I have several issues with all of this, some of which I will begin to address.
1) Whininess=suckiness. For some reason, America is terrified of whiny people. CEOs to superintendents are afraid- and not because someone may be offended, but because they don't want to see any negative publicity coming from the mouth of a thin-skinned, thick-headed moron. Why do we give so much significance to the views of these people, who I argue are really the insensitive ones?
2) Why should someone be offended by my wishing them a Merry Christmas? If someone wished me a Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, whatever- who cares? I don't celebrate those things, but "Hey, thanks for wishing me happiness."
3) The First Amendment is on my side, so a big, fat, "na na na na na, get over yourselves" to the whiners.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Now, store/restaurant/business policies are certainly different than a Congress-created law, so they REALLY don't have anything to worry about. They'll never lose a lawsuit brought against them for wishing someone a Merry Christmas.
School programs, yes, are a different story. As public institutions, legally they do have to be more careful. An arm of the government cannot establish a religion. For example's sake, I'll use a school choir concert; all the time you hear about school concerts being so watered down that they sing "Chicken Fat" instead of "Jingle Bells." No, not kidding. Now, students should not be forced to sing songs that they have religious differences with. I cannot expect a muslim student to want to sing about Jesus Christ any more than I would want to sing about Mohammed. But think about all the times there must have been when content has been censored even though there wasn't even an issue. Furthermore, the way the First Amendment is written, we are given a positive freedom- that is, we have a freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. In this country, no matter what your faith is, you have the right to practice it freely. Unfortunately, because some people are oversensitive, Christmas is becoming taboo and we don't get to exercise our faith freely.
Thankfully, we can have peace knowing that one day we'll all really understand what it means that God came to earth as a baby to bring salvation to all who call on Him.
School programs, yes, are a different story. As public institutions, legally they do have to be more careful. An arm of the government cannot establish a religion. For example's sake, I'll use a school choir concert; all the time you hear about school concerts being so watered down that they sing "Chicken Fat" instead of "Jingle Bells." No, not kidding. Now, students should not be forced to sing songs that they have religious differences with. I cannot expect a muslim student to want to sing about Jesus Christ any more than I would want to sing about Mohammed. But think about all the times there must have been when content has been censored even though there wasn't even an issue. Furthermore, the way the First Amendment is written, we are given a positive freedom- that is, we have a freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. In this country, no matter what your faith is, you have the right to practice it freely. Unfortunately, because some people are oversensitive, Christmas is becoming taboo and we don't get to exercise our faith freely.
Thankfully, we can have peace knowing that one day we'll all really understand what it means that God came to earth as a baby to bring salvation to all who call on Him.
2 comments:
Merry Christmas Tyler :)
we learned in ap gov that theres a difference between "separation of church and state" (not in the constitution) and what the 1st amendment actually states. what the supreme court has ruled about this issue varies greatly. people are hypersensitive about it and need to recognize that this is america, the melting pot of the world. we should celebrate our diversity!
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