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DUH! Seat belts aren't in the constitution but ya have to wear one.
Why is your faith so weak that you have to display it on Public property???? What are you trying to prove? Jesus loves jerks???
Did Jesus show off???
I'll take these in order. Please stay with me.
What have seat belts to do with this discussion? You have to wear them because LAWS were created requiring you to do so. Someone (and I don't recall whether it was you or not) said that putting up a Jesus bauble was unconstitutional. I asked for proof of that statement. Still I wait.
My faith has not been discussed, nor will it be. This isn't about any religion I do or do not practice.
I'm trying to prove that people say things here and have absolutely no proof of their statements. Often, those statements are untrue. See the above assertion of the unconstitutionality of Jesus baubles.
If you subscribe to the Christian teaching, yes Jesus loves jerks, as they are gods children like all other people. If you don't subscribe to Christian teachings... well then don't worry much about who Jesus loves.
Did Jesus show off? I don't know? Does this matter somehow?
Are you arguing this is generally accepted practice in the country even among areas with significant Jewish populations because this occurred at your school? What about other religions. Do schools in New Jersey with heavy Indian populations shut down for Diwali?
No, but they shut down for Rosh Hashanna(sp?) and Yom Kippur.
No, but they shut down for Rosh Hashanna(sp?) and Yom Kippur.
New York City schools close for those holidays. The situation in New Jersey varies across its many dozens of school systems. The state government does maintain a list of 80+ religious holidays on which an individual student may be excused from school for religious reasons.
I don't know who those people are, either!
Great column by Ben. Thanks for posting.
I/We look forward to Christmas each year in the family, and honestly appreciate decorations celebrating any given holiday/celebration. (To me, God is personal but that's another thread )
In everyday life, however, I run far and fast from people who are obnoxious and "too much talk" (this goes for any religion although mine is most guilty in my own experiences with people) because these people tend to be full of crap anyway and seem to NEVER actually practice what they preach. I'm taking about the extremists -- church without fail then proceed to treat everyone like garbage while chronically reminding everyone how they go to church , and do nothing but judge, be critical, and prejudiced against every intricate thing about a person remotely different from them. These are the people I can not tolerate.
"They" have made Christmas $$$$$$$$. The money-grubbing Church is as guilty as the retailers in this regard, IMO, which is what has really turned so many people off ... the Christmas tunes my family reports they are already hearing on the Boobed Tube for starters...
I ask relatives each year just to please just give to a charity (ALDF) in my name and they won't consider it. Yet when we were kids, we were encouraged to give a toy to a poor family up the next block. It felt GOOD! It's really lost its meaning and this is probably why people are fed up more than they would be; and 20 years ago it wasn't an issue. We all just went along our merry ways, with the flow, and enjoyed. Times have certainly changed.
I won't say directly that there is a war, but didn't NY demand that the "Christian" portion of their "multi-religous" display take down the manger scene and force them to use a "Christmas tree" as their symbol? By the way, there is NOTHING Christian about the "Christmas tree". There never was, its a secular commercialized addition.
If I recall, the city had a pre-existing list of approved icons that could be used in holiday displays, and a manger was not on the list. The case was about the school board's right to make and enforce such a list, not whether a manger should or should not have been seen as appropriate.
Well, that's just silly. Not to mention rude, and more than a touch arrogant. Of course they own the holiday. The holiday is CHRISTMAS. Yes, CHRISTIANS created the holiday and define the hoiday. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ. If you are celebrating Christmas, then you are celebrating the birth of christ. You can't just change the definition of the word to suit your whims & wants. Now, if you want to take Decenber 25th off, and have a party and a tree, but don't believe in Christ, you go right ahead & do that, all you want. BUt in that case, you aren't celebrating christmas, you're just taking advantage of a convenient day of celebration. Please though, don't be so pompous and arrogant that you think it's ok to tell CHRISTIANS that CHRISTMAS doesn't involve CHRIST.
So Christmas has now become a stridently exclusive holiday that is reserved for celebration by Christians only, yet you will demand to be able to wish the rest of us a Merry Christmas even though we are not in fact allowed to celebrate Christmas at all.
And then you will actually talk about being pompous and arrogant????? What a hoot...
Educate us please; I'd like to see where in the Constitution it says that the public display of religion is not allowed.
If the public display of religion were disallowed, you'd see dozens of people being carted away every day for wearing a crucifix.
What is disallowed is any act by the state or its agents in the actual or implicit conduct of their duties either to encourage or disparage any one religion over another, or religion over non-religion. Other than that, you can do pretty much whatever you want...
So Christmas has now become a stridently exclusive holiday that is reserved for celebration by Christians only, yet you will demand to be able to wish the rest of us a Merry Christmas even though we are not in fact allowed to celebrate Christmas at all.
And then you will actually talk about being pompous and arrogant????? What a hoot...
I don't demand to wish or be wished anything. This isn't about me. It's about CHRISTmas. CHRISTMAS is in fact a CHRISTIAN holiday. Do you not pay attention to the words? Words have meaning. CHRISTMAS is the celebration of the birth of CHRIST. We don't need to celebrate it. Christians aren't demanding that we believe in it. And I haven't seen any of them say that I, or you, can't have some celebration of our own on the same day. But you have to see that you will not be celebrating CHRISTMAS if you don't acknowledge CHRIST. Call it something else for yourself. Happy December 25. Merry winter. Joyous pine tree day. Woo hoo. But you can't tell those who celebrate CHRISTMAS that it's not about CHRIST, or demand that they stop trying to make it about CHRIST. That IS what it's about.
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Why do so many companies give employees the day off? I don't NEED it off--I could work. I've even seen them close churches on the Holiday (not the Catholic ones--I can't remember, does "midnight Mass" follow Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day?) But I don't need the day off. Thanksgiving isn't considered a religious holiday--but I'm willing to work that day. Why close?
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