Free Republic

There’s an outrageous story out of Seattle (my home base) that shows the way that good intentions can occasionally produce disgusting results. Because of the prevailing climate of political correctness, a decent guy and honorable clergyman looks like a horse’s rear end and has provoked appropriate indignation from millions of people. According to misleading news stories featured prominently in newspapers and on TV (including KING 5 TV News): “All 15 Christmas trees inside the main terminal at Sea Tac Airport (Seattle-Tacoma International) have been removed in response to a complaint by a rabbi. A rabbi wanted to install an eight-foot...

Order takes message to tens of millions through public service announcements and tree lightings. Keep Christ in Christmas Ads  • Television Ad 1 (rm, 30 sec., 985 kb) • Television Ad 2 (rm, 30 sec., 893 kb) • Radio Ad 1 (mp3, 28 sec., 455 kb) • Radio Ad 2 (mp3, 28 sec., 342 kb) • Radio Ad 3 (mp3, 18 sec., 288 kb) Millions of people in North America will get the message to “Keep Christ in Christmas” thanks to public service announcements from the Knights of Columbus that will be aired in the United States and Canada during the Christmas season.Radio spots encouraging people to “Keep Christ in Christmas” in...

PAGOSA SPRINGS - In a town in scenic southwestern Colorado homeowners are battling over whether a Christmas wreath that includes a peace sign is an anti-Iraq war protest or even a promotion of Satan. "We have had three or four complaints. Some people have kids in Iraq and they are sensitive," said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He also said some believe it is a symbol of Satan. Jeff Heitz, of the association board, sent a letter to Lisa Jensen saying: "Loma Linda residents are offended by the peace sign displayed on the...

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif - Initially denied the right by school officials to share a Christmas song with his classmates during “show and tell,” a first-grade student has been permitted to participate after an Alliance Defense Fund attorney sent a letter on his behalf to Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Jean Brown.   “The First Amendment guarantees that the free speech rights of all students, including those who are Christian, are entitled to protection.  Those rights do not end at the schoolhouse gate,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Heather Gebelin Hacker.  “Any person familiar with the Constitution would recognize that this student’s...

The Grinch is alive and well in Hopewell Township -- at least according to some parents. Bear Tavern Elementary School parents are angry over an e-mail from Principal Bruce Arcurio giving new holiday guidelines that eliminate all religious celebrations from his Mercer County school.  "It was hard to read from the get-go," said township Committeewoman Judy Neiderer, who has a 10-year-old daughter at Bear Tavern. "This is something that stirs so much emotion in people." Arcurio's guidelines, as written in his e-mail, are: · "All December parties need to be winter celebrations and not celebrations of holidays." · "All holiday...

 It's time to wish the ACLU a Merry Christmas! No, not "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons   Greetings" or even "Kabala Kwanzaa." And certainly not "Xmas." We're talking actual "Merry Christmas" here. You can now send several E-cards a day to the ACLU as well as send your actual physical Christmas card to their national offices.  Send them some e-Cards. And don't forget to send an actual Christmas card to: ACLU125 Broad Street18th FloorNew York, NY 10004  Planned Parenthood has infuriated Christians all over the nation by selling "holiday cards" (they're not Christmas cards, of course) with their offensive and blasphemous slogan...

Charity is the first principle of the Knights of Columbus and, throughout its 125 year history, the Order has worked to help those who are suffering and in need.  Last year, Knights of Columbus donated more than 64 million hours of volunteer time and $139 million to charity. This year, the Order is airing a Christmas TV spot (Broadband or Dial-up ) on networks in the U.S. and Canada, encouraging viewers to join with the Knights in helping children in need. You may already have a favorite charity, or you may wish to consider one or more of the charities supported...

Best Buy Co. turned in disappointing third-quarter results on Tuesday as the battle to sell flat-panel TVs, MP3s and other hot electronic gadgets has slashed prices and cut into profit. the nation's largest home-electronics retailer said the "very competitive climate" -- plasma and LCD TV prices dropped 25% to 30% -- held its profit to $150 million, or 31 cents a share, up nearly 8% from last year's income of $138 million, or 28 cents a share, but short of Wall Street's expectations. That sent shares lower by 5% to $51.30. The total results were mixed compared with Wall Street's...

City Reverses Position on Showing of Religious Movie Trailer at Annual Christmas Market  Contact: Thomas Brejcha, Esq., Thomas More Society, Pro-Life Law Center, 312-782-1680, 312-590-3408  CHICAGO, Dec. 20 /Christian Newswire/ -- As the holiday season of Christmas looms every nearer, Catholics and other Christians welcomed the City of Chicago's stunning reversal of its earlier denial to air film clips of the movie "The Nativity Story" at the Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago.   Earlier, Jim Law, Chicago's Executive Director of Special Events had denied New Line Cinema permission to show a trailer for the movie The Nativity Story at a Christmas festival...

IT JUST DOESN'T seem like Christmas this year — because there have been so few stories in the media about how the holiday is under siege by secular progressives. Some irony-deficient Chicago officials refused to allow advertising for "The Nativity Story" at the city's annual Christkindlmarket, an open-air re-creation of a European village. And Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's staff removed — then replaced — more than a dozen Christmas trees after a rabbi threatened to sue if a menorah wasn't included in the display. But, by and large, it's been a quiet season. The Christmas wars were inescapable in 2005. ....

