The great leveling can't put out all the lights
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Over the past few decades, secularists and leftists have mounted an aggressive effort to suppress Christianity's historical and current importance in America, and place all religions – or no religion – on the same level.
A national survey taken in late November by Grinnell College indicates that they have been wildly successful. For example, city dwellers, young people and women are far more supportive of Muslims than of Christians. Sixty-eight percent of Democrats said employers should grant a request for prayer space by Muslims – but only 45 percent said employers should grant a similar request by Christians.
One area in which the cultural levelers haven't had much success is suppressing Christmas. Evidence of the holiday abounds in airports, hotel lobbies, on radio and TV, in people's yards and certainly in stores. Even non-Christians get into the spirit. The multicultural spoilsports can't keep the festivities down, except in public schools, where they make sure children are not exposed to timeless Christmas carols that stir the heart. Or, in some cases, even to green and red napkins.
In The Chronicles of Narnia , C.S. Lewis describes the bleak Narnian landscape as "always winter, but never Christmas." That sounds like school winter concerts that have replaced Christmas celebrations.
Today's cultural vandals can look back for inspiration to the 20th century. In the atheist Soviet Union, the Communists got rid of St. Nicholas and replaced him with the secular "Grandfather Frost." In 1938, when Germany's Nazis annexed Austria, one of the first things they did was to ban Christmas observances in public schools. As Maria Trapp of The Sound of Music fame recounts one of her children saying, "In school we are not permitted to sing any religious songs with the name of Christ or Christmas. We can hardly sing any Bach for that reason."
Some of the pressure to downplay Christmas in America comes from Grinchly atheists, but some of it's the work of liberals terrified of offending immigrants from predominantly Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist countries. Where else in the world do countries willingly shed their cultural heritage so that newcomers won't be offended? Well, OK, Europe. That continent is trying to live down its Christian past so that, as Mark Steyn has chronicled, Eurabia can rise in its place.
Even though Islamic doctrine opposes much of the liberal social agenda, progressives have elevated it and other religions as a wedge against their real foe, Christianity.
"For example, the arrival of a small Muslim group in a large Christian-populated town allows Democrats to argue that religious equality requires the cultural visibility of Christianity be reduced to the same level as Islam," Breitbart's Neil Munro explains in an article about the Grinnell findings.
Following public backlashes in California and Virginia over the introduction of Islamic concepts in public schools, defenders of the practice insisted that a well-rounded education include comparative religion. That's not a bad idea, but it's not the same as honestly teaching the importance of the Bible and Christianity to America's history and government structure. You can't really understand America without it.
All too often, offering "comparative religion" has meant pretending that all religions teach the same thing. In Georgia, for instance, in 2015, a sample classroom guide said that Islam, Christianity and Judaism share the "same God," which is patently false.
In Staunton, Virginia, a high school session on comparative religion had students copy in calligraphy the Shahada, the Islamic statement of faith, which says, "There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger."
In Illinois, the Satanic Temple of Chicago got permission this year to erect a sculpture stepping on Christmas. Placed near a Nativity, a Christmas tree and a Menorah in the Illinois Capitol's rotunda, the edifice depicts a snake wrapped around a woman's hand as she holds an apple. It makes Satan the hero for promising that if Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, it would render them "like gods, knowing good and evil."
Also in the rotunda is a sign that says "religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds." That would be news to the Christians who led the fight against slavery, fought for civil rights, ended child labor, founded hospitals and advanced the concept of mercy in a very cold world.
Since this kind of detail is absent from most school history books, the results of the Grinnell survey should not come as a surprise, nor the official acceptance of a Satanic sculpture as morally equivalent to a creche.
The good news is that despite all their best efforts to snuff them out, the lights sparkling in commercial splendor and on front lawns all across America still point to a baby born 2,000 years ago who brought God's love for humanity into startlingly bright focus.
Robert Knight is a Washington Times contributor and author of "A Nation Worth Fighting For: 10 Steps to Restore Freedom". This column first appeared on The Washington Times' website.
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“One area in which the cultural levelers haven't had much success is suppressing Christmas. Evidence of the holiday abounds in airports, hotel lobbies, on radio and TV, in people's yards and certainly in stores. Even non-Christians get into the spirit. The multicultural spoilsports can't keep the festivities down, except in public schools, where they make sure children are not exposed to timeless Christmas carols that stir the heart. Or, in some cases, even to green and red napkins.
In The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis describes the bleak Narnian landscape as "always winter, but never Christmas." That sounds like school winter concerts that have replaced Christmas celebrations.
