LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY britzkrieg)

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, the Executive Director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, has penned this open letter to Jerry Falwell concerning the (*sigh*) "War on Christmas":

Dear Jerry:

Here’s some news: There is no “war on Christmas!”

I’ve seen you on various television news shows claiming that there is but, in fact, there simply isn’t. Even as I write this, millions of Americans are erecting Christmas trees and nativity scenes at their homes, and thousands of churches are planning special Christmas services.

And, if I might say so, most of them are planning their lives without getting permission or encouragement from you.

I am deeply disappointed that you have chosen a time that Christians observe as a season of peace and good will and turned it into a time of religious divisiveness and community conflict. Your “Friend or Foe” campaign may be great for fund-raising and publicity, but it has sown discord unnecessarily.

Contrary to your wild allegations, Jerry, neither Americans United, nor any other civil liberties organization that I know of, is waging any kind of war on Christmas. ( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY britzkrieg)

Channeling Henry Ford, a conservative Jewish journalist blames the "War on Christmas" on the Jews:

I never thought I’d live to see the day that Christmas would become a dirty word. You think it hasn’t? Then why is it that people are being prevented from saying it in polite society for fear that it will offend? Schools are being forced to replace “Christmas vacation” with “winter break” in their printed schedules. At Macy’s, the word is verboten even though they’ve made untold millions of dollars from their sympathetic portrayal in the Christmas classic, “Miracle on 34th Street.” Carols, even instrumental versions, are banned in certain places. A major postal delivery service has not only made their drivers doff their Santa caps, but ordered them not to decorate their trucks with Christmas wreaths.

How is it, one well might ask, that in a Christian nation this is happening?

...I blame my fellow Jews. When it comes to pushing the multicultural, anti-Christian, agenda, you find Jewish judges, Jewish journalists, and the ACLU, at the forefront.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gleef)

Fran Quigley, executive director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, writes about how the Dominionist's unfounded allegations about the ACLU's alleged role in the alleged War on Christmas have led to a flood of angry phone calls, letters and emails against the ACLU (and presumably the state CLUs as well).

How the ACLU Didn't Steal Christmas

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY anadart)

From one of James Dobson's PAC's CitizenLink
--------------

CITIZENLINK DAILY UPDATE
Dec. 7, 2005

=========================
EDITOR'S NOTE:
Weigh in on School's Rewriting of 'Silent Night'

Think you've heard it all when it comes to the war on
Christmas? Not if you haven't heard what a Wisconsin
public school has done to "Silent Night."

The powers that be at Ridgeway Elementary, it seems, were
so offended by the lyrics to the song, which detail the
miracle of Christ's birth, that they rewrote them. The
version to be performed by children during this year's
"winter program" is called "Cold in the Night" and goes
something like this:

"Cold in the night, no one in sight/winter winds whirl and
bite/How I wish I were happy and warm/safe with my family,
out of the storm."

These details come courtesy of the religious-liberties law
firm Liberty Counsel, which is representing a concerned
parent and demanding school officials change the program
-- because their actions are a violation of the
Constitution.

"When a public school intentionally mocks Christian
Christmas songs by secularizing their content," Liberty
Counsel President Mat Staver said, "they cross the line
from a neutral position, which the Constitution requires,
to a hostile position, which the Constitution forbids."

You can help Ridgeway Elementary's principal, Julie Piper,
understand this truth by contacting her and letting her
know -- respectfully -- what you think of the school's
efforts to marginalize Christmas. You can call her at
608-924-3461 or e-mail her by visiting the link below and
clicking on the "Take Action" button.

http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/issues/alert/?alertid=8299621&type=CU

-------------------------------

So what's the difference with "christian" bands like the ApologetiX doing the same thing to popular "secular" songs?

They change the lyrics of songs many enjoy to lyrics promoting christian propaganda.
Where's the outrage with that? Dobson's Focus On the Family has purchased large amounts of Apologetix CD's in the past and promoted them for free (per members of the band).

It doesn't look as if the school was mocking Christian Christmas songs, just changing the lyrics to something everyone could relate to, not just christians.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY seshen)

Many people are thrilled to get a White House Christmas card, no matter what the greeting inside. But some conservative Christians are reacting as if Bush stuck coal in their stockings.

"This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture," said William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

Bush "claims to be a born-again, evangelical Christian. But he sure doesn't act like one," said Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com. "I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it."
________________________________

Awww. Somebody piddled in their conservative egg nog.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gleef)

Apparently, several megachurches are canceling Christmas services this year to "allow staff members and volunteers to spend the holiday with their families." To make up for lost preaching, most of these churches are planning extra services on Christmas Eve.

