I offer up the following that appeared today in Long Island Newsday:

http://www.newsday.com/news/printedi...y-linews-print

http://www.newsday.com/news/columnis...ews-columnists

http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-g1t...,3051163.story

I don't often agree with Ellis Henican's columns, but I think he's right on the money here.

Scott<>

What is wrong with these people?

The city fathers in Birmingham,UK,several years a go,decided to rename the city festivities as "Winterval",so as not to offend anyone.They did.The church,the public,and most people of all faiths.I was bitterly disappointed,as an agnostic,but certainly not objecting to anyone following their faith,I somehow like the US celebration of Festivus.At least at the end of the night you can grapple the party host to the floor,after telling all the guests what you really think about them. :D


Watch the video at this link.Let it load first,then simply press play.Dont forget to turn your speakers on:

http://www.vidlit.com/festivus/

Holy crap - it's a Christmas tree lighting, the symbol of a christian holiday, what the hell did he expect?

That senator is an idiot.

He expected, and I think reasonably so, that a ceremony being held on town property and sponsored by the town government would not be specific to any one religion.

What was idiotic and unreasonable, was his reaction. Rather than make a big deal out of it, he should have just spoken to the priest privately.

Scott<>

So why was a priest presiding? And why were they 'blessing' the tree?

Apparently they had been rotating clergy each year. The "blessing" was the priest's idea though I doubt if the town board had discussed it with him before hand, which was their mistake.

The priest was quoted as having decided to not do something generic, which means he must have considered the issue. He mentioned that different clergy were asked each year. That should have told him that they were rotating for fairness and that he should have been more secular, even though it was billed as a Christmas Tree lighting.

Scott<>

Ah, I see then.

25 December is Christmas. To those I offend, tough. The constitution guarantees my right to free speech and free practice on my religion. It denies government support of Christianity or anti Christian ideas such as homosexualism is an acceptable life style. The equal protection clause prohibits violence against homosexuals as it should.

Umm what does that have to do with this? Especially the homosexuality part. No where was that brought up.

There are two issues at play here. First, was the politician's reaction reasonable (I say no). Second, was the priest correct in not using a secular blessing (I say that's borderline).

The fact is that this ceremony was being held on TOWN property and was sponsored by the TOWN government. On that basis, the priest would have been more circumspect to use a more secular blessing. However, since it was billed as a Christmas Tree lighting, his action may have been justifiable.

[rant]
Personnally I think that this is starting to go a little tooo far.
If everyone is going to complain then cancel it, after all the only reason we have a holiday at this time of year is for religion !!!

So stop with the "Happy Holidays" BS and call it as it is CHRISTMAS, after all Nobody moans about Halloween !!!

If you want to play fair then we should celebrate every religious holiday in every nation worldwide, problem there is we'd never get anything done ;) [/rant]

And we get something done now? <EG>

Scott<>

Refer to anyone who does not immediately agree with you as being uneducated on the matter, lacking in important information, or just plain too stupid to understand your magnificent statements. :eek:

Refer to anyone who does immediately agree with you as being confused on the matter,and that is'nt really what you said. :(

Refer to yourself as totally confused by the two different views above,and you have'nt the faintest idea what the original post was about,but you thought saying something,is better than saying nothing at all :rolleyes:


By the way,why not try and keep the bad guests out of the xmas party.It is from Yahoo,but you dont have to sign in.Just shut the "close frame" notice,at the very bottom on the left side of the page,to make the game fit the screen.Oh,and don't forget to put your speakers on.Watch the instructions first,before you play if you wish.Very funny.

http://www.snowwatch.forumsplace.com...rty.yahoo.net/

I am not sure if I am missing something here but if the senator rotates clergy every year to do a "religous" holiday ceremony what did he expect the clergy was going to say? I may think too simple but if he didn't want the name Jesus Christ to be mentioned he should have done one of three things 1) mentioned to him before hand as Scott has stated or 2) do not get a clergy to do it or 3) as CurlyBen stated to cancel the whole thing. I know I am going to have flak for this but if government officials think that the gov shouldn't have anything to do with religion then why does the government have the holiday off in the first place? I work for NYS and am grateful for it but maybe the gov shouldn't declare this as a national holiday and only the ones who celebrate it should be priviledged to have it off as the Jewish holidays do. In the end, I agree the senator shouldn't have made the priest look like an idiot and made that statement. What gets me is he was from the priest's congregation so he had every avenue to mention this before hand knowing a priest MAY bring this up.

Only in america can we do a bunch of stupid stuff and call it the American W :cool: :cool: ay!

Hi,
Christmas is just that, birth of Christ. Take "Christ" out of Christmas and what's left... mas.
As I have stated before, and will continue to state, laws were made my minorities, ruling that Gov't and Public Places can't display anthing with the word Christ, and in this case "Christ"mas lights.
It will come a time when all this will be History, and Christians everywhere will be, once again, allowed to practice their faith, without questioning by those who have a soapbox full of laws against us.
There are too many who don't want to "offend" anyone with anything about religion. Even though Christmas is the birth of Christ, there are those who want to forget it, and not allow it to be mentioned, anywhere.
Funny that some very large department store chains "backed down" from their "no display" of the word "Christmas"...
As far as Christmas lights on Public Property, and even on Gov't property, I have seen many of them here in this area. Just the fact that a Senator seems to have missed something shows that traditions are not dead yet!
Merry Christmas to all, and Happy New Year. If I offend you, then it's your problem, and you haven't yet accepted the fact that this is America.

I only read #2. Yes, it was right on target.

Very well put!

I wont get windy with a long response, it is just plain sad that it has all come to this, why can’t each of us celebrate our holidays and be happy for our family and what we have, if it is not your holiday then it does not concern you just more on, Merry Christmas to all and happy new year too. And may YOUR GOD bless you.

I only read #2. Yeah, it was right on. What MORON would ask a Priest to give a Blessing without mentioning Christ.

A Blessing from a Catholic Priest is his asking God/Christ to be there.

And a side note:

While Christmas used to be a Holy Day for only Christians, it is now a Holiday for anyone who wants to be Merry at that time of year.

All are welcome!

So Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!