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Here we go....playing the "Majority Guilt" card now....
People in the majority can never understand what it's like to be in the minority. Period.
I'll relate a little story. I had warned my choral teacher that if she kept forcing non-Christian kids to sing Christian carols that she would eventually pay a price (in our school, chorus was an elective course, not an extracurricular activity). Her response always was, "Well, I'll throw in a Jewish song". How nice of her to "throw it in".
Then one year, a Muslim mother came in the day after the holiday concert sobbing (literally) because the choral teacher had forced her child to sing Christmas carols. So I said, "Stay right there,. I'll be right back." A couple of minutes later I came back with the choral teacher and asked the mother to tell her complaint directly to the teacher. There was much crying on both sides. And then, after the parent left, the choral teacher said to me, "Why didn't you protect me?" After that year, I never had to give any warnings to the choral teacher. Hearing it face to face from an angry parent solved the problem.
I don't know when or where you were a kid, but I can tell what's changed since I was a kid. I lived in a small town of a little over 3,000 in the village and another 3,000 in the surrounding township. The population was 100% White until about 1962 when 1 Black family finally moved into the town and were...not violently, but fairly consistently shunned. And, at least until I moved away in about 1972, that was the only Black family in town. No Latinos, either. No Asians. 1 family was Jewish and had to go to "the big city" burbs (Rochester) to find a synagogue. The town was predominantly Protestant, with a minority of Catholics...even though it was the birthplace of Mormonism...but don't worry, the Mormons were pretty much gone because Joseph Smith was run out of town over the excuse that he was a horse thief. There were a handful of Mormon families still in town, and they held services in their homes. There was an Assembly Of God church, but most Palmyrans said "that's not a real church". One afternoon a week, the Protestant kids were let out of school an hour early to go to church school. None of kids of other religons could go because their churches were too far away to walk safely...even though many kinds walked right past those churches an hour later on their way home from school.
That's what's changed.
So let's stick it to the Christians when we have the chance....us minorities are "owed" something
I didn't know Santa was this big Christian figure. The religious reason behind Christmas, I always thought, was that it was the birthday of Jesus Christ. I always looked at Santa the same way I look at the Easter Bunny.
Wasn't that hundreds of years ago? I wonder if you would denounce radical Islam (where young girls are being raped at this very moment, people get thrown off roofs, burned alive, or beheaded with a rusty dull sword, or stoned to death) with the same fury? I think you'd be better occupied directing your anger towards them, and not at a Santa Claus who pretends to give gifts to little children for being good little boys and girls all year. If all those repressed peoples you mentioned didn't like the celebration of a Christian holiday, they're all free to decline participation. When I was baptized in early 1972, my jewish grandmother was present, but was she NOT forced to choke down The Body of Christ. Neither was my own mother, who never received communion.
1) Yes Santa (Saint Nicholas) is absolutely a Christian figure. Not secular. I don't know of any Saints in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism or any other religion outside of Christianity. And he is a symbol of Christmas. Not the Winter Solstice, or New Year, or December. So anyone who says it's not a religious symbol is either being dishonest with themselves, or just doesn't think clearly.
2) Yes a trip to see Santa was not a very appropriate use of public funds. Anyone who thinks otherwise, should ask themselves how would they feel if their kids' school took the entire class to some Jewish place to spin a dreidel on Chanukah for the holidays.
3) Yes it did serve to elevate one religion above all others. Since Santa, no matter how you spin it, is a Christian symbol.
4) I think the complaint by the Jewish woman, based on what's in article, was reasonable:
" public school should respect and focus on all religions during the holiday season
“This is not a Jewish issue for me. It’s an inclusion issue,” Talia told NBC Bay Area."
While the other mom who accused her of launching a "War on Christmas" and staged the walkout really seems to be overreacting.
Just FYI. The Sufi sect of Islam does indeed have saints.
I didn't know Santa was this big Christian figure. The religious reason behind Christmas, I always thought, was that it was the birthday of Jesus Christ. I always looked at Santa the same way I look at the Easter Bunny.
Oh, don't bring up that evil figure, he's along the lines of Hades!!
I can type a looooonnnngggg list of things that make me a minority. I'm a victim! Where's the sympathy for me??? Will the entire world change just for me, too? I' m gonna jump up and down until I get on the news!
OMG, how HORRID. My jewish grandmother must have suffered terribly when she put up her Christmas tree next to her Menorah in the window every Christmas. Ever since she married that evil, controlling catholic husband of hers. What terrible repression! My mother and her three siblings had so much of both religions forced down their throats for so many years, they're still screaming in terror! Oy Vey Iz Meer! Basta sie Basta! AHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGG!!!!!!!
Seriously, though, this all boils down to Thomas Sowell's best random thought: "Those with time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of those who have work to do."
That was her personal choice ? Or was it made for her by the school ?
I grew up in a mixed family as well. I don't think we've had it particularly bad as kids, but still had a granduncle whose whole family kept telling us that we were going to hell unless we accepted Jesus. And I do know that Santa is a Christian since on more than one occasion he'd ask me if I loved Jesus or if I was going to the church on Sunday. Being just a young boy, I was too shy to tell him it was none of his damn business. Luckily my Jewish grandma and my Catholic grandparents weren't too religious and got along just great.
My oldest son was told in elementary school that he is going to hell because he wasn't baptized (actually he was, just to please the other Great-Grandma, but he didn't know that). He's 14 now, so it was perhaps 8 years ago. Kids have very keen ideas of religious differences already. The last thing a public school should do is to reinforce them.
I can type a looooonnnngggg list of things that make me a minority. I'm a victim! Where's the sympathy for me??? Will the entire world change just for me, too? I' m gonna jump up and down until I get on the news!
Where does it end??
one public library in Queens (part of NYC) has books in 151 languages, because that's how many different languages and dialects are spoken among the 8.4 million residents . Now there is a big controversy to have highway signs in Spanish as well as English. I'm wondering if representatives of the other 149 languages will want the highway signs in their native languages as well. I'm getting old and probably will not be able to read the small letters on the sign.
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