The churches listed in the article are:

• Southland Christian Church; Nicholasville, KY (Near Lexington)
• Willow Creek Community Church; South Barrington, IL (Near Chicago)
• Mars Hill Bible Church; Grandville, MI (Near Grand Rapids)
• North Point Community Church; Alpharetta, GA (Near Atlanta)
• Fellowship Christian Church; Dallas, TX (and surrounding area, the church has four campuses)
• Crossroads Christian Church; Lexington, KY

Does anyone know what's up with this? Anything involving multiple megachurches is instantly suspect to me, and combined with the whole "War on Christmans" meme that the Religious Right is pushing lately, it makes me very suspicious, but I don't see what the point behind this is. I also don't know whether or not these churches normally do this (megachurches have much higher lay staff requirements than traditional ones), and this is much ado about nothing.

Also, possibly unrelated, the article mentions Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY is holding a single service (apparently with skeleton staff), and really pushing their Christmas Eve services instead.

(Snagged from chipuni)

PS: Mods, could we have a "War on Christmas" tag?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

ROBERTSON: We’re going to do a piece, I believe, tomorrow or the next day about Kwanzaa, which according to our next guest, is a total fraud. And yet they have Kwanzaa celebrations all over the schools.

GIBSON: Right. Well, that was made up, as your guest will tell, by Ron Karenga, a Black Panther in the 60s, in L.A.

ROBERTSON: A Black Panther.

GIBSON: Former Black Panther.

ROBERTSON: Radical . . . .

GIBSON: Right.

ROBERTSON: . . . . Marxist.

GIBSON: And if it’s going to be a celebration of African roots, okay, fine. And I guess you could call it paganism. Why have that in the schools, and tell the teachers, ‘You can’t put up a Christmas tree, because that is purely a religious celebration?’

ROBERTSON: Who’s leading the charge on this? We’ve had Christmas for so many years. I went to school in New York, and I worked in New York, and it was so wonderful at Christmastime in New York. I mean, it’s just delightful. But everybody was singing Christmas carols, and everybody was saying, ‘Merry Christmas.’

GIBSON: Well, they still are.

ROBERTSON: Yes?

GIBSON: Because you don’t find these forces going to Congress and saying, ‘You know that federal holiday you call Christmas? Please cancel it,’ because then we’d all be on to them. So, what they do is they go after little school boards in little towns, and they go after people who don’t have the legal wherewithal to defend themselves. But I debate your friend, Barry Lynn, all the time. I would say that Barry Lynn and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State are behind a lot of this...

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This one is from Salon.com (day pass or registration required.) An excerpt:

As the holidays approach, the right is making ever more fevered preparations to thwart this ostensible conspiracy. Last week, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights launched a short-lived boycott of Wal-Mart, charging the megastore with "insulting Christians by effectively banning Christmas." The American Family Association called for a Thanksgiving-weekend boycott of Target because of the chain's purported refusal to use the phrase "Merry Christmas" in its advertising (Target denies having such a policy). A few days later, Jerry Falwell announced he was joining with the Christian right legal group Liberty Counsel's "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign," which intends to sue officials who try to curb religious Christmas celebrations in schools or other public places. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "The 8,000 members of the Christian Educators Association International will be the campaign's 'eyes and ears' in the nation's public schools. They'll be reporting to 750 Liberty Counsel lawyers who are ready to pounce if, for example, a teacher is muzzled from leading the third-graders in 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.'" Meanwhile, the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian right legal outfit co-founded by James Dobson, has ramped up its three-year-old "Christmas project, " organizing over 800 lawyers to defend the sacred holiday. "It's a sad day in America when you have to retain a lawyer to wish someone a merry Christmas," says Mike Johnson, senior legal council for ADF.

Despite Johnson's lamentations, one can in fact offer Christmas greetings without legal counsel. Christmas trees are permitted in public schools. (They're considered secular symbols.) Nativity scenes are allowed on public property, although if the government erects one, it has to be part of a larger display that also includes other, secular signs of the holiday season, or displays referring to other religions. (The operative Supreme Court precedent is 1984's Lynch v. Donnelly, where the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that a city-sponsored Christmas display including a crèche, reindeer, a Christmas tree, candy-striped polls and a banner that read "Seasons Greetings" was permissible. "The display is sponsored by the city to celebrate the Holiday and to depict the origins of that Holiday," the majority wrote. "These are legitimate secular purposes.) Students are allowed to distribute religious holiday cards and literature in school. If the administration tries to stop them, the ACLU will step in to defend the student's free-speech rights, as they did in 2003 when teenagers in Massachusetts were suspended for passing out candy canes with Christian messages.

In fact, there is no war on Christmas. What there is, rather, is a burgeoning myth of a war on Christmas, assembled out of old reactionary tropes, urban legends, exaggerated anecdotes and increasingly organized hostility to the American Civil Liberties Union. It's a myth that can be self-fulfilling, as school board members and local politicians believe the false conservative claim that they can't celebrate Christmas without getting sued by the ACLU and thus jettison beloved traditions, enraging citizens and perpetuating a potent culture-war meme. This in turn furthers the myth of an anti-Christmas conspiracy.

