This is a great Fox News Special on Religion and History in Washington, D.C. Newt Gingrich touched on some of this material when he spoke at the FRC Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C. a few months ago.
Every year the fight continues over where nativity scenes and menorahs can be displayed. Join host Newt Gingrich as FOX News uncovers a long-forgotten story of religion in America.
From WorldNetDaily:
A public school teacher in Mississippi marked down an eleven-year-old's Christmas poem assignment and told the boy to rewrite it because he used the word "Jesus," which, the instructor explained, is a name not allowed in school.
Liberty Counsel, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, reports that sixth-grader Andrew White of Hattiesburg, Miss., chose to write the poem on the assignment "What Christmas means to me."
After White turned in his rough draft, however, his teacher circled the word "Jesus" and deducted a point from his grade. The teacher then explained that he needed to rewrite the poem without the offending word.
When White's parents questioned the teacher, Liberty Counsel reports, they received a response email explaining, "[Andrew] and another child did a poem about Christ. I know we can't discuss these type [sic] of things in school so I asked the two of them to do another poem of their choice."
Do you go Christmas shopping, or do you go shopping for that unspeakable holiday? Or do you just buy gifts for friends and family in December for no good reason at all?
Some people go Christmas shopping, but in his Stoplight® video commentary, Stuart Shepard goes shopping for Christmas — to see which retailers want your shopping dollars, but won't even mention the day those gifts will be unwrapped.
Every Christmas for the past several years now we see secularists and other God-haters come out of the woodwork and try to erase Christmas from America. Well, at least any connection Christmas has to its Christian meaning.
Secularists are even getting so nutty that they see Jesus in "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and any mention of Christmas whatsoever.
So why do the God-haters hate Christmas so much? Bill O'Reilly has some insight:
Reprinted by permission of The Christian Post
By Jennifer Riley
Christian Post Reporter
Wed, Dec. 10 2008 05:20 PM EST
The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales expressed frustration this week that religion is seen as a “private eccentricity” in Britain, where it is increasingly treated with hostility.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, criticized what he sees as growing intolerance towards those with religious beliefs, especially people who maintain pro-life and pro-family values.
“The progressive secularization of the cultural environment and the accompanying decline in religious practice means that religious belief of any kind tends now to be treated more as a private eccentricity than as the central and formative element in British society that it is,” Murphy-O’Connor wrote in an editorial this week in U.K.’s The Independent newspaper.
He went on to write that atheists have become “more vocal and aggressive” against people of faith, while an “unfriendly climate” exists for people of all religions in Britain.
However, there is one positive result from secularization, the Cardinal offered - more tolerance for Catholics.
“Over the past 40 years, social prejudice against Catholics has largely disappeared, and Catholics have been fully assimilated into the mainstream of British life,” he said.
But this acceptance is only in the religious realm, and does not extend to intellectual and cultural acceptance.
With the culture, Catholicism and other religion have a conflict because modern British society has a “dislike of absolutes,” which he suggested stems from a “revulsion for totalitarianism.”
The conflict is most apparent for Catholics and other faiths when it comes to issues like “the absolute value of every human life” and “the central importance of the family and the institution of marriage” to a “rightly ordered society.”
“Catholics are not alone in watching with dismay as the liberal society shows signs of degenerating into the libertine society,” the Cardinal said, noting Catholic positions are shared by other Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
The Catholic Church welcomes diversity and pluralism just like secular society, the Archbishop said, but when they undermine the institutions of marriage and family then they will be harmful to society.
“The vocal minority who argue that religion has no role in modern British society portray Catholic teaching on the family as prejudiced and intolerant to those pursuing alternatives,” he wrote in his editorial. “Catholic teaching is clear that all unjust discrimination is wrong, but this teaching cannot accept the relativistic acceptance that all approaches are equivalent. British society champions tolerance and freedom, but that freedom is dependent on responsibility.”
“A simplistic belief that right or wrong is an individualistic construct denies our responsibilities to neighbor and wider society,” Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor added.
The Cardinal concluded by calling for an “open, tolerant and vibrant public square” where individuals of different opinions and beliefs can have their voices heard. He urged people of all faiths to not sit out of the debate, but to engage in them and to live exemplary lives to correct the parts of British society they believe is wrong.