Today's cultural vandals can look back for inspiration to the 20th century. In the atheist Soviet Union, the Communists got rid of St. Nicholas and replaced him with the secular "Grandfather Frost." In 1938, when Germany's Nazis annexed Austria, one of the first things they did was to ban Christmas observances in public schools. As Maria Trapp of The Sound of Musicfame recounts one of her children saying, "In school we are not permitted to sing any religious songs with the name of Christ or Christmas. We can hardly sing any Bach for that reason."”
As gifted to Americans by the US Constitution, to protect them from those that would attempt to impose unwanted beliefs and edicts on others. As long as religious extremists promote uncompromising attitudes towards free will and individual freedoms granted by the Constitution, I will support the ongoing battle to remove illegal religious exhibitions, that had previously been given a pass in secular America, by using the rule of law to keep preferential treatment of any single religion off of public property and restricted to private property where it belongs. Don't like it? Simple solution. Pack up your bibles and get the fuck out. Placement of religious displays on public property is nothing more than a marketing ploy for the most part to attract more suckers to the longest running Ponzi scheme in world history. In this country for the last five decades, a tax exempt money laundering scam that benefits those that offer it protection and help perpetuate it.
Your fondest hopes and wishes will never be fulfilled.
I am a Deist, I always say Merry Christmas. The war on Christmas is an imaginary one created by trump. As soon as he bleats something, a story to, "support" his idiotic statements shows up here within days. The, "war on Christmas" was created by trump, our gas-lighter in chief, to gin up support. He created a false. "problem", and most of his base bought it hook line and sinker.
Please tell us what law was passed that says saying, "Merry Christmas" is illegal?
We'll wait.
Uh, Didn't know that, Me too. Merry X-mas back.
lol
Oh that pesky 1st amendment..
Actually it’s allowed to mix religious and secular Christmas songs together in a Christmas season concert at public schools.
Public schools do not allow religious songs because of the 1st. They are allowed to do Christmas songs, along with Hanukkah songs, 3 Kings Day, and Kwanza. The holidays should not be a time to make children feel excluded.
The link I included showed how they do include religious Christmas songs with the secular ones and mix something about Hanukkah and Kwansa with the manger scene to make it inclusive enough to be permitted. The courts agreed with the public schools out here in the Heartland that do this with the Indiana case mentioned in particular.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam are known as the Abrahamic religions because they all stem from and pray to the god of Abraham.
If that comparative religion class is being taught in a public school then all religions must be on an equal basis and taught without bias or endorsement toward any of them. To do otherwise is a attempt to convert. Non-belief must all be taught without bias.
Baphomet is only there because there is a nativity scene. If the Nativity scene goes away then Baphomet also disappears. If one religious display is permitted on public property such as the state house rotunda then it opens the doors for everyone else to take part on an equal basis.
That display is supported by the Freedom From religion Foundation.
Of course they do because that is their religion of choice.
Atheists obviously don't have a religion, because if they did, they wouldn't be atheists.
what is the mystical unproven entity that their "religion" worships ?
Yes, if I wanted a religion, I would have one. I don't want a religion
Baphomet is the head of and founder of the atheist religion.
Stop using words that you don't understand the definition of. It would seem that the concept of atheist eludes you. Atheists are not Satanists and we wouldn't be atheists if we were.
well that's just not true . - maybe in the future you should do some research and look up actual facts instead of making them up .
Satan is not a diety. He only wishes that he could be “like God”. He is the force behind and author of the atheist movement.
Atheists are not convinced that Satan exists either.
That is a Christian belief that is not shared by Satanists.
If atheists believed in Satan then they wouldn't be atheists because atheists do not believe in any sort of higher deity. Satan was created by and is a central figure of the Christian religion. Satan and God are a yin-yang of balance.
Clearly you have no idea what you're talking about.
Satan is just one of many deities from many different cultures and societies. He's also one of many myths, just like all god(s)/deities.
See first statement. Atheists do not believe in Satan either.
Since when is no religion a religion?
and oddly enough - Satan is a creator (of demons), Satan can't be defeated by God (or it's taking a really super long time since it hasn't happened yet...) and Satan is able to control people's thoughts/wills just like God...
can you explain all of this ?
Contradicts God's omnipotence. What other logical option is left other than Satan operates with God's approval?
The war on Christmas continues.
There is no war on Christmas and we don't live in Narnia, sheesh !