"You have a dynamic here, where you have the Christian right hysterically overrepresenting the problem, and then anecdotally you have some towns where lawyers restrict any kind of display or representation of religion, which is equally absurd," says Chip Berlet, a senior analyst at Political Research Associates and one of the foremost experts on the religious right. "It's a closed loop. In that dynamic, neither the secular humanists or the ACLU are playing a role."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Falwell fighting for holy holiday
He threatens to sue, boycott groups that subvert Christmas
- Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, November 20, 2005

Evangelical Christian pastor Jerry Falwell has a message for Americans when it comes to celebrating Christmas this year: You're either with us, or you're against us.

Falwell has put the power of his 24,000-member congregation behind the "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign," an effort led by the conservative legal organization Liberty Counsel. The group promises to file suit against anyone who spreads what it sees as misinformation about how Christmas can be celebrated in schools and public spaces.

The 8,000 members of the Christian Educators Association International will be the campaign's "eyes and ears" in the nation's public schools. They'll be reporting to 750 Liberty Counsel lawyers who are ready to pounce if, for example, a teacher is muzzled from leading the third-graders in "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing."( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

(Thanks to seshen for this find.)

This article talks about Wal-Mart's use of the phrase 'Happy Holidays'. The more conspiratorial-minded sorts of Christians believe that there's a secular plot to destroy Christmas, and other Christian holidays.

Wal-Mart Defends 'Happy Holidays' Greeting

POSTED: 6:11 am CST November 11, 2005

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Thursday said it no longer employs a worker who wrote to a shopper that Christmas is a mix of world religions, but that the company does support the generic greeting, "Happy Holidays," as being more inclusive amid year-end celebrations by numerous faiths.

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights criticized the world's largest retailer and called for a boycott over Wal-Mart's approach to Christmas.

"We want a) an apology for insulting Christians by effectively banning Christmas and b) a withdrawal of its insane statement regarding the origins of Christmas and c) a revision on its website," Catholic League President Bill Donohue said on the group's Web site.

In an interview, Donohue dismissed Wal-Mart's statement that it was respecting multiple beliefs as "corporate arrogance."

"If Wal-Mart, which is the family-friendly institution, gets away with this, then all the other department stores will just fall into line," he told The Associated Press on Thursday.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

Christian group says 800 lawyers nationwide are ready to take on cases

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY deridetenebras)

A truly pathetic site maintained by dominionists.

It covers a variety of issues, including:

1. The False Green Gospel: Environmentalists are all pagans.

2. The Feminist Movement: Feminists are all pagans, lesbians, or "unstable women who are quilt ridden because of their sins, torn by lust".

3. The Impact of Feminism on the Family: Feminists are to blame for "Rampant illegitimacy and sexual disease, widespread divorce, and a generation of unloved, undisciplined, and uncared-for kids."

4. The Clinton Legacy: Bill Clinton is to blame for "The demise of morality, the loss of our freedom, the crime in our streets, the poverty in the inner-cities, the war zones in our homes and the violence of our children"

5. War on Christianity: Compares the brutal persecution of Christians in countries like Egypt, Pakistan, and China to the "persecution" of Christians in America

6. Christians in Politics: "Led by the ACLU, new agers, one-worlders, feminists, homosexuals, liberal churches, and godless politicians, an all out War on Christianity has been declared."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Read A Christmas Message. It will make all the nitpicking over Christmas seem petty and spiteful.

Sunfell

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Les, owner of the very interesting "Stupid Evil Bastard" blog, has an excellent roundup of pro and con stories about the fate of Christmas in the US.

Links include Reason Magazine, the Moonie-run Washington Times, and even a Committee To Save "Merry Christmas"!

It's a jungle out there, folks. Personally, I'd love a nice fast forward to blaze through December, and make up for it in September. With the exception of 'that' day, September is a pretty civilized month, all told. There might be a tree or two in the stores, but the 'noise and fury' of the 'hollow-day' season is still far away.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Alternet has an interesting article about the hijacking of Christmas by the Religious Right:

Christmas Wars
By Michael Lerner, AlterNet
Posted on December 24, 2004, Printed on December 24, 2004

Flush from their electoral victories in November, some leaders of the Christian right have decided to make an issue of the secularization of Christmas. Objecting to the move by Macy's and some other retailers to wish their shoppers "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings" instead of the traditional Merry Christmas, they have begun to accuse secularists in general, and, on some of the right-wing talk shows, Jews in particular, of undermining Christmas.

