salem-va-letter Posted on 11/21/2015 8:44:49 PM PST by UMCRevMom@aol.com
In an e-mail to employees, Department of Veterans Affairs supervisors at the Salem, Virginia, center has banned employees from any religious expression in pubic areas.
"Employees are permitted to engage in private religious expression in their personal work areas that are not regularly open to the public," the message to employees reads, noting that Christmas music was banned as well. "If an employee's supervisor has previously granted them permission to listen to music in their personal work area, they should be reminded that music travels and should be secular (non-religious) and appropriate to the work environment."
salem-va-letter
At first, they tried to ban the display of Christmas Trees, but after an angry meeting between VA supervisors and about 150 employees, they backed down and said Christmas trees would be allowed. Here’s how WSLS reports it:
A letter from the Salem VA Medical Center to all employees stating Christmas trees will not be allowed in public areas this holiday season ignites a debate. But, after a heated meeting Friday afternoon — management is going todec k the halls and light the tree after all.
Christmas trees have always been a part of Christmas at the Salem VA Medical Center.
For veteran Vicki Jackson, the tree symbolizes overcoming a hard time in her life.
"It brought me over a big hump, because Christmas is hard for me, it's real hard for something that happened years ago," said Jackson. "And, to see that tree gone it's not Christmas."
It's not just Jackson; it's a message that provoked Salem VAMC employees, veterans and others in the community.
And, after a closed meeting between management and up to 150 staff members; now, a tree will stand tall this holiday season at the Salem VAMC.
"It was very tense in there with the director and amongst the employees," said Jackson. "I wasn't supposed to be there, but I went anyhow."
In a statement the Salem VAMC public affairs officer said, "it was determined that Christmas trees could be displayed in public areas so long as they were accompanied by the respective symbols of the two other faiths that celebrate holidays during this holiday season – namely symbols commemorating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
The decision comes after a letter from the Salem VAMC to employees which read, "trees have been deemed to promote the Christian religion and will not be permitted in any public areas this year."
"I don’t look at the tree as the birth of Christ, I don’t," said Jackson. "I look at is as a tree being decorated with ornaments."
Of course, as Breitbart points out, Christmas is not only an official federal holiday, but Christmas Trees grace the White House front lawn and the Capitol Lawn.
In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that Christmas Trees were not a violation of the "endorsement test."
"The Christmas tree, unlike the menorah, is not itself a religious symbol. Although Christmas trees once carried religious connotations, today they typify the secular celebration of Christmas," wrote Justice Harry Blackmun, upholding the government's displaying a 40-foot Christmas tree on public land outside a courthouse.
"Numerous Americans place Christmas trees in their homes without subscribing to Christian religious beliefs, and when the city's tree stands along in front of the City-County building, it is not considered an endorsement of Christian faith," he added.
But when was the last time the Obama Administration gave a damn what the courts said anyway?
As one who has fought for our country and needed to utilize the VA, this is disheartening.
There is no such thing as a person without a belief system.
No man or women can separate a their morality from their beliefs, or separate a their actions from their morality.
While there are many in our society today who are ignorant and confused, from the core or heart of Fabian Socialism to Marxism is Humanism.
Take even a cursory look at Humanist Manifesto I or Humanist Manifesto II.
It was the underlying humanistic beliefs (faith) of socialist and communist which proactively sought to eliminate all derivatives of Christianity and religion around the globe in the last century.
Any individual who believed he or she was first individually responsible for their actions to a sovereign God and His laws, could not simultaneously or first be responsible to a sovereign human morality and governance. Such an individual would be too individually responsible, and well, individualistic. Such an individual or society would not be so docile and reliant, or go along with theft of property, or need central government control of economy and redistribution of resources.
Sovereign government cannot exist in a society made up of individually responsible and therefore, free individuals.
It was for this reason, the number of those killed and persecuted by socialists and communists was staggering in the very recent last century. From Central and Eastern Europe through China, and often in the continent of Africa and Latin America, Christians were often slaughtered or persecuted for their beliefs by socialist and communist governments.
Additionally, regardless of any courts opinion, at the end of the day, humanism does possess all of the basic tenants of belief system or faith.
At its core, Humanism requires real faith that in all of the universe, (which we are comparatively much less than a speck of dust, and know little about), there is no God.
As there cannot be two co-equal sovereign authorities, one with pure morality, and one with little morality and the desire for self gratification, the concept of God cannot co-exist in a humanist society, and must be eliminated.
