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Author
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Topic: School Bans Saying "Christmas" in Sacramento, Ca.
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Yochanan
Advanced Member
Member # 13
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posted
I've quit wishing people "Merry Christmas" too, since I learned what it's all about and when the Messiah was REALLY born. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
http://webbpage.topcities.com/christmas/html#101
Shalom
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Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with [my] whole heart. (Ps. 119:34)
Sha'alu Shalom Yerushalayim
Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem
Posts: 61 | From: Rising Star, The Republic of Texas | Registered: Jun 2002
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helpforhomeschoolers
Advanced Member
Member # 15
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posted
I personally think that every God Fearing person in California should leave! We could just make it the Humanist State and let them have it!
I am so thankful to live in a state where the schools still have annual Christmas Concerts and sing joyfully and unashamedly the name of Christ!Today I think there would be riots in my state if someone tried to pull this bunk, but I pray that it will remain this way. It begins with complacency.
Thank you for sharing this and reminding of how blessed i am for the simple things in life.
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
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Kindgo
Advanced Member
Member # 2
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posted
Hey Mac, you are so right, people are offended by the name above all names, our wonderful loving God...Jesus Christ...Saviour of the world!
Peace on earth, soon...
Gap employees forbidden to say "Merry Christmas"
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id={B6C967AB-D591-43E2-88CA-5EA19E545CA0}
'We are trying to be inclusive,' retailer says
Michael Higgins and Bruce Ward
National Post and Ottawa Citizen, with files from Global National
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
CREDIT: Peter J. Thompson, National Post
MERRY CHRISTMAS' GOES OUT OF FASHION AT THE GAP: A shopper strolls past the Gap on Toronto's Queen Street last night. The retailer has advised employees they should wish customers " happy holidays" or "season's greetings" instead of "Merry Christmas."'
Staff at Gap clothing stores have been told to wish customers "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." Global National sent undercover cameras into a store in Calgary yesterday to see how the advisory is working.
CHRISTMAS AT THE GAP: "No, we're not supposed to [say 'Merry Christmas'] ... It's hard. Sometimes you say, "Have a merry ... day!"
CHRISTMAS AT ROOTS: "We're allowed to say anything we want... You're allowed. Oh, yeah. Christmas, Jesus, whatever."
Gap employees have been advised to wish customers "happy holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas."
"This is not a policy. We are simply suggesting and encouraging our sales associates and all our employees to recognize that not everyone celebrates Christmas," said Jane Shaw, director of public relations for the company.
"We are trying to be inclusive. Not everyone celebrates Christmas. Really we should be wishing people happy holidays."
The advisory follows other recent controversies over "inclusive" language at Toronto City Hall, where the Christmas tree was, for a while, renamed a "holiday tree"; the Canadian Royal Mint, which ran an ad about "The Twelve Days of Giving"; and the Royal Ontario Museum, which uses the terms Common Era and Before Common Era instead of the more traditional AD and BC on the James ossuary, an exhibit believed to have contained the bones of the brother of Jesus.
Leigh Bridger, an Ottawa high school teacher whose students told her about the advisory, is concerned overly sensitive merchants are smothering the spirit of Christmas, and the meaning of tolerance.
"They [The Gap] hire these students for the Christmas rush, and they won't let them say Merry Christmas," she said.
"I think tolerance is a two-way street. If the policy was like, 'Use sensitivity, guys,' that's fine. If there's someone who's obviously Muslim -- and there's certain indicators in terms of dress for women -- you're not necessarily going to say Merry Christmas. But if somebody comes with a list and they say they're buying Christmas gifts, why shouldn't that student be allowed to say, 'Well, have a Merry Christmas?'
"We're living in a global community, we're living in a multicultural society and the tolerance is a two-way street. We accept that there's Ramadan, we accept that there's Eid al-Fitr.
"What is the detriment of saying Merry Christmas? For years, this was never a problem. We'd have it in store windows, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, whatever. It seems like it has really become an issue in the last couple of years."
Many nominal Christians would argue that "Merry Christmas" is not solely a religious greeting, just because it contains "Christ." More significantly, they say, it contains Christ's message of peace and goodwill and, implicitly, his exhortation to love one another.
Although Christmas is rooted in the birth of Christ, over the years traditions from other cultures -- the Christmas tree, the lights, the ornaments, the holly and garlands, the exchange of presents -- have been blended in.
Yesterday Global National sent undercover cameras into a Gap store in Calgary to see how the advisory was working.
"What we're instructed ... to say is happy holidays," said one Calgary employee.
Another employee at the Calgary store said "we're not supposed to [say Merry Christmas ]. It's hard. Sometimes you say, 'Have a merry ... day.' "
At the nearby Roots store, Global found a different reaction.
"Oh, we're allowed to say anything we want," a Roots employee said. "You're allowed, oh yeah. Christmas, Jesus, whatever."
Gap Inc. is a global company with annual sales of nearly $14 billion from its Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy stores.
