an American holiday or a secular holiday or a cultural holiday, but most Jews do not think of Christmas that way. According to the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, 82% of Jewish households never have a Christmas tree. See http://web.gc.cuny.edu/dept/cjstu/36th.jpg. In fact, most Jews (even many highly assimilated Jews) are offended by the notion that Christmas is everybody's holiday, and are offended when Christians pressure us to celebrate it."

I made some other points...none of which were "over the top" in my opinion.

 

The point is there ARE Jews who ARE offended when Christians pressure them to celebrate Christmas. Like it or not accepting Christmas gifts IS part of the celebration because WE believe it is. It doesn't matter what your opinion is. That's called "respecting" the beliefs of others.

 

Someone apparently didn't like something I posted because I soon found my posting privileges revoked. Now I generally support FreeRepublics right to ban. In this case I think either someone hit the abuse button and an overworked moderator didn't have time to investigate the entire thread so they did the quick and easy thing and banned me. I don't think it's right, but I understand it.

 

But since then I've been accused of masturbatory activity, told to shut the hell up, told I'm acting like an old lady and generally been insulted.

 

I can handle that.  I don't press the abuse button because I believe in letting peoples behavior speak for itself  It's not the first time I've been insulted for my beliefs and it won't be the last.

 

But what I'm shocked about is that I was primarily DEFENDING Jews and I was blasted for it.  For some Jews (yes, I know, not ALL) and for me, not accepting Christmas gifts or not giving Christmas gifts isn't a "slam" on your religion. It's not ingratitude.  It's a confirmation of our faith. If you're insulted than it's YOUR problem, not ours. We're not scrooges, scroogbergs, grinches, ingrates or whatever other label you want to slap on us.

 

So to sum up. I wasn't defending Barbara Walters. I was addressing a specific post and was defending the right of Jews AND myself not to participate in something that goes against our religious convictions. If this offends you, I'm sorry,  but it's not my problem.

 

 For those interested, here are some links that explain this belief:

4,000 Years of Christmas
Was Christ Born on Christmas Day?
The Top 10 Reasons Why I Don't Celebrate Christmas
Christians Who Don't Celebrate Christmas: Here's Why
Christmas: The Curious Origins of a Popular Holiday

I hope this clears up a few things. Thanks for reading.

[A_Former_Democrat]

These people just fall in lockstep don’t they. A few years ago NO ONE criticized anything like this. Now that it’s open season on Christians, lemmings like Wawa toe the party line.

[joanie-f]

Thanks for the ping, SoA.

… better that we go on a spending fast from the sponsors of such bile—while yet praying for their souls

God bless you for your excellent ‘turn the other cheek, but don’t line their pockets’ philosophy!

Even though Christmas is not about material things, I believe that one of the most effective ways of expressing our anger over the fact that many businesses have chosen the politically correct route is precisely the way you have mentioned here.

My family now scrupulously avoids shopping at any store whose personnel are instructed to avoid the mention of ‘Christmas’. We also avoid stores whose decorations are obviously aimed at a ‘winter’ theme rather than a Christmas one. And we make it a point to patronize businesses that still allow the Salvation Army to set up their buckets outside.

Attempting to stay faithful to those stipulations becomes more difficult every year, but it can be done.

My husband and I have also been taking special note this year of television commercials of all kinds, and it is extremely disheartening to see how many of them have replaced ‘Christmas’ with ‘holiday’ or ‘season’. It is very rare to hear the mention of ‘Christmas’ in advertising anymore. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of television commercials we have seen that dared to even hint at the real reason for our celebration.

Several weeks ago, we attended a Christmas concert performed by a young southern gospel group that is a favorite of ours, the Booth Brothers. During their concerts, they often relate personal experiences – of both the uplifting and discouraging sort. This time they mentioned the fact that they had been scheduled to perform at a very large church in Minnesota. Shortly before the concert, a representative of the church called them to inform them that, during the concert, they were not to reference scripture or give personal Christian testimony of any kind.