Society (man) then ultimately becomes subject to man and mans morality, and his own self gratification to highest levels of government. History is already full of horrific leaders who acted without moral boundaries, or their own moral depravity.
Faith that God does not exist elevates man to god. With Humanism, belief in God is replaced by belief in man, and when this belief system is adopted by enough of the population of any society, the humanist belief system is then forced on the remaining segments of society with prejudice.
It is for this reason, the Humanist Manifesto I referred to humanism as a religion, and John Dewey referred to humanism as a “common faith”. Humanists themselves called humanism the “new religion” for well over a century. Humanism was called the “religion without revelation” by Julian Huxley.
It is also the reason why the US Supreme Court ruled once again as late as the 1961 in Torcaso v. Watkins (367 U.S. 488), “the no establishment clause of the First Amendment protected more than churches of theistic faiths.” The SCOTUS concluded it was not for the government or its agents to probe beliefs, and its inquiry was concluded by “the fact of the profession of belief.”
As such, you are right in calling out Kwanza and its tie to individuals who were or are communist.
However, humanism is the very cornerstone and foundation of Marxism, and what our government is dictating now is the pure establishment of a humanistic faith and belief system (with their morality), and is by force acting to eliminate the practices of those with different beliefs and faith. This is real prejudice.
Isn’t it interesting, we can celebrate Islam and Halloween, and use Gods name to curse all day long in any public forum, school, or work place, or give federal tax payer dollars to promote “artistic” expression which explicitly mocks everything to do with God or Christ, or those who believe in Him, but it is against policy and illegal for a person to “exercise thereof”.
Christians in America have been experiencing significant negative stigma and light persecution from academia, media, and government for several decades now. Our speech has been systematically sensored since the late 1960’s, by the very liberals who claim to champion free speech!
Even more telling, while the SCOTUS correctly identified in the 1961 case of Torcaso v. Watkins, that “faith” and “beliefs” were tenants of humanism, because of the bias already prevalent in the system, this case could never get traction to argue against the establishment of militant humanism within and throughout secular society.
It’s time to pin the “Grinch” label on obama. He likes to be snarky, so it’s time to be snarky back.
Kwanza is basically the "religious" holiday for the communist-concocted "Black Liberation Theology" crap that Obama sat listening to in Wright's 'church' for 20+ years.
The Real Story Behind Rev. Wright's Controversial Black Liberation Theology Doctrine
Monday , May 5, 2008
FoxNews/Hannity's America
[special Friday night edition--original airdate May 2, 2008]
(some key excerpts)
JOSE DIAZ-BALART, TELEMUNDO NETWORK: "Liberation theology in Nicaragua in the mid-1980's was a pro-Sandinista, pro-Marxist, anti-U.S., anti-Catholic Church movement. That's it. No ifs, ands, or buts. His church apparently supported, in the mid-'80s in Nicaragua, groups that supported the Sandinista dictatorships and that were opposed to the Contras whose reason for being was calling for elections. That's all I know. I was there.
I saw the churches in Nicaragua that he spoke of, and the churches were churches that talked about the need for violent revolution and I remember clearly one of the major churches in Managua where the Jesus Christ on the altar was not Jesus Christ, he was a Sandinista soldier, and the priests talked about the corruption of the West, talked about the need for revolution everywhere, and talked about 'the evil empire' which was the United States of America."
REV. BOB SCHENCK, NATIONAL CLERGY COUNCIL: "it's based in Marxism. At the core of his [Wright's] theology is really an anti-Christian understanding of God, and as part of a long history of individuals who actually advocate using violence in overthrowing those they perceive to be oppressing them, even acts of murder have been defended by followers of liberation theology. That's very, very dangerous."
SCHENCK: "I was actually the only person escorted to Dr. Wright. He asked to see me, and I simply welcomed him to Washington, and then I said Dr. Wright, I want to bring you a warning: your embrace of Marxist liberation theology. It is contrary to the Gospel, and you need, sir, to abandon it. And at that he dropped the handshake and made it clear that he was not in the mood to dialogue on that point."
Source: The Real Story Behind Rev. Wright's Controversial Black Liberation Theology Doctrine:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354158,00.html
____________________________________________
"God D*** America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11"
--Rev Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's "Black Liberation"(Communist) pastor for 20+ years
Obama's Church: Gospel of Hate
Kathy Shaidle, FrontPageMag.com
Monday, April 07, 2008
In March of 2007, FOX News host Sean Hannity had engaged Obama's pastor in a heated interview about his Church's teachings. For many viewers, the ensuing shouting match was their first exposure to "Black Liberation Theology"...
