15th Update: The Christmas Edition part II There is just sooo much holiday cheer. [/sarcasm] Seriously though, there are a lot of articles about Christmas and the Holidays and I figured they might be similar enough that I could post them all together. As always feel free to comment on anything pertaining to the articles. The prompts are just suggestions and points I found interesting...though I tried to leave some of the more obvious stuff out because I don't want to be too repeative. I should probably warn you (if you can't guess from some of the titles) that some of the are opinion articles on how Christmas is about Christ and should still remain a national USA holiday. The issue isn't specifically pagan in nature, but it does apply. Some people may find it offensive.
http://www.redding.com/news/2007/nov/28/tehama/
Tehama says OK to Santa
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Is the Depiction of Santa really “secular”?
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“a county Halloween display of a pumpkin at the base of a guillotine, he said. If the county chose to recognize a religious holiday for Wiccans, it ought to do the same for Christians” This quote leads to a few questions: Is a pumpkin at the base of a guillotine a “pagan holiday symbol”? Is Halloween actually a “pagan holiday”? Since when is Halloween and the following day not a Christian holiday?
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Is removing Santa from the Department of Social Services appropriate? When is removing all/some/ or any religious or holiday displays from an office or a department appropriate?
And as a follow up from a previous story: http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=53219
Wiccan Symbol Won't Be Placed Next to Nativity
4. You know, I think all the questions I could ask about this have been asked, so throw you some of your own thoughts, feelings and opinions on this one.
http://www.redbluffdailynews.com/ci_7600992
Neighbors: Christmas has more than one meaning
5. “Many holidays have two sides, pagan and Christian.” Does this statement ring true to you, why or why not
6. “Most symbols of Christmas have a secular meaning and a Christian meaning.” Do you agree with this why or why not?
7. Here we are again with the idea of Santa as a secular image, which leads me to asking: Do non-Christian children look forward to the arrival of Santa?
8. Why should pagans or any other religions be asked to subscribe to a holiday name that doesn't belong to what they celebrate?
9. Does a connection in some symbols used in solstice celebrations and Christmas celebrations make the two the same holiday? Are the themes or the actual nature of the celebrations that similar?
Alright so I cheated a little. This one isn't really that holiday oriented.
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/nov/07113004.html
Just in Time for Christmas - Canadian Broadcaster Floats Show on How Christ Didn't Really Exist
10. Based off of the synopsis here, what do you think of the show?
11. Is there a problem with releasing this kind of special so close to the holidays?
12. “The Post wrote, that the phenomenon of thousands of pilgrims responding to a papal invitation to deepen their spiritual lives, "does not compute in the mind of those middle aged bien pensants for whom the idea of moral certainty is alien and traditional institutional religion abhorrent."” Any reactions to this quote?
13. Does anyone have any personal experience with the CBC? Do you think the is a fair article on their style of journalism?
http://www.chieftain.com/life/1196502284/4
There's good reason for calling the season 'Christmas'
14. Do you find this article offensive, honest, uninformed, well researched, or something other? Please explain
15. “Would there be any wintertime celebration in modern civilization if, for some reason, the events of Christmas didn't happen?” This is an interesting question, anyone have any thoughts?
16. Do you agree with the jump in logics the author made? If not where do you see holes?
17. “If one argues he should be able to rename Christmas as, say, "the winter holidays" and celebrate it without any acknowledgement of Jesus Christ, then a Christian should be able to celebrate, for instance, Ramadan, but with no recognition of Muhammad or the Quran. And rename it "the starve-until-after-sundown month."” Is this a fair statement?
I guess you could call this an update on the Ft Collins stories I've posted :http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=82013
Outspoken sheriff helps erect Christmas tree to counter city policy
18. No questions here.
http://www.tomahjournal.com/articles/2007/12/02/opinion/02leecolumn.txt
Column: America's Christian heritage slipping away
19.Just your dose of “look at how much worse things could be, the majority could think like this” moment. I think the only coherent comment I can make is wow, and apparently both liberals and conservatives use the same people don't vote for what they really want speech.