Free Republic

A familiar nativity scene and menorah were removed from the Luzerne County Courthouse lawn Wednesday night because the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to get a restraining order. County Solicitor Vito DeLuca said a Pittsburgh lawyer from the ACLU contacted him Wednesday to give the county an opportunity to remove the items before it filed court action that was already in the works. The ACLU argues the displays violate the separation of church and state clause of the U.S. Constitution, DeLuca said. DeLuca said county officials opted not to spend time and money on a lawsuit – at least not...

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- A Wiccan pentacle has joined a controversial nativity scene at Green Bay's City Hall. The manger scene was put up by City Council President Chad Fradette, who wanted to defy an anti-religious group that was protesting another nativity scene in a nearby town. However, the Wiccans said that was an abuse of power and requested that the Wiccan symbol go up next to the nativity. "I want to see all those other faiths that we don't get an opportunity to see in Green Bay, Wis., because we are sometimes relegated to that," said Wiccan Kelly Winters....

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - The sale of Nativity scenes with a wall running through the middle to symbolize Israel's security barrier borders on anti-Semitism, Jewish groups are saying. The Amos Trust, a British Christian charity that works with needy communities around the world, is selling the traditional Nativity sets with a political twist, noting that the wise men won't reach the stable because of the wall. The Amos Trust says its Nativity sets are made by Palestinian carpenters from olive wood from Bethlehem. Israel started building its security barrier -- a series of walls and fences -- in response to an...

WELLINGTON — In this village, Jesus has returned with the help of modern-day technology.Last year, the baby Jesus figure disappeared twice from the Nativity scene in front of the Wellington Community Center, never to be seen again. This year, the new blond, blue-eyed statue was outfitted with a GPS tracking device that monitored its every movement.The evening after Jesus' birth, the baby moved.At 6:45 a.m. Thursday, a village employee noticed that the statue was missing. Building maintenance supervisor Gus Arnold logged on to the monitoring system and saw that it was taken from the manger at 10 p.m. Wednesday.Arnold homed...

Weatherford, OK – Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU), has issued a disturbing policy which requires all employees to refrain from using the word "Christmas" in oral or written form. This directive was given by the university upon legal advice of the Oklahoma Attorney General, W.A. Drew Edmondson. Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter to SWOSU following a complaint from a university affiliate. John Misak, the Director of Human Resources, recently visited various university departments and employee groups and informed everyone that any decorations featuring the word "Christmas" in any work or public areas of the university must be immediately removed....

Group calls for end to Christmas Culture wars The outrage by some people over department stores using the phrase “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” is a distraction from real moral and social issues, according to a group of concerned Catholics and evangelical Christians. The group has called for a “cease-fire in the Christmas culture wars,” and challenged conservative talk-show host Bill O’Reilly and others who have lashed out against a so-called secular “War on Christmas.” In an “Open Letter to Christmas Culture Warriors” published as an advertisement in the New York Post, Washington Times and the National Catholic Reporter,...

For decades, children have enjoyed singing about the little donkey which is said to have carried the pregnant Mary to Bethlehem.   The calendar features Lord Nelson forced to wear a life jacket But one group of young singers was ordered to change the traditional lyrics of the Christmas song - because they were said to be "too religious".Instead of "Little donkey, carry Mary safely on her way", the youngsters were told to sing "carry Lucy" for fear of offending non-Christians. The incident, at the school's Christmas concert, appears on a new calendar alongside 11 other examples of extreme political...

NBC says some find bookcase and Christmas lights offensive Candidate wishing voters Merry Christmas upsets some folks The latest effort to spread the idea that religion has no place in the public square comes as a response to a TV spot produced by presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. I urge you to watch the two video clips I have placed in this e-mail. First, is the ad by former Governor Huckabee wishing people a Merry Christmas. Click here to watch the 30-second ad. Next, is a clip from the Today Show (Dec. 18), hosted by Meredith Vieira, on which Governor...

Help Sink Old Navy's Blockade Dear Craig, You would think a company that gets the vast majority of its business from Christians would be respectful of its customers. Such is true of companies that don't have an anti-Christian bias. But not at Old Navy. Old Navy has put a blockade around Christmas. Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic are owned by the same company. And all three boycott Christmas. At these stores, Christmas isn't allowed because a handful of non-Christians are offended. Old Navy doesn't want to offend non-Christians. But they sure don't worry about offending Christians. They will take...