Like the pro-communist Liberation Theology that swept Central America in the 1980s and was repeatedly condemned by Pope John Paul II, Black Liberation Theology combines warmed-over 1960s vintage Marxism with carefully distorted biblical passages. However, in contrast to traditional Marxism, it emphasizes race rather than class. The Christian notion of "salvation" in the afterlife is superseded by "liberation" on earth, courtesy of the establishment of a socialist utopia.
http://web.archive.org/web/20090321190904/http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=30CD9E14-B0C9-4F8C-A0A6-A896F0F44F02
__________________________________
Catholics for Marx [Liberation Theology]
By Fr. Robert Sirico
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, June 03, 2004
In the days when the Superpowers were locked in a Cold War, Latin America seethed with revolution, and millions lived behind an iron curtain, a group of theologians concocted a novel idea within the history of Christianity. They proposed to combine the teachings of Jesus with the teachings of Marx as a way of justifying violent revolution to overthrow the economics of capitalism.
The Gospels were re-rendered not as doctrine impacting on the human soul but rather as windows into the historical dialectic of class struggle. These "liberation theologians" saw every biblical criticism of the rich as a mandate to expropriate the expropriating owners of capital, and every expression of compassion for the poor as a call for an uprising by the proletarian class of peasants and workers.
************************************************************
Re: James Cone, founder of "Black Liberation Theology":
SEAN HANNITY: But Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not backing down and has not for years and in his strong stance on the teaching of black liberation theology is nothing new. He had the same things to say last spring when he appeared on "Hannity & Colmes:"
WRIGHT: If you're not going to talk about theology in context, if you're not going to talk about liberation theology that came out of the '60s, systematized black liberation theology that started with Jim Cone in 1968 and the writings of Cone and the writings of Dwight Hopkins and the writings of womynist theologians and Asian theologians and Hispanic theologians, then you can't talk about the black value system.
HANNITY: But I'm a - reverend
WRIGHT: Do you know liberation theology, sir?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354158,00.html
______________________________________
The Black church and Marxism: what do they have to say to each other
by Cone, James H. 1938- . Harrington, Michael 1928-1989
https://archive.org/details/TheBlackChurchAndMarxismWhatDoTheyHaveToSayToEachOther
*********************************************************************************
Liberation Theology and the KGB
Jay Richards | February 2, 2010
The presence of Marxism in liberation theology is well-known, at least to seminarians who are critical readers. Practically every seminarian reads Gustavo Gutierrez's Theology of Liberation at some point, but most laypeople find it hard to believe that there could have been (and continues to be) a widespread attempt to hybridize Christian theology and Marxism.
Marxist regimes obviously benefited from the spread of liberation theology in the churches. Still, I was not aware of any connections between liberation theology and communist clandestine organizations until now.
A new article by Robert D. Chapman in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence begins to connect some dots. In "The Church in Revolution," Chapman, "a retired operations officer in the Clandestine Services Division of the Central Intelligence Agency," argues that the KGB infiltrated the Russian Orthodox Church through Metropolitan Nikodim, the Russian Orthodoxy's second-ranking prelate. Nikodim was a proponent of liberation theology. Nikodim was active in the otherwise-Protestant World Council of Churches. And the WCC, of course, became an actively left-wing organization during the last half of the 20th century.
Chapman also details the growth of liberation theology in Latin America-and the Vatican's struggles with it-and the growth of black liberation theology in the United States. Prominent proponents of the latter include James Cone and Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
The arguments of liberation theologians should be challenged on their merits. The source of an argument, after all, doesn't establish its truth or falsity. Still, it's interesting to learn that liberation theology may have been, at least in part, a project of the KGB.
Unfortunately, this isn't just history. Chapman concludes ominously:
"the Theology of Liberation doctrine is one of the most enduring and powerful to emerge from the KGB's headquarters. The doctrine asks the poor and downtrodden to revolt and form a Communist government, not in the name of Marx or Lenin, but in continuing the work of Jesus Christ, a revolutionary who opposed economic and social discrimination.