Copyright 2008 The Christian Post. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Reprinted by permission of The Christian Post
By Elena Garcia
Christian Post Reporter
Tue, Dec. 09 2008 02:02 PM EST
Hundreds rallied outside the Washington Capitol on Sunday to protest a holiday sign erected by a group of atheists that disparages religion as a "myth" and declares there is no God.
A crowd of 500 protesters gathered on the Capitol's steps to decry the sign which Gov. Chris Gregoire had permitted an atheist group to include as part of a Christmas-themed display inside the rotunda.
The sign states, “At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”
Freedom from Religion Foundation, the group that installed the sign, said the display was to promote the Winter's Solstice. Dan Barker, co-president of the Wisconsin group, however has also described the display as "an attack on religion," kgw.com reported.
Protesters sang Christmas carols while area Christian pastors participating in the rally prayed. Demonstrators also held signs that bore Christmas-filled messages like "Jesus is the reason for the season" and "We say Merry Christmas." One sign portrayed Gregoire as the grinch.
Steve Wilson, who organized the rally, said he thought the message of the atheist display was offensive to people of all religions.
"When it comes to disparaging my faith on public property, that's where I draw the line," Wilson told the Associated Press.
His mother, Susan, however, emphasized that they were not protesting religions but the atheists sign.
“We’re not with the groups that brought the signs, ‘Atheists go to hell,’” she told The Olympian. “We love everyone and let’s be kind to one another. … This was a way our family decided that we had to stand up for Jesus.”
The rally on Sunday represented only a small dose of national outrage growing over anti-religion displays.
A spokesman of the governor's office has told The Seattle Times it received over 200 calls an hour following the sign's debut last week.
The controversial sign went missing on Friday and turned up a few hours later at a Seattle radio station where one of radio hosts had been discussing the sign.
Gregoire, who is Christian, has said that while she doesn't agree with the message of the display, the state must allow all viewpoints to be represented on public property if one viewpoint is permitted.
“But just because you must represent everyone in the state doesn’t mean that you put up with intolerance from the people that you represent," countered Rev. Kenneth Hutcherson, the pastor of Antioch Bible Church, which has put up a pro-religion sign to respond to the atheist one.
Antioch's sign reads: "There is one God. There is one Devil. There are angels, a heaven and hell. There is more than our natural world. Atheism is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."
Both signs are now on display near a nativity scene and other religious displays. The atheist sign now also includes a posting that reads: "Thou Shalt Not Steal, Exodus 20:15."
Bishop Council Nedd, chairman of In God We Trust, a national advocacy group that supports public displays of American history, disagrees that the atheist sign should be allowed in the Capitol.
"These signs have nothing in common with a menorah, a nativity scene or a Christmas tree. They are an attempt by anti-religious bigots to equate a belief in God with enslavement and to ridicule the majority of Americans who believe in God," he said.
Nedd said he wouldn't be surprised if the atheist group demands to place a similar sign next on the National Mall in Washington D.C. That's why he's launching a national effort to stop such an attempt. The organization is mobilizing its 60,000 supporters to lobby their governors and representatives in Washington urging them stop the atheist advertising effort.
"Why do these zealots have the right to post signs on public property attacking their countrymen?" Nedd posed. "Would anyone stand for an equally hate-filled message being posted by the Klan on Martin Luther King's Birthday? Of course not. Yet that is exactly what these atheist bigots want."
"In God We Trust will oppose any effort to place these signs in any state capital or in any government location in Washington, D.C.," Nedd pledged.
Copyright 2008 The Christian Post. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
By Katherine T. Phan
Christian Post Reporter
Sat, Dec. 06 2008 08:56 AM EST
Two Christian-based groups have purchased advertisements with Washington D.C. Metro buses to counter the atheist "Why Believe in a God?" bus campaign with their own pro-God Christmas ads.
The Center for Family Development, a Catholic-based non-profit in Bethesda, Md., plans to raise $14,000 to run a campaign called "I Believe Too," which consists for 10 buses with side posters, 10 buses with tail posters and 200 interior bus posters.
The pro-God ads will read: "Why Believe? Because I created you and I love you, for goodness' sake - GOD."
