Michelle Malkin in sj-r: "Yes, it’s maddening when politically correct bur-eaucrats ban Nativity scenes and Christmas carols in the name of 'diversity' and 'toler-ance.' We are under attack by Secularist Grinches Gone Wild. But the war on Christmas in America is a mere skirmish. Around the world, a bloody, repressive war on Christians rages. In Iraq, Islamist rebel troops have declared open season on Christian churches, priests and missionaries. In February, four American pastors were traveling near the capital when terrorists ambushed them. The Rev. John Kelley, pastor of Curtis Corner Baptist Church in rural Rhode Island and a for-mer Marine, was killed in the attack...."

Wash. Post-syndicated column: "I'm struck by the fact that you almost never find Orthodox Jews com-plaining about a Christmas creche in the public square. That is because their children, steeped in the richness of their own religious tradition, know who they are and are not threatened by Christians celebrating their religion in public. They are enlarged by it. It is the more deracinated members of religious minorities, brought up largely ignorant of their own traditions, whose religious identity is so tenuous that they feel the need to be constantly on guard against displays of other religions -- and who think the solution to their predicament is to prevent the other guy from displaying his religion, rather than learning a bit about their own."

Washington Times: "Steve Lonegan, who is running for the Republican nomination for New Jersey gover-nor, is defying a school-district edict that bans religi-ous music from holiday-season celebrations this year. Mr. Lonegan has asked local residents of all religions to join him at 5 p.m. tomorrow 'to sing and listen to' songs such as George Frederick Handel's 'Messiah' and 'Silent Night,' which have been banned from schools, even in instrumental form, by the South Orange/Maplewood School District. ...'The school district's decision to prohibit even instrumental ver-sions of classic Christmas tunes shows that those who claim to speak for tolerance are, in fact, the most intolerant,' Mr. Lonegan said."

AgapePress: "Call it Barna's annual "greatest hits" parade: ...Born-again Christians and adults who attend Christian churches are more likely than atheists, agnostics, and adherents of non-Christian faiths to buy lottery tickets. There is significant attrition of men from Christianity. The number of unchurched men is rising, while the number of men who are "deeply spiritual" and who possess an active faith (attend church, pray and read the Bible during the week) is diminishing. Tithing is uncommon and almost non-existent among those under the age of 40. The number of unchurched adults in the United States has doubled since 1991 especially among men, people under 40, singles, and people living in coastal states." And the hits keep on coming.

"Mr Bush is in fact in the mainstream of recent presi-dents....Jimmy Carter taught Sunday school while president. Bill Clinton talked about Jesus more often than Mr Bush and has spoken in more churches.... Nor, in the American context, is the president's belief that God is involved in the world's affairs exactly ground-breaking. The last paragraph of the declaration of independence—no less—starts by appealing to the 'Supreme Judge of the world' and ends 'with a firm reliance on the protection of divine provi-dence.' Both references in America's founding docu-ment are considerably more sectarian than Mr Bush's comment about God not being neutral between freedom and fear. They associate God with America's national interest; Mr Bush did not."

Los Angeles Times: "Frank Wright, president of the NRB, called the negative portrayals 'dehumanizing' and compared them to representations of Jews prior to the Holocaust, and blacks in the era of slavery. 'Systema-tic negative portrayals of groups of people are always disturbing,' he said. 'They produce the potting soil that leads to persecution.' The study calls NBC 'by far the most anti-religious network' with 9.5 negative treat-ments for every positive one. Fox had 2.4 negatives for each positive. At the other end of the spectrum was Pax, which the Parents Council said had 90.7% positive depictions of religion. CBS was deemed more positive than negative by a margin of 2 to 1."  

Centre Daily Times: "Seven members of the Dover Area School District board voted unanimously to retain a nonprofit law center that describes itself as a defender of Christians' religious beliefs, the Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Mich....The board did not issue a comment on its decision. The meeting came nearly a week after two civil-liberties groups filed a lawsuit against the south-central Pennsylvania district on behalf of families who objected to the teaching of 'intelligent design,' which holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by some higher power. About a dozen people addressed the board, and most urged the district not to hire the firm and instead pursue other ways to end the lawsuit."

Gerard Baker, The Australian: "In the Dark Ages, disasters were ascribed to the wrath of God. Now, in an odd inversion that we like to think of as progress, they are adduced as evidence of no God. In the absence of a deity to decry or appease when the earth moves in such devastating fashion, humankind reaches for the next best thing - worldly authority....There is plenty of authority to blame for the devastation caused by the Sumatran earthquake this week. Governments in Bangkok, Jakarta and Colombo will shoulder some of it. Governments farther afield will be inculpated for the poverty of their response. Media organisations will be attacked for being too callous and too mawkish. Unsurprisingly, perhaps the most inviting target is the US."