It is becoming readily apparent that there is a real war escalating against both Christmas and Christianity in our beloved country. The battle lines are determined by being a "friend or foe" of this favorite American holyday. It seems retailers need to learn a lesson. Last year Loewe's began the festive season by selling "holiday trees," but under consumer pressure quickly returned to calling them "Christmas trees." Wal-Mart began the season by telling its employees they could not say "Merry Christmas" to shoppers. Both legal pressure and public displeasure caused them to back down from this policy. When executives from...

'Not a pretty sight' A Virgin Mary statue was found hanging at Stewartstown Presbyterian Church. By BRENT BURKEY Daily Record/Sunday News Article Launched: 12/19/2006 06:04:14 AM rd/Sunday News Article Launched: 12/19/2006 06:04:14 AM EST Dec 19, 2006 — Lori Adams went to work early Monday morning and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. But someone else did and told the church secretary that a Virgin Mary lawn ornament was hanging by the neck in the parking lot of Stewartstown Presbyterian Church. "It was not a pretty sight when I came into work this morning," said Adams, who added that...

A 31-year-old man is in critical condition after setting himself ablaze in an apparent protest over a school district's decision to call winter and spring break, Christmas and Easter break. The protester, reportedly draped in a flag, ignited a decorated Christmas tree, an American flag and a revolutionary flag replica that read "Don't Tread on Me" before pouring a can of fuel on himself in front of the Kern County Court Building in Bakersfield, Calif., yesterday afternoon. The man, whose name was not released, survived, thanks to the quick action of a sheriff's deputy and several court employees. (Story continues...

Orlando, FL - With less than two weeks until Christmas, Liberty Counsel is still being inundated with calls from all across the nation relating to the annual Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign. Below are just a few of many examples: Arkansas - McNair Middle School in Fayetteville removed a teacher’s Nativity scene and Star of David from a larger display that also included secular holiday decorations. School officials were concerned about the religious aspects of the display. After Terry Rhodes called Liberty Counsel for help, he was given a legal memorandum showing that the display was constitutional. Mr. Rhodes gave...

Governor Chris Gregoire lit a Menorah in a celebration at the state Capitol on Monday, and at the same celebration, accepted the gift of a Menorah for her home. The Menorah that was lit during the ceremony is displayed in the Capitol rotunda with a Christmas tree. However, when a local resident asked for a Nativity scene to be displayed with the Menorah and the tree, the Governor refused. This morning, at the request of a local resident, Liberty Counsel faxed a letter to Governor Gregoire along with our Legal Memorandum on the constitutionality of displaying religious symbols during the...

A Hawaii county erected a Christmas tree to protect a Chanukah menorah from a church-state separation challenge. The American Civil Liberties Union complained to Maui County this week after seeing the menorah, accompanied by a dreidel, in front of the county building. A local rabbi had asked authorities for permission to set up the menorah. The ACLU cited laws that say that displaying a religious symbol by itself could constitute endorsement of that religion. County workers scrambled Wednesday to find a Christmas tree, in short supply in Hawaii this late in the season. One was found at a local botanical...

In recent weeks there has been much commentary about the “War on Christmas.” FOX News host Bill O’Reilly recently spoke up on November 18 saying, “It’s all part of the secular progressive agenda ... to get Christianity and spirituality and Judaism out of the public square.” He then added, “because if you look at what happened in Western Europe and Canada, if you can get religion out, then you can pass secular progressive programs, like legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage, because the objection to those things is religious-based, usually.” O’Reilly’s comments on his television show, The...

ITHACA--A long running private Christmas light display was vandalized in the days before Christmas, with the perpetrators singling out the crosses.According to the Ithaca Journal, "vandals cut wires supplying electricity to a large merry Christmas sign and three large crosses that stand 12- to 15-feet tall" on the property of Ithaca resident Bill Lower.Jay Gartlein, who helps Lower put up the decorations, said he found some of the vandals' targets curious."They bypassed other decorations and went out of their way to wreck the crosses,” he said.The Lower property has 300,000 to 400,000 lights on it, most of which were not...

WASHINGTON, December 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic League is reporting vandalism to nativity scenes across the United States. Figures from nativity scenes were stolen or vandalized in Tucson, AZ ; Millbrae, CA; Mission Viejo, CA; Moorpark, CA; San Francisco, CA; Naugatuck, CT; Waterbury, CT (Jesus was taken, but one of the arms was left behind); Fort Walton Beach, FL; Des Moines, IA; Sioux City, IA; Ammon, ID; Chicago, IL (32 figures of baby Jesus were nabbed-they were later dumped on the lawn of a Catholic church); Jackson County, IL (two incidents); Tinley Park, IL; Floyd County, IN; Fort Wayne,...

BRIARCLIFF MANOR, N.Y., December 20, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Village of Briarcliff Manor officials have decided to remove their entire holiday display, including a 9-foot-tall menorah, from a public park rather than allow a resident to add a crèche after Alliance Defense Fund attorneys and allied attorneys won a temporary restraining order Friday from a federal judge. The lawsuit and TRO motion were filed Dec. 11 after the Briarcliff Manor Village's Board of Trustees refused to permit the display. "The village's constitutional violations regarding religious expression in public make them look like the grinches who stole Christmas and Chanukah from the...