Now, if the right wants to be pissed I'm with them on this one.


HOLIDAY BLUES
Nativity banned but Muslim, Jewish symbols allowed
2 prominent religious discrimination cases reach critical stage

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Posted: December 10, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern



© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

Two prominent legal cases battling policies that outlaw public display of the Christian Nativity while allowing symbols of other religions have reached a critical stage.

In New York City, arguments will be presented Monday in a federal lawsuit challenging the city's display of the Jewish Menorah during Hanukkah and the Islamic star and crescent during Ramadan in more than 1,200 public schools while barring Nativity scenes during Christmas.

In Florida, U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia Altonaga is expected to rule early next week on a request for a temporary restraining order that would require the town of Bay Harbor Islands to allow a Christian resident to display the Nativity alongside existing Jewish Menorahs.

Both cases are being argued by attorneys with the Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center.

"Christmas is under siege throughout our nation, and the cases in New York and Bay Harbor Islands demonstrate the kind of hostility and double standard being used by officials to deny Christians the right to publicly celebrate one of their holiest seasons," said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Law Center.

The New York suit against the city's Department of Education is in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit after senior U.S. District Court Judge Charles Sifton ruled the city's discriminatory policy was permissible because it was an accommodation of "multiculturalism" and "an attempt to diversify the season and provide non-Christian holidays with parity."

In Miami, Law Center attorney Edward White argued in a hearing this week that Bay Harbor Islands is discriminating against Christians by violating the free speech rights of resident Sandra Snowden, who had been denied the right to display her private Nativity in a public forum.

"All I'm asking for is inclusiveness," Snowdon told the St. Petersburg Times one year ago. "I do not know why a baby Jesus in a manger would be so offensive to this town."

Defending the policy, town attorneys argue the Menorah can be displayed because it is a secular symbol and not a religious one, unlike the Nativity.

Bay Harbor Islands attorney Craig B. Sherman told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel he believes the town will prevail.

"All the town's holiday decorations are in compliance with applicable law," he insisted.


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article....RTICLE_ID=41855

Know what this is due to? Kneejerk reactions and panic due to lack of planning.

Something happened since last holiday season to change the situation.

The lightbulb should have gone off over the head of some local pol. I live in a town of 4000 with primarily a volunteer government (board of selectmen), but we have a $80,000/year town administrator. Certainly someone of that pay grade is capable of some forward thinking, then present the situation to the town leaders, schedule public hearings, and come up with a concensus solution.

Bottom line: plan ahea

Check with the local municipalities about the specifics of the cases, every time I've read a story such as this it's turned out that a Christmas Tree was allowed it was the creche that specifically was not as it is a more overtly religious symbol of the holiday. Personally, I don't think any of the symbols of religious holidays are necessary as displays in public schools/municpal buildings but if people insist on having them the symbols presented they should be all inclusive and be equally benign.

Don't get mad, get even. The fight is not with the Muslims or Jews or Right Wing of Christianity, it is with the devil who is trying to cause problems between us.

How would you like it if you lived in a foreign country and every time you went to church you were secretly photographed by a variety of sneeky looking individuals (in my case twice it was Philippino looking young guys with little cameras, once a western guy with a huge lens pretending to be playing around with his camera, and last week a Japanese guy just outside my place of worship.

I have seen a doctor, before you ask. I am an stress relieving drugs.

I just got back from the park where (as our kids played) this muslim says to me (as if I should know) that every time they go to the mosque there are photographers. I was taken aback. Then I recalled that after 911 the Japanese network came to our church (NHK). And another time an unknown group (maybe the same) came and photographed. So I asked this muslim, is it a television station. 'NO' he said 'they try and take pphotographs secretly.''

SO PLEASE realize it is the people I call 'them'. The harrassers of ordinary citizens, who are the problem. They have so much money from the war on terror budget that they are spending it on useless persecution of anyone. Muslim, fair trade supporter, activist, protestor, Catholic, you name it. They are real CREEPS.