ANN ARBOR, MI — Persistence paid off for Frances Burke, a senior resident of Bayside, New York. For many years, the Bayside Hills Civic Association refused Burke’s request to include a nativity display in its annual holiday celebration which included a menorah and tree lighting ceremony at the public park. This year, however, Burke teamed up with the Thomas More Law Center, a national Christian public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which seeks to restore public acknowledgment of the religious significance of Christmas. As a result, for the first time in its history, the Bayside Hills...

For anyone who has spent any considerable amount of time on this campus, Harvard students’ knee-jerk liberalism and militant atheism, or, at least, militant hostility to religion, is more than apparent. An integral part of any misguided teenage rebellion includes perfunctorily discarding the formalities and traditions long observed in one’s family: Sunday mornings spent in church, obligatory dietary restrictions, and even a baseline belief in God. Thanks to cartoonish caricatures of Evangelicals in the media, religion immediately connotes images, in the minds of the self-styled intellectuals at Harvard, of provincialism, stupidity, and Republican Party politics—things to avoid. Yet, despite this...

SPOKANE, Wash. - They made a list, but they should have checked it twice. In a December newsletter to the families of elementary school students, Spokane Public Schools' list of "important dates" didn't include Christmas. Hanukkah, Human Rights Day, winter break, the Islamic holy day Eid al-Adha, first day of winter and Kwanzaa all made the list. But no Christmas. "It was absolutely an error of omission," district spokeswoman Terren Roloff said. "In our efforts to be inclusive, we missed the obvious." The omission drew complaints from some parents that in an age of political correctness, Christians are being overlooked...

Quite simply, success in marketing depends upon offering the right product to the right consumer at the right time. That is not always easy since the fickle consumer is constantly changing and the marketer must be ever-ready to adjust accordingly. Thus, depending on one’s perspective, marketing has become a science, a craft or an art. The marketer has at his disposal techniques and tools since in today’s streamlined and globalized world, one mistake can translate into millions of dollars lost. Last year, Wal-Mart learned their lesson and brought back Merry Christmas while others did not. And so, the marketers employ...

The Christmas season is upon us, which means it's that special time of year for the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State to make sure no wayward city council will allow a whiff of frankincense on government property. They must send out direct-mail fundraising letters asking "Help Us Crush a Creche at Christmas!"   The Christmas season is also that time of year when the business world implores us to consider the material as more important than the spiritual, all in the spirit of "the holidays." So we celebrate the arrival on...

Focus on the Family Action has released the latest list of retailers that are censoring Christmas...and those that are not. Click on the link to view the PDF file.....

This year, for the first time, Chatham Borough's holiday tree will be joined by a giant menorah. The borough agreed to a request for a public menorah display by Shalom Lubin, who over the years has gained approval for menorahs in neighboring Madison, Florham Park, East Hanover and Chatham Township. Lubin, a rabbi and director of the Chabad of Southeast Morris County, said word is spreading and towns are saying "hey, you have one in your town, why don't we have one in our town?" "More and more towns are realizing that in the spirit of the holiday, being inclusive...

Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development officials have announced a ban on any decorations in HUD housing complexes that mention Jesus or represent religion for the Christmas season, and the American Family Association has responded with a petition drive to overturn the decision. The AFA has set up a link to allow constituents to send e-mails to the HUD secretary or President Bush expressing their objections to the policy. The issue arose at the Plant City Living Center in Plant City, Fla., where 85-year-old Mrs. Arnold was told that federal law now prohibits her from displaying anything that references...

I got a note this week that reminded me, once again, how much the American people disagree with the Washington elite -- and how differently we would run our country if and when we get the chance. The note told the story of Mrs. Arnold, an 85-year-old grandmother living in Florida. Every year, Mrs. Arnold looks forward to a Christmas visit to her apartment building by a local Sunday school class. They have a Christmas party and place an angel at the top of the building's Christmas tree. But this year, the management of her apartment complex issued a directive:...

An early skirmish in this year's "War on Christmas" ended on Tuesday when the nationwide home improvement chain Lowe's apologized for referring to Christmas trees in its holiday catalog as "family trees." "That was a complete error," Maureen Rich, a spokeswoman for Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse - which serves more than 13 million customers a week in its 1,400 stores across the nation - told Cybercast News Service. "Right now, we're extremely disappointed in this breakdown in our own creative process. "We are apologizing to customers today for any confusion our holiday catalog created," Rich said. She explained that the...

SYDNEY (AFP) - Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday. Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported. One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use "ho ho ho" because it could frighten children and was too close to "ho", a US slang term for prostitute. "Gimme a break," said Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualising children called Kids Free 2B...