And good on Chicago for their tolerance of all religious displays. You know this, xx, allow one religious icon, allow all, it's only fair unless you want to CENSOR non-christian religious beliefs.
As does the Christian persecution complex and/or victim mentality.
More hand wringing over the faux war on xmas...
I know, right?
If there was really a war on X-mas they would be going after the white male guy smoking a pipe while he is naked, Damn that Frosty the Snowman.
Err...Snowperson.
.
lol
Depends are where the carrot is lol
All my lights have been put out, Christmas is not the same since my son and my husband passed away.
Our house was decked out inside and outside (not Clark Griswald decked out). I was known as the Christmas kid and told inside my house looked like a Christmas Store.
Since my husband passed in 2013 I don't have it in me to decorate.
Christmas was always a fun time especially as a kid, my dad and I would sing together by the manger. I have the manger he made from the 1960s, and the original lights still work, but I can't even put that out anymore.
My depression and anxiety is through the roof during the holidays. I can't even watch Christmas specials and I loved to watch them.
I'm so sorry to hear this. Sending you a big cyber hug.
Jan 1 can't come soon enough for me.
(((lady in black)))
I can relate. My husband passed this year and while we were never big on the decorating thing, the 25th will be depressing for me. I plan to just do a steak with a nice bottle of wine.
(((Paula)))
What Trout said.
Well, you got us. A poor substitute for sure, but you can lean on us all you want to.
I won't get into my ideas about the holidays because I don't want to open wounds that have never healed, but I'd rather sleep from now until the 2nd if nobody minds. If I could only sleep for more than 3-4 hours at a time.
Magnesium Chloride.
Hot chocolate with 3 shots of kaluha works for me.
I'm going to try that one
"Following public backlashes in California and Virginia over the introduction of Islamic concepts in public schools, defenders of the practice insisted that a well-rounded education include comparative religion. That's not a bad idea, but it's not the same as honestly teaching the importance of the Bible and Christianity to America's history and government structure. You can't really understand America without it."
Every American history book lets the reader know the Pilgrims were Christian as were most of the first European settlers to come and settle on native lands. We do not need to indoctrinate children in the teachings of the bible or of the Koran or any other religious scripture in public schools just to teach the "importance" of Christianity or any other faith, and yes, you can fully understand America without being a Christian.
"In Georgia, for instance, in 2015, a sample classroom guide said that Islam, Christianity and Judaism share the "same God," which is patently false."
Patently false? It's absolutely true, it's an established fact regardless of any half wits opinion. All three religions share the same root, the God of Abraham who supposedly made a covenant with him. From the slave girl Hagar came Islam through her son Ishmael, and then from Sarah came Isaac and the father of the Israelite's from which centuries later some folks hijacked and created Christianity based on the life of a Jewish prophet/carpenter.
"had students copy in calligraphy the Shahada, the Islamic statement of faith"
And how many kids have been forced to hear the story of Christmas and the baby Jesus in our public schools? Been given Christmas art projects or been forced to wear uncomfortable fake beards as the wide men in a Christmas play? But now, you don't hear about Christians complaining that religion in being injected into public schools when its their own. The way most Christians treat the separation of Church and State is contemptible, and seethe's of hypocrisy every time they raise their voice to complain about some other religion doing the same.
There is no fucking war on Christmas. If you feel you're under attack what you're actually feeling is the nation slowly ending the war Christians have waged on secular society since our founding. As we become a more perfect union where no religion has any special place, any extra privilege over other faiths, it's inevitable that the Religion that has been sitting on top of the pile subjecting everyone to its will in contradiction to the constitution would start to feel angry and bitter about losing their power. Nothing displays this repugnant trait more than the above seeded article of pure sniveling whiny horse shit spray painted gold.
The War on Christmas refers specifically to the controversy surrounding the celebration or acknowledgment of the Christmas holiday in government, media, advertising and other secular environments. Modern-day controversy occurs around the world, and stems from the holiday's significant annual role in celebrating cultural values in Western society. See The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought . Fox News has been particularly vocal in the War on Christmas, trying to prevent secular censorship of Christmas celebration. [1] Bill O'Reilly had devoted numerous segments on his show in recent years to the War on Christmas.
Regurgitating conservative talking points not only demonstrates a bias, but also shows how weak your argument really is. Last I checked, Xmas is still celebrated and no one is prohibited or punished for doing so.
What cultural value are you referring to unless trampling people for a $30.00 DVD player or being outraged because somebody wished you Happy Holidays is a moral value?
What part of Xmas has been censored by the government? Who is doing 5-10 years for Santa?