Political Correctness Clashes with Christmas - Again

Well, it looks like the "PC" Grinch is declaring war on Christmas once again. This Christmas season, The American Humanist Association has plastered negative ads about God on metro buses in Washington DC. The "Godless Holiday Campaign" ad states: "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness sake." The slogan will appear on Washington, D.C., buses through the month of December, with a picture of a lady in a Santa costume. The AHA is using the reason that agnostics and atheists are lonely during the holidays.

Lots of people are lonely during the holidays, even religious people. Surely there is another way to help those who have no religious affiliation besides insulting those who do.

Within the last decade or so, children have been incorrectly prohibited from singing Christmas songs (as well as songs at other times of year) with the word "God" or "Christ" even though their whole class has been told to "pick whatever song they want". Choirs have refrained from singing Christmas carols that mention the Christ child. Wal-Mart, Target and other stores have refused to use the word "Christmas" and then, in the face of boycotts, reclaimed the word. This year, Costco (a membership retail chain with over 520 stores) is refusing to use the word because it "may insult those who don't observe Christmas".

Well, how about the people that DO observe Christmas? Don't they have the right to be insulted? Plus, at the cost of not mentioning Christmas, in order to appear "unbiased", many of these stores have done away with mentioning Hanukkah, too.

This is all due to a gross misunderstanding of the phrase "separation of church and state" which doesn't even exist in the First Amendment but in the decisions of renegade judges since the 1950's who have been convincing people of its new meaning. And many believe what they hear.

Last Christmas, the Road Runner Internet Provider (available through some cable companies) ran a survey: Should public schools display nativity scenes along with other religious symbols? An overwhelming 90,402 Road Runner Internet users responded in only 5 days, and an astonishing 83% voted YES. But, it appears this decision is no longer up to the majority within their communities - it is now up to the courts and a minority of non-believers who have decided to make a never-ending issue of God's supposed non-existence.

However, holiday insults are just the tip of the new iceberg I call "Intolerance for the sake of Tolerance".

In the interest of diversity, we've allowed other countries' terrorists and dictatorial leaders like Iran's President Ahmadinejad or Venezuela's Chavez to come in to our colleges, the United Nations and other public forums and state that America is Satan, that the Holocaust never happened to the Jews, and that George Bush is the devil. After all, they deserve their free speech.

Meanwhile, our own citizens can't even voice their own beliefs in public forums. Endless assaults on Americans' biblical beliefs have occurred in recent years.

Our quest for politically correct tolerance and diversity has created an entirely new "intolerance" and lack of acceptance of diversity: Toward biblical faith, especially Christianity. Why is this? Judaism uses the Ten Commandments too, and the Muslim faith has the same tenets in the Koran.

The Torah and the Koran both speak out against some of the same things as the Christian books of the Bible. In fact, in many ways, the New Testament delivers much more forgiveness than the others. However, because some well-known Christian evangelists make stupid, unfounded blanket statements - people think that all Christians hate everybody.

Huge steps have been taken by many denominations' average church population to reach out in love while trying to stay within their beliefs; yet this imaginary "Hate" is often based on mere verbal "disagreement"; and the word "disagreement" now has the same definition as "hate".

School officials and public building owners are constantly denying free religious speech because they don't understand the real meaning of the First Amendment. There are countless cases reaching American courtrooms because someone or some group thinks they have the right to deny free speech to Bible believers. But you won't see most of these cases making big headlines in the "mainstream" news. Here are some examples:

Court to decide whether student's campus evangelism a crime: Ryan Dozier, a student in the Yuba Community College District of California, decided to hand out some Christian tracts to fellow students. The campus police told him he could be expelled or arrested for doing so. Dozier stopped. But he got a letter from the College President telling him he'd been placed in a campus crime report. The letter also threatened he'd be expelled if he ever did so much as shared his faith on campus again. The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has filed suit on behalf of Dozier, stating that sharing your faith on a public school campus is not a crime. The college's restrictive free speech policies have been suspended by a judge.

Valedictorian forced to apologize for mentioning Christ: Erica Corder mentioned her Christian faith in a 30-second graduation message at her Colorado high school. Afterward, the school forced her to write an apology, threatening to withhold her diploma and put notes in her file which could prevent her career path. The principal sent her coerced apology statement in an email to the entire high school community.

Students do not relinquish their personal free speech rights at school or during graduation speeches. Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law: "Valedictorians have the right to express their religious viewpoints while at the graduation podium. School officials have no right to threaten young graduates that their diplomas will be withheld."

The school district wrongly forced Corder to speak against her will once graduation was over and she was no longer a student. Liberty Counsel filed a federal lawsuit against Lewis Palmer School District in August 2007. The school will not back down. In October 2008, Liberty filed a brief to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case is pending.

Apartment complex kept woman from having Bible Study for seven years: In McHenry County, Illinois, a resident (whose name is withheld) of a public housing complex has fought for seven years to hold a Bible study in her apartment. She has been told by the chairperson of the community that she could not use the community room because church and state could not mix in public housing.

This is completely untrue. If other residents can use the social room for other things, then this woman can hold a Bible study as long as all attendees are there voluntarily. The case finally came to a close in November of 2007 after the Housing Authority that manages the complex received a demand letter from Liberty Counsel.

Ten Commandments restricted from being displayed among County's founding documents:

This happens all the time. In one particular 2007 case, a Kentucky county courthouse was told to eliminate the Ten Commandments from its Foundations of American Law and Government display of documents.

Look, folks, history should not be erased. If the founders of that county say that the Ten Commandments was among their founding documents, it should be left there! Nobody is forcing any religion on anyone. This disrespect to the Ten Commandments is as much an affront to Jewish people as it is to Christians.

These examples do not include the many incidents of Christian military chaplains being told not to mention Jesus even in voluntarily attended services, employees being told they can't merely keep a scripture or Bible on their desk or wear a cross to work, children being restricted from doing artwork, essays or show-and-tells about their biblical faith, religious groups being refused rental of public places, and the list goes on.

Interested in Your Religious Rights in America? Here are some Resources:

President Clinton released the Document Presidential Guidelines On Religious Expression In Public Schools to all United States public school districts. This document clearly explains students' rights at school. The problem is, school officials aren't reading it. http://www.ed.gov/Speeches/08-1995/religion.html.

You can also see the North American Religious Liberty Association's documentation based on our First Amendment Rights for liberties in the workplace, school and other venues at http://www.religiousliberty.info/article.php?id=27.

The real wording of the First Amendment Religion Clause is this: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

This writer is not receiving any remuneration for mentioning certain law firms or cases.

Article Sources:

AHA bus posters case: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1108/569066.html.

Dozier case:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2137065/posts, and http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=328186.

Corder case: Liberty Counsel, http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=14100&PRID=738 2008, and http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=14100&PRID=599, 2007.

Housing Authority case:https://www.liberty.edu/libertycounsel/index.cfm?PID=14100&PRID=641.

Kentucky Ten Commandments Case: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/09/20/national/a085725D32.DTL&tsp=1.