AP via Court TV News: "At the University of North Carolina, three incoming freshmen sue over a reading assignment they say offends their Christian beliefs. In Colorado and Indiana, a national conservative group publicizes student allegations of left-wing bias by professors....And at Columbia University in New York, a documentary film alleging that teachers intimidate students who support Israel draws the attention of administrators. The three episodes differ in important ways, but all touch on an issue of growing prominence on college campuses....increasingly, it is students who are invoking academic freedom, claiming biased professors are violating their right to a classroom free from indoctrination."

AP via MSNBC: "Archaeologists in Jerusalem have identified the remains of the Siloam Pool, where the Bible says Jesus miraculously cured a man's blindness, researchers said Thursday—underlining a stirring link between the works of Jesus and ancient Jewish rituals. The archaeologists are slowly digging out the pool, where water still runs, tucked away in what is now the Arab neighborhood of Silwan. It was used by Jews for ritual immersions for about 120 years until the year 70, when the Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple. Many of Jesus' acts are directly linked to Jewish rituals, and the miracle of the blind man is an example. According to the Bible, the man was undergoing ritual immersion in the Siloam Pool for entry into the Temple compound, and Jesus used the occasion to cure his blindness. "

Rockdale Citizen: "Karneg Balekdjian, a bespec-tacled, 30-year-old clerk for the Armenian Church of Jerusalem, won’t be celebrating Christmas this year with his family. He recently packed his suitcases, said goodbye to his loved ones and the only home he’s ever known. 'I’m not leaving Jerusalem for opportunity,' said Karneg 'but for love.' Israeli officials barred Balekdjian’s 26-year old bride, Ivette Askandarian, from immigrating to Israel. Born and raised in Iran — but Christian and ethnically Armenian — Ivette couldn’t even visit Karneg in Jerusalem yet alone live with him. 'We had no idea,' Balekdjian sighed, 'our lives together would begin with forced separation.'"

Washington Times: "The tug of war between political correctness and Christmas became more prominent this year because of a revival of Christianity, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, said yesterday. 'Those who are so opposed to [Christmas] feel that the tide is turning now, once again, against them,' Cardinal McCarrick said. 'I think that might be because those who are so opposed to it feel that they're caught in a corner. I believe there is a real revival of religion in our country, not just of Christianity, not just of the traditional religions, but of people who really believe in God and may not be able to express it in the words of present-day religion,' the Catholic cleric told 'Fox News Sunday.'"

"In Maplewood, N.J., some parents worried that they'd become a national laughingstock after the school dis-trict banned Christmas carols, even instrumental ver-sions.... Even 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' was out, because it mentions Christmas Eve. 'It's worse than silly, it's a great disservice to music education,' said Tom Reingold, the father of two, who is Jewish. 'There's a way to teach music and not make it coer-cive.' John W. Whitehead, president of the conservative Rutherford Institute, calls it the new Golden Rule: Thou Shalt Offend No One....whose group has for the first time in almost a decade re-issued its 'Twelve Rules of Christmas' booklet outlining ways to legally include religion in Christmas displays and observances."

Kenneth Woodward in Newsweek: "Serious Chris-tians have always been ambivalent about how society celebrates Christmas. It’s hard to get children to focus on the birth of Christ, and what that means, when the arrival of Santa Claus—and all that that portends in the way of hectic getting and spending—is imminent. The quiet subtleties of 'Silent Night' are no match for the clang of 'Jingle Bells.' Now it appears that even the secularized Christmas that Santa represents is too sectarian for some keepers of the nation’s public spaces and commercial places. Wherever you look, references to Christmas have been suppressed in favor of a featureless 'Seasons Greetings.'"

Rabbi Aryeh Spero in Human Events: "It should be obvious by now that the Bill of Rights forbade only Con-gress from making national laws establishing a religion, not however local communities and their majorities from voting to express their religious ethos. Unique to Amer-ica is the ideal that what may be forbidden to the 'Feds' is permitted on a local level....But even if some wish to extrapolate Jefferson's metaphor of a "wall of separa-tion" between church and state onto local communities, how does the display in winter of a sparkling Christmas tree, or a freely-chosen Grace before meals, or the ack-nowledgement of the Ten Commandments as the basis of the American legal system, and the existence of a God-believing, heterosexual Boy Scout troop 'establish' a national religion?"

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