A friend of mine, a head of Catholic social services in my area and formerly a priest, is a liberation theologian. He has made a number of humanitarian trips to Central America and told me, "liberation theology is alive and well." The same can be said of its sibling in the United States [ie, Black Liberation Theology]."
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2010/02/liberation-theology-and-the-kgb/
************************************************************
More on Liberation Theology and the Soviets
Catholic News Agency ^ | 5/15/2015 | Alejandro Bermudez
If the Soviet bloc wasn't the mother of liberation theology, it was certainly a sinister stepmother, enlisting Catholics in a geopolitical cause and inviting them to sell their souls for funding and support.
Only the naive can disregard the mountain of evidence connecting liberation theology with Soviet action in the region.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
Since there are no problems at the VA they have time for this nonsense...oh!! wait!!!!
They cannot allow some cultural music to be played and then arbitrarily censure religious music just because it is religious.
Sounds like cultural appropriation to me. And, will Dear Leader ban “Happy Eid al Fatar” too?
. . . and a Happy Hanukkah and blessed Rosh Hashanah to you and yours from a gentile FReeper FRiend!
It’s one world.
Then ban Christmas and Easter paid holidays for all federal employees. Ban all holiday decorations from all federal buildings including the WH. Let’s see how that flies. Doesn’t matter his daughers’ private elite school is closed during the holidays, they should be placed in some sort of schooling so they won’t be subjected to Christian ideals. No vacay or parties or presents for the girls. No shopping or parties or presents for Moo, either. Strong arm D.C. city officials from having Christmas lights and decorations along the streets. Why not go national to shame everyone how they’re being hateful to put a tree in their own homes. Come on, make it a wide sweeping EO with that magical pen.
Yeah, bring it on. I’ll hold off on stringing the popcorn and leave it in the bowl and watch what happens.
Last year during Christmas, while at the VA, I received a Christmas card. WTF is wrong with that bastard in our White House?
You nailed it with “Liberation Theology.”
Liberation “theology” is at ground zero regarding humanism being a religion, and the fundamental belief or faith of socialists/Marxists/communists.
Furthermore, while there has been argument regarding the question of Obamas core belief system, at the end of the day, just like the secular humanist National Socialist Party of Germany (NAZI party) was in league with much of the muslim world during WWII to eradicate Jews and Christians, our POTUS is in league with Muslims today, to eradicate both Jews and Christians.
Even if he were not Muslim, and is only a totalitarian Marxist, through mass migration, he and the socialists/communists could then rely on or trust Muslims and illegals to create the chaos and anarchy Karl Marx called for, to overwhelm the [capitalistic] systems of order or governance in the free world, to usher in totalitarian government (or a communist government).
Not only can this strategy work, it is working, and is finally accomplishing what the communists have been working toward for well over a century. And it is being done with our own tax payer dollars.
Essentially, our own left wing / humanist / progressive / socialist American government and voter base is paying for a foreign “army” with money they have collected from many freedom loving and hard working Americans, to in the least destroy our free society. This strategy can and is working in any one of a dozen ways.
I got this. I got this. "Go to hell".
Obama Akbar !!!
"Barack Obama received at least some instruction in the Islamic faith of his father and went with him to the mosque, but the importance of this experience is vastly overstated by conservative commentators who seek to portray Obama as a Muslim of sorts. Radical anti-Americanism, rather than Islam, was the reigning faith in the Dunham household. ...
Barack Obama is a clever fellow who imbibed hatred of America with his mother's milk, but worked his way up the elite ladder of education and career. He shares the resentment of Muslims against the encroachment of American culture, although not their religion. He has the empathetic skill set of an anthropologist who lives with his subjects, learns their language, and elicits their hopes and fears while remaining at emotional distance. That is, he is the political equivalent of a sociopath. The difference is that he is practicing not on a primitive tribe but on the population of the United States.
There is nothing mysterious about Obama's methods. "A demagogue tries to sound as stupid as his audience so that they will think they are as clever as he is," wrote Karl Krauss. Americans are the world's biggest suckers, and laugh at this weakness in their popular culture."
Article: Obama's women reveal his secret
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JB26Aa01.html
_________________________________________
Are you expecting them to check underneath?
That would be thoroughly intrusive.
Considering some of the male jihadis use a burqa as cover, it's fair game.
Protecting the USA from the microagressions of Christians. /s
That is an excellent example. For instance, what about wearing a garment with “Jesus” printed on it??? If garments aren’t restricted, why can’t my religion be represented in a similar manner?
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