When Michael Booth inquired as to why that would be required of them, he was told that the church did not want to offend any non-Christian concert attendees.

When a ‘Christian’ church attempts to become so politically correct, and so ‘inclusive’, as to disallow any reference to scripture at a concert performed within its walls the gruesome tentacles of the humanist left have reached much farther than the rational mind can comprehend.

The Booth Brothers refunded all ticket money for that Minnesota concert and cancelled their engagement.

~ joanie
Allegiance and Duty Betrayed

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

If you say so.

[Deut28]

“I am a Christian who doesn’t observe Christmas because it’s not a biblical holy day.”

Interesting topic, and one I’ve long considered. I’ve asked clergy why Christians don’t celebrate the same Feasts/Holy Days as Jesus, and haven’t yet received a satisfactory answer. Passover was a major and pivotal event in the NT, yet it’s not celebrated by Christians. Leaves me scratching my head. Are we not to follow Jesus?

Do you celebrate Easter?

[DouglasKC]

Interesting topic, and one I’ve long considered. I’ve asked clergy why Christians don’t celebrate the same Feasts/Holy Days as Jesus, and haven’t yet received a satisfactory answer. Passover was a major and pivotal event in the NT, yet it’s not celebrated by Christians. Leaves me scratching my head. Are we not to follow Jesus?

I believe we are. If you do the research you'll find that abandonment of the biblical holy days was strongly driven by anti-semitism in the early church. Many Christian groups abandoned things that might lead others to confuse them with Jews. Among these were the Lord's holy days. I never really understood anti-semitism until I started reading writings of traditional Christian leaders. Wow...it's eye opening and it didn't stop with the Catholic church.

As you pointed out, Passover was a pivotal event in NT times. So was Pentecost yet not a lot of Christian churches observe it. In fact references to all of the Lord's holy days can be found in the NT.

Do you celebrate Easter?

I do not. Nowhere did Jesus Christ command his followers to commemorate his resurrection. He DID however tell his followers to commemorate his death at Passover.

The Lord's holy days commemorate or foreshadow events that have happened or will happen. For example the weekly sabbath is a foretaste of what life could be like in the millenium.

[Turret Gunner A20]

iYeah, it’s a real shame when Christianity intrudes into Christmas like that.

SCANDALOUS, I SAY!!!! ABSOLUTELY AACNDALOUS!!

IMPEACH THE WHITE HOUSE AND EVERONE IN IT!!!!

[Turret Gunner A20]

The “View” is now surpassed in credibility by professional wrestling.

THE WINNER!!!!

[dynachrome]

Good to see that wasn’t a long ban. (I did not hit abuse, FWIW)
As I posted this, I’ll give my take. I am not religious, (raised Presbyterian), but I enjoy the “spirit” of Christmas. I use it as an opportunity to give gifts/cards to relatives and friend.
I do not get upset if my Buddhist BIL (ex-Jewish if that’s possible) and my sister give me Buddhist oriented gifts or cards for Chrismas or my birthday. They or others do not get upset if I give a Christmas card/gift to them. I find it enjoyable to try to figure out something useful, but off the wall to give.

I find people that object politely, are no problem. I think Baba Wawa made way to much of the card she received and you make too much of receiving a card/gift at Christmas time.

I believe this falls under the politeness rule wherein you exclaim over the sweater that great aunt Matilda knitted for you or the dreaded “do I look fat in this?” from the wife, or if I am at the BIL and sisters’ house for dinner, I bow my head out of politeness during the Buddhist blessing. (and maybe pretend to enjoy the vegetarian food, but that is a whole ‘nother argument!)

Dunno if this made much sense, but hang in there.

[Twink]

She’s a loon. An old, haggy one at that. And that show, the view, is awful. I’ve only watched a few times and ick. I can’t believe it’s been on for a decade. I have a hard time following their conversation, like my husband says, it’s like watching/listening to a bunch of hens bitching without saying anything.