Obama To Keep Christ out of Christmas

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys sent a letter to federal and state officials, including Arizona Governor Janice Brewer Monday, calling for them to stop enforcing a requirement prohibiting the state’s schoolchildren from expressing religious viewpoints through Christmas themes while decorating ornaments for the 2009 Capitol Christmas Tree. Arizona was chosen this year to present 4,000 handcrafted ornaments made by elementary, middle-school, and high-school students to decorate Washington, D.C.’s annual Christmas tree.

“Banning Christmas from the Capitol Christmas tree is just absurd. Christian students shouldn’t be discriminated against for expressing their religious beliefs,” said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Jonathan Scruggs. “The First Amendment does not allow government officials to exclude schoolchildren’s ornaments for the capitol’s Christmas tree merely because they communicate a religious viewpoint.”

Guidelines for the ornaments include specifications for their size, weight, composition, and the directive that “Ornaments cannot reflect a religious or political theme… Instead share your interpretation of our theme ‘Arizona’s Gift, from the Grand Canyon State.’” It is also stated that the ornaments “will provide wonderful opportunities for Arizona school children to demonstrate what Arizona means to them… Whether they represent our world-renowned landscapes, our diverse cultures, or other aspects of our state, the ornaments will help convey the particular beauty that is Arizona.” But, if students want to convey that Arizona has a religious significance to them, they are denied the opportunity offered to students with non-religious views. Alliance Defense Fund

Catholic Femina Speaks: I have been saying for a while that President Obama is not Christian... I know that he has claimed to be searching for a church to attend, but he has been in DC for quite sometime there is no excuse. Obama has a history of lying. The Children of Arizona have been asked to create ornaments for a Christmas Tree giving their personal take on Christmas without the true meaning of Christmas. After removing Jesus and the Christmas story all that remains is materialism. The ADF is asking for diversity? What is that suppose to mean, Christmas is a Christian holiday and they are not allowed to display Christ... Diversity is now a term for the exclusion of Christians. Arizona is going to have a difficult time representing anything that remotely resembles Christmas without the reason for the season.

Bible Class In Texas Public Schools

A new class to be offered in Texas public schools, the class is going to be a look into the Bible. Texas has been preparing to offer a Bible class since 2007. The School board wanted to be sure that the teachers were prepared to teach the class and had the proper tools to offer it before initiating the mandate to offer a Bible class. Over 2008 the Texas Department of Education took the Legislators’ 2007 mandate, which ensures that a class on the Bible's impact on history and literature of Western civilization would be taught in an "objective, academic manner that neither promotes nor disparages religion," and not "from a particular sectarian point of view." The class is to give students an overview from a purely educational standpoint leaving out any particular religion. News-Journal
Catholic Femina Speaks: A public school class on the Bible, hmmm. This just sends up red flags for me. The Bible is the word of God, and it has to be represented as such. Taking religion away from the Bible is like taking Christ out of Christmas; you are left with the shell of something that once was good and is now a perversion of secularism. A class taught on the Bible will only be as true as the individual teacher’s representation. Furthermore giving parameters on teaching ties the hands of the teacher and degrades the Bible to merely literature. I foresee that this class will rob faith rather than spread it. Stripping reverence and honor due to the Word of God cannot bring good.