All I Want for Christmas is Some Tolerance

This year, nowhere was the stark irony of Christmas sans Christ (or anything remotely related to the Christian religion) more apparent than in Denver. There, the Parade of Lights rolled along, replete with secular symbols of the season like gingerbread houses and Santa Claus mixed with what organizers claimed would be an "international procession to celebrate the cultural and ethnic diversity of the region," according to the event Web site. This included homosexual/bisexual Native Americans, belly dancers and a ceremonial Chinese dance which purpose was to "chase away evil spirits," reported the Rocky Mountain News. So what's the rub? Christian-themed floats were disallowed. WorldNetDaily reports, "Parade spokesman Michael Krikorian said the event does not allow 'direct religious themes.' Included in the ban [were] signs that read 'Merry Christmas' and the singing or playing of Christmas hymns. 'We want to avoid that specific religious message out of respect for other religions in the region,' Krikorian told the Rocky Mountain News. 'It could be construed as disrespectful to other people who enjoy a parade each year.'" (The rejected church group walked the parade route before it began singing carols.)

In another case, an Oklahoma school superintendent cancelled the singing of Silent Night and a nativity scene from a school play. He said, "I just could not break the law," Springer said. "We may have sins of omission occasionally, but we won't have sins of commission. If I know about something that I believe to be against the law, (then) we will take action on it." This telling ignorance of the law and fear of church-state separation issues plays out nationwide more and more each year, thanks in no small part to the secularizing force of the American Civil Liberties Union. More conservative legal rights organizations like the Alliance Defense Fund (www.alliancedefensefund.org) and Free Market Foundation (freemarket.org) routinely mail letters on behalf of hapless Christians to school boards and officials informing them of case law and the Constitutional right to freedom of speech in such cases. Kelly Shackelford, president of the Free Market Foundation says, "Censoring Christmas is not what the Constitution says, not what the law says and not even what the Supreme Court has said. You can even study the Bible in public schools as an appropriate subject of literature or history

Excerpts from LeaderU.com 6-Jan-05 article:
All I Want for Christmas is Some Tolerance