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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Miguel
Advanced Member
Member # 47
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posted
THE NAME OF CHRIST WILL AND IS A THORN IN THE HEART OF MANY...
Bringing Out The Beauty Steadfastly
Thank You
Love in Christ
MAC
Job 33:18-Job 33:28-PS 19:14-Ezekiel 33:7
![[Lighthouse]](graemlins/lighthouse.gif)
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Romans 9:11-24
Our Eschatology may vary even our Ecclesiology may be disputed among us but our Soteriology most assume a singularity and exclusivity which in biblical term is known as Quote; "The Narrow Way" and Quote!
Posts: 2792 | From: Stockton,Ca | Registered: Jun 2002
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Kindgo
Advanced Member
Member # 2
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posted
School bans saying 'Christmas'
Veteran teacher dumbfounded by order precluding mention of holiday
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/a...RTICLE_ID=29977
Posted: December 13, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Joe Kovacs
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
At a time when Americans of many faiths – and even no faith – gear up to celebrate Christmas this year, a first-grade teacher in Sacramento Co., Calif., says she's been ordered by her principal not to utter the word "Christmas" at school.
The 24-year education veteran, who wishes to keep her name and the school anonymous at this time, claims she and two fellow instructors were told that use of the word "Christmas" in the classroom or in written materials was now prohibited.
"She was dumbfounded!" says Karen Holgate of the Capitol Resource Institute, a pro-family public-policy center based in Sacramento. "This is the first time you can't use the word."
The ban apparently only affects teachers, not students. The instructor contacted CRI, to find out if the school had the right to prohibit its mention.
According to Holgate, the second-year principal's "out of the blue" mandate was handed down Monday during the discussion with three first-grade teachers. One them didn't agree with the policy, but agreed to go along with it. Another stated that Christmas should not be discussed in class anyway.
But the third teacher was stunned by the pronouncement, as she's been delivering a "Christmas around the world" program for more than two decades. The teacher also explains to children how Hanukkah and other holidays are celebrated in other nations.
"She's so discouraged now," says Holgate, "she doesn't know if she wants to keep on teaching. ... People need to stand up to all these wackos. It's nuts!"
The CRI says California standards not only allow for the Bible and religious topics to be mentioned in the classroom, but teachers are encouraged to discuss their social and cultural relevance.
As WorldNetDaily previously reported, other schools in the Golden State are having students pretend to be Muslims, simulating jihads with a dice game, while others pupils celebrate the "Day of the Dead" by creating altars to honor deceased loved ones or family pets.
The San Juan Unified District, which serves over 50,000 students in 85 schools, is where the alleged Christmas ban is centered. Its director of communications, Deidra Powell, tells WorldNetDaily she's heard nothing about the principal's purported action, but doesn't think the district's policy on religious matters would preclude the mentioning of holidays.
"You can say 'Christmas,' you can say 'Hanukkah,'" she stated. "It is nowhere written in any policy; I don't think our board of education or superintendent would prohibit that."
Powell says the policy is designed to protect all students and make them feel safe in their environment, adding "not everybody is a Christian. We're using public funds, [so] we can't endorse [Christmas]."
The United States Justice Foundation was requested by CRI to research the law on the matter, and responded with an open opinion stating any ban on using the word "Christmas" is an "abject violation" of the California Education Code.
"Christmas and other holidays are an integral part of this nation's heritage and cultural identity," writes litigation counsel Richard Ackerman. "Because of this fact, references to religious holidays, of cultural significance, have a protected place in the classroom. Schools are absolutely allowed to observe holidays and to reference the existence, date of, and cultural activities associated with the holiday."
The teacher plans on showing the USJF opinion to the principal and fellow instructors today, and will take it to the district's superintendent, if the campus remains a "no-Christmas zone."
Crackdowns on Christmas have made national news elsewhere this week.
As WorldNetDaily reported Tuesday, a public-interest law firm filed suit in federal court alleging that a "Holiday Displays" policy for New York City public schools is discriminatory against the Christian religion.
In its suit, the Thomas More Law Center said the district's policy "unlawfully discriminates against Christians" because it "prohibits the display of [Christian] Nativity scenes" in public schools during Christmas, while it "expressly permits and encourages" the display of the Jewish Menorah and the Islamic Star and Crescent during certain religious holidays and observances.
Meanwhile in Yonkers, N.Y., a superintendent who reportedly directed school officials to limit holiday decorations to generic season's greetings, has now clarified his order.
According to the White Plains Journal News, interim Superintendent Angelo Petrone had issued a memo last week stating that "decorations in the schools should be limited to 'Happy Holidays' or 'Season's Greetings.'"
Staff at 12 of 42 city schools tore down bulletin boards and scrapped lesson plans tied to the holidays based on what Petrone said was a misinterpretation of the previous memo, which also stated that it's difficult to decorate buildings to accommodate all the different cultures and asked officials not to promote "any particular religious tenor."
"My expectation was that they use common sense," he said. "It did not mean holiday decorations needed to come down. I just wanted them to have sensitivity to the diversity in this district."
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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