"Our goal is to counteract the AHA with a positive, upbeat ad of our own that identifies God as our true and loving creator," said JoEllen Murphey, a mother of four from McLean, Va., who was among those outraged over an atheist bus campaign run by the American Humanist Association.
Murphey is partnering with the Center for Family Development in the grassroots effort.
The American Humanist Association began running a $40,000 holiday ad campaign last month in an attempt to reach out to those who might be interested in humanism, which rejects a belief in God and an afterlife. The ads declaring, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake," are currently displayed on the outside and inside of 200 Metro DC buses and will run throughout the Christmas season.
The ads by the atheist group have sparked a public outcry, resulting in hundreds of complaints sent to the transit agency over the ads.
"After a friend forwarded me an article about the AHA ad campaign, I thought, 'Enough!' I am so tired of God and religion being attacked that I decided to start a counter ad campaign," said Murphey.
The "I Believe Too" campaign will begin running next week. As of Dec. 5, over 165 donors have contributed $6,700 toward the campaign, which is enough to cover the 200 interior bus posters and 10 tail bus posters. On Facebook, the campaign has the support of 740 friends.
Donations, which are tax deductible, can be made online via PayPal or sent by check to The Center for Family Development.
Another Christian group, called Pennsylvania Friends of Christ, has also planned a bus ad campaign to counter the atheist bus ads. The group will run ads reading "Believe in God. Christ is Christmas for goodness' sake" on 10 Metro buses for four weeks.
Meanwhile, AHA Executive Director Roy Speckhardt said the "godless holiday campaign" has been an overwhelming success, according to ABC 7 News.
Many Christian groups nationwide said they found the ads offensive, saying it was another attempt by those waging a war on Christmas to ban God from the public square.
The U.S. atheist bus campaign came one month after the British Humanist Association said it will run ads stating “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" on London buses in January.
Unlike Britain, where six in ten people admit they have no religious affiliation, according to a report by the United Nations, the United States is a nation that still overwhelmingly professes a belief in God. Earlier this year, a poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 92 percent of Americans believe in God.
Copyright 2008 The Christian Post. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
This video from CitizenLink illustrates in a humorous way the politically correct, anti-Christian, silly practice some retailers have of not saying "Christmas" around the holiday that we all know is "Christmas" (in a country where about 84% of Americans identify with Christianity anyway).
Can't you just hear those great old Christmas songs spiffed up for the secularist in you:
I'll Be Home for Tossmas
Holly Jolly Tossmas
Have Yourself a Merry Little Tossmas
O Tossmas Tree
The Night Before Tossmas
White Tossmas
The Twelve Days of Tossmas
We Wish You a Merry Tossmas
You can even sing all those great songs gathered 'round your Tossmas Tree!
It's "Tossmas" time again. In his Stoplight® video commentary, Stuart Shepard politely asks retailers to please at least acknowledge the name of the holiday that falls on Dec. 25. Otherwise, their catalogs may meet an unfortunate end.
Let retailers know you care how they treat Christmas by signing Focus on the Family Action's "I Stand for Christmas" petition. Also, check our list to see which retailers are Christmas-friendly.
This is a good video from the Acton Institute, briefly illustrating why secularism is not the neutral "umpire" it's disciples claim it to be.
It is rather a player in the arena of ideas, a contender in the contest of worldviews, just like any other.
The thing is, in our misguided culture, we have allowed it to assume the role of "umpire," which is really like making the fox the "umpire" of the hen house.
My friend and fellow contributor at Dakota Voice, Paul Scates, wrote me this morning asking if I had read anything about a statement that Barrack Obama allegedly made to the effect that we are no longer a Christian nation. This jogged my memory and after a brief search of the Internet I discovered several references to just such a statement, including the YouTube video here.
That America is a pluralistic nation is indisputable. Yes, Constitutionally we do not have a government-approved religion (unless we include secular humanism), but to say that we are not a country of laws and traditions based upon Judeo-Christian beliefs and principles is simply wrong. Unless we throw out our Constitution, our Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence, and virtually every other founding document, we will always be a Christian nation. Some of us believe that that is precisely the goal of many on the extreme Left.
More here and here.
