LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY neadods)

Last night Congress voted 401 - 22 to "protect the symbols and traditions of Christmas."

Whereas the Framers intended that the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States would prohibit the establishment of religion, not prohibit any mention of religion or reference to God in civic dialog: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) recognizes the importance of the symbols and traditions of Christmas;

(2) strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas; and

(3) expresses support for the use of these symbols and traditions. (text from Library of Congress website.)

Democrat Steve Israel asked the Republican author of the resolution, Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), if she would permit the symbols of Chanukah and other holidays to be included in the protection of the resolution. She refused. The same site quotes several of the Congresspeople brave enough to stand up for the First Amendment and those of their constituents who are being denied equal protection for their beliefs:

Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY): "There are people around who need an enemy at all times to try to separate us one from the other as Americans in order to advance their own agenda. ... To tell the truth, it is slightly offensive to see people trying to create a war and claiming they are attacked just so that they go on the offense instead of the defense. This is a prefabricated issue that has no merit. Nobody is attacking the symbols of Christmas. Are you objecting to our wanting to be included because the symbols of your religion are more important than the symbols of anybody else's religion in America? Or is it because you think that the symbols of your religion are more official?"

-----

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA): "Madam Speaker, this resolution purports to protect the symbols of Christmas, but what really needs to be protected are not the symbols of Christmas, but rather the spirit of Christmas. The spirit of Christmas demands generosity and goodwill towards others. Instead of legislation that respects the spirit of Christmas, Congress in just these past few weeks has passed a budget that includes mean-spirited attacks on the least of us. For those who are hungry, we are cutting food stamps. For those who are sick, we are cutting Medicaid. For those who are in prison, we are imposing senseless mandatory minimums. For others we are ignoring increases in heating costs and cutting student loans. At the same time we are cutting those programs to help the least of us, we are cutting taxes for the wealthiest in society. Madam Speaker, we ought to express our passion for Christmas through deeds, not words; and we should not be distracted from our responsibility to uphold the spirit of Christmas as we consider the effects our actions on the Federal budget will have on the least of us during this holiday season. For these reasons I oppose this resolution."

----

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY): "For someone who does not celebrate Christmas, the question looms: Why? Why not say to someone who wants to make this inclusive that, indeed, we are going to make it inclusive? The symbols of Chanukah are not valuable? Sure, they are, I think. The symbols of Kwanzaa are not valuable to some? Sure, they are. I cannot imagine why the gentlewoman who is the sponsor of this, who says that she speaks from a sense of inclusion, would not want to include those. Are those not worthy of being protected? What is the message that is being sent?"

----

Congressman Dingell, who voted for the resolution, nevertheless raked it down in a satirical poem on his webpage.

The "War on Christmas" just drew blood. So much for "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." There are a lot of Jews on my friends list who are furious that Congressional support has been point-blank denied for "the use of [their] symbols and traditions."

And even if O'Reilly gets wind of this and trumpets it as a great victory, we all know that he's going to be screaming about the same "war" next winter holiday season, just has he has for the last two.

x-posted to personal journal

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Here's a very interesting Fresh Air show featuring scholar Bart Ehrman who talks about how the Bible has been edited and changed through the ages.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gairid)

I picked this up in the neworleans community, and I thought it deserved a reading over here.

Off the Eric Alterman blog on MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/


Name: Nicholas Pisano
Hometown: Destin, Florida

Hello Eric,
Old Navy guy here writing from Michael Savage's "heartland of Christianity" to offer some local observations on things both religious and secular. On the secular front is the controversy regarding the "rebuilding" of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. As many folks outside of the region may not know (or perhaps just fear) neo-conservatives are trying to use the rebuilding as a beachhead for the widest application of their most radical theories on U.S. soil. Conspiracy theories abound because of the unlikeliest of coincidences, but I think it is simply cynical opportunism in the face of human tragedy. Analogues exist for what is happening here (capably documented in David Harvey's History of Neoliberalism): in the neo-conservative experiments in Chile under Pinoche and the most recent four decrees under Bremer's Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority that violated both Hague and Geneva Conventions through his imposition of a flat tax, the privatization of public enterprises and restrictions on workers' rights to organize, bargain collectively and strike.


( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY squidflakes)



Apparently there is some vast coinspiracy to oppress and persucute Christians all across America. That would definately explain all the churches that have been raided by the police, all the anti-Christian laws that have been passed lately, and the President himself getting on TV and proclaiming that Christians are somehow less than people.. under men is specifically what he said.

Oh, wait, I'm sorry, none of that is happening. Christian Underground, however, seems to be living in some strange alternate timeline where their religion is under attack.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY lihan161051)

War is what's left when everything, even diplomacy, fails and you are left with an enemy whose disagreements with you are so basic and so fundamental that you cannot hope to reason with him. This is important because there is no true winning or losing in a war, there is simply survival and defense of what is most meaningful to you.

And defense is the ultimate goal of any war, preserving what is important against someone's best efforts to destroy it. Even offensive tactics have a defensive goal, or at least they should.

( More.. )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

"Damn. Christians rule this fucking place. And yet Right Wing Chrisitans still feel persecuted like they are some small little religion that is being beat up by us big bad secularists..."
-'Delaware Dem' (@ Daily Kos)