It's easy to dismiss these right-wingers as sore winners. They are well on their way to packing the judiciary with judges who may erode the division between church and state, make abortion more difficult or illegal, and support the pro-torture position of Bush's choice for Attorney General. Yet the 25 percent of Jews who voted for Bush in this past election may not have imagined that along with his vigorous support for Sharon and for the war in Iraq, Bush's electoral victory could spur a public assault on the legitimacy of Jewish identity in the U.S.

The assault has been led by Bill O'Reilly, the most popular cable newscaster, who told millions of viewers that there was a systematic assault on Christmas by secularists. When challenged by a Jewish caller who said he felt uncomfortable being subject to frequent attempts to convert him by Christians at his college, O'Reilly responded: "All right. Well, what I'm tellin' you, is I think you're takin' it too seriously. You have a predominantly Christian nation. You have a federal holiday based on the philosopher Jesus. And you don't wanna hear about it? Come on – if you are really offended, you gotta go to Israel then. I mean because we live in a country founded on Judeo – and that's your guys' – Christian, that's my guys' philosophy. But overwhelmingly, America is Christian. And the holiday is a federal holiday honoring the philosopher Jesus. So, you don't wanna hear about it? Impossible. And that is an affront to the majority. You know, the majority can be insulted, too. And that's what this anti-Christmas thing is all about."( More inside )

I've seen the collection of 'anti-holiday' and 'bring back Christmas' articles and reports online and on TV, but it didn't occur to me that it was an orchestrated assault by the Religious Right until the other day. "Happy Holidays" and "Seasons Greetings" have been part and parcel for this time of year forever, so why the sudden fuss? Add to that the collection of articles- often untrue- about the banning of "Merry Christmas" and other holiday activities in various places. The big lie was one about the decision not to put on "A Christmas Carol" at a school in Washington State. It wasn't because the phrase "God bless us, everyone" was part of it, it was because the acting company wanted to charge admission to the schoolkids to see it. That was reported, but the majority of papers and media did not issue a correction.

It is going to get worse before it gets better.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

While this community mainly concentrates on the excesses of the Christian Dominionists, it is clear that they have a rival for the theocratization of the US- the Unification Church. Moonies hold some major media outlets, like the Washington Times (not to be confused with the Washington Post), UPI, and lots of little businesses all over the country. They pretend to be Christian, but on closer examination, they are most definitely not.

This Alternet article talks about their latest sneaky tactic to take over the country: "Tear Down The Cross" ceremonies- desecration disguised as peacemaking.

In Monday's video, Bush declared: "I want to salute a man I respect: Wes Pruden," referring to the Times editor, whose paper frequently publicizes Moon projects that most newspapers would ignore. On December 7 he ran a piece by ACLC Rev. Donnie McLeod, who has argued for the removal of the cross in sermons covered by Unification Church publications.

The cross-disposal theologian wrote: "as the president is now free from the election concerns and can never be reelected, he can now build a legacy for America and the world." ACLC leaders, he said, "are ready to see the president as I see him, a man to God who is truly ready to make the sacrifices and commitments to create a legacy of faith and family that will guide our nation for the next 200 years."

The Washington Times Foundation is slippery to define, an organization with multiple public faces that morphs when convenient into the ACLC and other religious organizations. The Senate coronation, for example, was booked under the name of the foundation, though it was treated as a photo opportunity for the South Korean religious arm of the church, which trumpeted it as the U.S. government's official stamp of approval on plans for the future of Christianity.

A former Times editor, James Whalen, told me that the protean nature of the group makes it easy to involve national-level figures in "showcasing" Moon – yet conveniently allows politicians to claim, for example, that they only dropped by to lift a glass to the awesome investigative reporting of Times reporter Bill Gertz.

And meanwhile, at the other end of the invisible line between mainstream and eldrich, there is the ACLC and its persistence in seeing the Christian cross disposed of like nuclear waste. A month after Easter last year, the group flew holy men from all over the world to a graveside in Israel, where undertakers had draped a cross beneath the blue and yellow flag of Reverend Moon, and buried the cross forever – another casualty at the hands of the armies of compassion.

Spurred on by the likes of Bill O'Reilly, conservatives are outraged at the war against Christianity supposedly declared in department stores' "Happy Holidays" signs. But secularism is one thing, and sacrilege is something else, especially coming from Sun Myung Moon's cult, which indulges dreams of becoming the state religion. The president has built his reputation on being a good Methodist, but he rarely attends church, come to think of it. And he has cozied up to a desecration spree that Tim LaHaye couldn't make up in his "Left Behind" books. Is he what he pretends to be?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY blueboy2000)

The religious right's had a hair up its ass this season about saying "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" instead of "Merry Christmas." Well, apparently Shrub didn't get the message--this is how he ended his last press conference of the year:

"Listen, thank you all very much. I wish everybody -- truly wish everybody a happy holidays."