The PC Holiday Parade

[HagiaSophia]

By Joe Kovacs
©2004WorldNetDaily.com

In the latest skirmish over Christmas in America, a Christian group is not allowed to participate in Denver’s annual Parade of Lights, because church members sought to sing yuletide hymns and proclaim a “Merry Christmas” message on their float.

However, the event, now in its 30th year, will include homosexual American Indians, Kung Fu artisans, belly dancers and, of course, Santa Claus.

“I think there’s an agenda that is anti-Christian,” Pastor George Morrison, tells WorldNetDaily. “It seems like this agenda has crept in, and it’s robbing us.”

"…The parade, slated for tomorrow and Saturday nights, is produced by Denver Civic Ventures, Inc., with heavy promotion by its flagship sponsor, KUSA-TV, the local NBC affiliate.

The hour-long event features highly decorated floats with symbols of the holiday season such as Santa Claus, gingerbread houses and toy soldiers, along with what’s billed as an “international procession to celebrate the cultural and ethnic diversity of the region,” according to its website. "

"…Among those allowed to participate is the Two Spirit Society of Denver, a support group for American Indians who are homosexual, bisexual, or transgendered, honoring them as “holy people.”

Also included are performers of the Lion Dance, a Chinese New Year tradition “meant to chase away evil spirits and welcome good luck and good fortune for the year,” reports the Rocky Mountain News.

Despite the inclusion of these groups with spiritual connotations, parade spokesman Michael Krikorian said the event does not allow “direct religious themes.” Included in the ban are signs that read “Merry Christmas” and the singing or playing of Christmas hymns.

“We want to avoid that specific religious message out of respect for other religions in the region,” Krikorian told the News. “It could be construed as disrespectful to other people who enjoy a parade each year.”

As WorldNetDaily previously reported, Christmas celebrations were actually banned by Christians who settled colonial America in the 17th and 18th centuries, as many felt the holiday was based more on paganism than Scripture.

",In recent years, battles have ignited each winter across the U.S. as the public display of religion becomes a hot topic. The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, has been leading the charge in many instances to preclude expressions of faith in the public arena, though the group is not involved in the Denver parade.

Recently, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, announced the phrase “Merry Christmas” would be replaced at city hall next year with “Happy Holidays.”

Catholic League president William Donohue issued a statement yesterday on this year’s attempts to ban Christmas.

“This is only the beginning of the Christmas season and already the anti-Christmas crusade is in high gear,” he said. “In the name of ‘separation of church and state,’ they distort it. In the name of diversity, they crush it. In the name of tolerance, they obliterate it. Which is why we need to call them for what they are – cultural fascists.”

worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41724

 

[HagiaSophia]

Christmas Campaign to Protect Religious Liberty Launched
Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
Agape Press

A Christian legal group is once again unveiling its campaign to protect the free-speech rights of believers during the Christmas season, while educating government organizations and liberal legal challengers about those rights.
Florida-based Liberty Counsel has announced its second annual “Friend or Foe” Christmas campaign. The effort is designed to help the nonprofit legal group spread the word that it will sue any government agency that discriminates against public displays of religious symbols or songs. At the same time, Liberty Counsel wants public employees and officials to know that it will defend any governmental entity that allows the equal expression of religious viewpoints.

Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, says the Christian firm “will be [a] friend of the schools or governmental entities that want to engage in correct activity during Christmas,” meaning those that “honor both the Christian and religious aspects of the holiday like they honor the secular aspects.” But on the other hand, he warns, government organizations and civil liberties groups can expect Liberty Counsel to be their foe “when they try to intentionally exclude Christ from Christmas, when they try to say that religious symbols or religious songs are not permissible.”
Staver says every Christmas season liberal groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State step up efforts to try to remove references to Christ from holiday songs, plays, and decorations on government property. Also, he notes, during the holiday season Liberty Counsel receives an influx of calls and questions regarding religious displays.

Last year in Wisconsin, Staver recalls, a public school told students to change “religious” words in the Christmas carols they were to sing during a Christmas concert, forbidding them to use any references to “Jesus” or “God” and insisting that the students substitute secular words. And in Georgia, also last year, a public school instructed its employees not to conduct any Christmas-related activities at all. They were prohibited from reading books on the subject, making Christmas decorations, and displaying candy canes (because of the religious story associated with the candy’s origin). In some cases, school employees were even told they could not wear Christmas-related attire.

But the law is very clear, the attorney asserts, in stating that religious references are by no means forbidden in a publicly-funded setting. For example, he explains that Christian Christmas carols may be sung by student groups in public schools provided they also sing secular songs, and individual students may sing Christian carols as part of an overall presentation if secular songs are also a part of it.

Even “publicly sponsored Nativity scenes on public property, by city hall for example, are clearly constitutional,” Staver says. “A display on city property can have Mary, Joseph, and the Baby Jesus [in the scene], so long as somewhere in the context you have a secular symbol of the holiday, such as Santa Claus.”

The Liberty Counsel president says schools may not prohibit students access to religious books, because to do so would constitute religious viewpoint discrimination. And in the case of privately sponsored Nativity scenes, he points out, Christian-themed Christmas decorations erected and displayed by private citizens or groups in a public area are also constitutional, and they do not require that a secular symbol be part of the display.

crosswalk.com/news/religiontoday/1299004.html

 

[HagiaSophia]

A town in Florida has been sued for barring a privately funded Nativity scene from being displayed on public property while allowing religious Jewish symbols throughout the city.

The Thomas More Law Center announced yesterday it has filed a suit against Bay Harbor Islands, Fla. According to a statement from the group, the town has adorned its lampposts with Jewish menorahs and stars of David to commemorate Hanukkah and has allowed a synagogue to display its 14-foot Menorah in the most prominent public location at the entrance of the city.

Officials, however, have denied multiple requests by Christian resident Sandra Snowden to display Nativity scenes purchased with her own money in a similar manner.

Thomas More says last week Snowden was denied permission to display the crèches for a second consecutive year.

worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41743

 

[HagiaSophia]

Bill O’Reilly was just on with the attorney for the parade in Denver and the pastor - I’ve never seen him so angry - he really took the attorney to task and told him flat out he was discriminating against Christians and he’s now on a follow up segment raising cain with someone protesting Boy Scouts - he’s really wound up.