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Old 12-11-2006, 02:27 PM   #1
BlueStar
Newly independent
 
Location: Some state's capitol building
Posts: 7,242
Red face The War on Christmas?

Last year, particularly, due in no small part to Fox News and Bill O'Reilly, there was a lot of talk about a "War on Christmas". And now Sea-Tac has removed its Christmas trees...

Christmas controversies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Christmas controversy refers to publicized controversy surrounding the public acknowledgement or celebration of the Christmas holiday in media, advertising, government, and other secular environments.

In past centuries, Christmas–related controversy was mainly restricted to a public focus on secular Christmas themes such as Santa Claus rather than what was glorified as the "reason for the Season"—the birth of Jesus. A symbolic issue from these former controversies was usage of the term "Xmas", which many allege is a conscious attempt at removing the term "Christ" from Christmas. ...

In present–day United States and Canada, it is often suggested that mention of the term "Christmas" in public venues such as government, media, and retail, is being strenuously avoided and replaced with a generic term, usually "holiday", while at the same time, specific, though non-religious Christmas customs such as Santa Claus and Christmas trees are often prominently showcased. Supporters of this effort often claim that the goal of this euphemistic terminology is to not offend non-Christians, while opponents report that since 80 percent of non–Christian US citizens celebrate Christmas, and a total of 96 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas, usage of the term "holiday" instead of "Christmas" is an effort to avoid connotations with Christianity or Jesus, rather than to "*******" non–Christians.

The term often associated with the most recent controversy is "the War on Christmas", a term that was popularized in conservative media in 1999, but is now just as popular in mainstream media.


The latest assault on Christmas...

Seattle airport removes Christmas trees after rabbi threatens lawsuit
December 10, 2006
Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel...l=chi-news-hed

All nine Christmas trees have been removed from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport instead of adding a giant menorah to the holiday display as a rabbi had requested.

Maintenance workers boxed up the trees during the graveyard shift Saturday, when airport bosses believed few people would notice.

"We decided to take the trees down because we didn't want to be exclusive," said airport spokeswoman Terri-Ann Betancourt. "We're trying to be thoughtful and respectful, and will review policies after the first of the year."

Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky, who made his request weeks ago, said he was appalled by the decision. He had hired a lawyer and threatened to sue if the Port of Seattle did not add the menorah next to the trees, which had been festooned with red ribbons and bows.

"Everyone should have their spirit of the holiday. For many people the trees are the spirit of the holidays, and adding a menorah adds light to the season," said Bogomilsky, who works at Chabad Lubavitch, a Jewish education foundation headquartered in Seattle's University District.


Another one from a couple of weeks ago...

Truce declared in peace wreath battle
November 28, 2006
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/28/pea....ap/index.html

A subdivision has withdrawn its threat of $25 daily fines against a homeowner who put a Christmas wreath shaped like a peace sign on the front of her home.

Homeowner Lisa Jensen told The Associated Press on Monday that the board of directors of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association had apologized, called the incident a misunderstanding and had withdrawn its request for the wreath's removal.

Jensen was ordered to take the wreath down when some residents in her 200-home subdivision saw it as a protest of the Iraq war. Bob Kearns, president of the board, also said some saw it as a symbol of Satan.

The homeowners' association demanded Jensen remove the wreath from her house, saying it doesn't allow flags or signs that are considered divisive. ...


An opinion piece from last year...

What 'War on Christmas'?
December 10, 2005
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...120901357.html

I've been hearing about this "War on Christmas," so I headed to the Heritage Foundation the other day for a briefing from one of the defending army's generals: Fox News anchor John Gibson, author of "The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought." Gibson -- and Bill O'Reilly, his comrade in the Fox-hole -- see this as a two-front war: Assaulting Christmas from the government end, they say, are pusillanimous school principals, politically corrected city managers and their ilk, bullied by the ACLU types into extirpating any trace of Christmas from the public square. Battering the holiday from the private sector are infidel retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart, which balk at using the C-word in their advertising in favor of such secularist slogans as "Happy Holidays."

The assault, Gibson told the Heritage crowd, has reached a "shocking level this year." ...

This is the time of year, though, when those of us who aren't Christian, or who don't celebrate Christmas, most feel our minority status. I've experienced this especially acutely since my children started to look longingly at shopping mall Santas (Santa's a nice guy, honey, but he's not for us) and ask why there are so few menorahs or dreidels among the reindeer and Christmas trees. (How to break this gently? Their team has a lot more players.) ...

But there is an ugly, bullying aspect to this dispute, in which the pro-Christmas forces are not only asking, reasonably, that their religion be treated with equal status and respect but in which they are attacking legitimate efforts at inclusivity. It's this sense of aggrieved victimhood that confuses me: What, exactly, is so threatening about calling the school holiday a winter break rather than Christmas vacation? ...

This has reached its most imposition-of-Sharia-law-like level of intolerance in the campaign to cow stores into saying Christmas. O'Reilly, escalating his "Christmas Under Siege" campaign, has posted a list of naughty and nice retailers. The American Family Association goes further, calling for a boycott of stores -- it's targeted Target -- that fail to use the word Christmas in their advertising or in-store promotions. "Target doesn't want to offend a small minority who oppose Christmas," says AFA's chairman, Donald Wildmon. "But they don't mind offending Christians who celebrate the birth of Christ."

Really? I've just gone on the Target Web site and plugged Christmas into my product search. "We found 39,197 match(es) for 'Christmas' at Target," it reported. How offensive is that?

 
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