Nativity - The Reason for the Season

“The spirit of Christmas needs to be superseded by the Spirit of Christ. The spirit of Christmas is annual; the Spirit of Christ is eternal. The spirit of Christmas is sentimental; the Spirit of Christ is supernatural. The spirit of Christmas is a human product; the Spirit of Christ is a divine person. That makes all the difference in the world.” -Stuart Briscoe

By Marion Algier – The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series at AskMarion – 10

Christians have allowed the true meaning of Christmas to be lost and co-opted. One of the greatest things you can do each year is to take part in or attend a Christmas or Live Nativity Pageant that focuses on the true story of Christmas and then to make that meaning the focus of your holiday. Gifts, decorations, parties, caroling and all the rest are great as long as we take time to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. We have allowed ourselves as a society to forget “the reason for the season”, this season and holiday as well as many others and thereby lose the significance and the value of what should be special moments and meaningful celebrations in our lives.

Some of my greatest memories of Christmas involve going to mass on Christmas Eve as a child with my family and then participating in the Glory of Christmas (and Easter) for over 10-years as a family, with my husband and daughter, at the Crystal Cathedral… which after 30-years is now dark.

Unfortunately the Crystal Cathedral Ministries only ever filmed this program once, early on: Experience the Miracle, the Glory of Christmas in the Crystal Cathedral, 1993 and restricted photos and filming of any kind, so we are blessed to have the photos above of our experience, and below are a few homemade videos I found. What a blessing it was being part of that program and watching our daughter flying for Him as one of the angels. but one of the best parts was standing out back after each performance to greet; seeing how these performances touched peoples’ hearts.

Video: What Can I Give Him? sung by 10 year old Isabelle Plazola

Video: Flying Angels at Crystal Cathedral Glory of Christmas

Some holidays like Christmas actually become part of the fabric of a nation, which was true of Christmas in America until we allowed political correctness to wag the dog… let the 15% tell 85% what they can and cannot do. And as Ben Stein has written more than once… he, a Jew, looks forward to the bejeweled trees, Christmas carols and an overall kinder season.

Rabbi Daniel Lapin (who founded the American Alliance of Christians and Jews) said on Glenn Beck’s Post-Thanksgiving Review Program: “Although I am Jewish and do not celebrate Christmas I respect the traditions and the holiday and I like the holiday for two good reasons: It helps the economy and it makes people better…” (95% of the money spent at Christmastime is for others… rather than for ourselves).

Lapin has spoken against the secularization of Christmas, saying that “We see obsequious regard for faiths like Judaism and even Islam, while Christianity is treated with contempt”. He is opposed to replacing the “Merry Christmas” greeting with “Happy Holidays”, saying instead “Let us all go out of our way to wish our many wonderful Christian friends a very Merry Christmas… Nationwide, Christmas Nativity scenes are banned from city halls and shopping malls but Chanukah menorahs are permitted. There is without a doubt a war on Christmas as well as on patriotism.

Merry Christmas! : Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!” …Hamilton Wright Mabie

Atheists intimidate Santa Monica into eliminating Nativity… And So the War on Christmas and Freedom of Religion Continues

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Damon Vix didn’t have to go to court to push Christmas out of the city of Santa Monica. He just joined the festivities.

The atheist’s anti-God message alongside a life-sized nativity display in a park overlooking the beach ignited a debate that burned brighter than any Christmas candle.

Santa Monica officials snuffed the city’s holiday tradition this year rather than referee the religious rumble, prompting churches that have set up a 14-scene Christian diorama for decades to sue over freedom of speech violations. Their attorney will ask a federal judge Monday to resurrect the depiction of Jesus’ birth, while the city aims to eject the case.

"It’s a sad, sad commentary on the attitudes of the day that a nearly 60-year-old Christmas tradition is now having to hunt for a home, something like our savior had to hunt for a place to be born because the world was not interested," said Hunter Jameson, head of the nonprofit Santa Monica Nativity Scene Committee that is suing.  Read Full Story HERE  But Christians Found ‘Creative’ Loophole in Atheist-Inspired Santa Monica Nativity Ban & Secure Permit for ‘Live’ Display

Nativity on Wheels! PA Community Battles Atheist Complaints With Display of Jesus’ Birth on Platform in Front of City Hall

The Atheists Won’: CA Judge Denies Christian Group’s Last-Ditch Attempt to Restore Nativities

Atheist-Inspired Ban on Santa Monica Nativity Displays to Be Challenged in CA Court Today

Secularists battling against nativities is nothing new, but 2012 has brought some major victories for atheists. Consider Santa Monica, California, where a 60-year nativity tradition has been banned; other communities have backed down over fears that Christian themes will be legally challenged by groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) as well.

But — believers are getting smart and fighting back with some creative methods of navigating around church versus state disagreements.

TheBlaze already told you about the Santa Monica work-around: Christians will stage a live nativity, as only unattended displays were banned from the Palisades Park. Now, a community in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has found it’s own solution to a potential atheist-led lawsuit against a display in front of a local municipal building.  Read Full Story and See Video HERE

Wow, these photos below, from outside the U.S. Supreme Court, bring back great memories of being part of the Glory of Christmas and Glory of Easter pageants for the Crystal Cathedral as a family.

December 5, 2012

Twitchy:

Fox News’ Shannon Bream is on the scene as faith organizations stage a live Nativity scene outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

Faith Organizations to Display Live Nativity Scene with Animals in Front of the United States Supreme Court and the United States Capitol

This scene, sponsored by Faith and Action as well as The Christian Defense Coalition is part of “The Nativity Project.” The project seeks, in part, to bring attention to the hostility with which faith in the public square is met.

On Twitter, the camel is a hit. And, yes, that's a real camel at the Supreme Ct.

Wow, these photos below, from outside the U.S. Supreme Court, bring back great memories of being part of the Glory of Christmas and Glory of Easter pageants for the Crystal Cathedral as a family.

A full on Nativity scene outside SCOTUS 2012

Wow!

And for those that love the live animals in the nativity and pageants… check this out:  Animal Nativity

How Should Christians Respond to Atheist ‘Hatred’ & the War on Christmas? This Priest Has Some Advice

Related:

‘Glory of Christmas’ begins final season at Crystal Cathedral (2008 to 2009)

Christmas Trees

Hanukkah, Hanukah, Chanukah

European Markets or Christkindlmarkts Capture the Christmas Spirit

St. Nickolas Day

So Where Is the War on Christmas Coming From? – A Worthwhile Read!

Best Holiday Movie Classics – A Merry Christmas From Hollywood

God Rest Ye Merry Merchants – Christmas: An American Holiday and Tradition to Love and Preserve

Advent – The Season of Anticipation and Hope

The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series at AskMarion – with comments from Ben Stein

Red Kettles & Bell Ringers

Atheists intimidate Santa Monica into eliminating Nativity… And So the War on Christmas and Freedom of Religion Continues – Churches Thwart Nativity Ban By Putting Up Living Displays In Santa Monica

Black Friday Holiday Shopping Kick-off Overshadows True Meaning of Christmas

What Movies in History Best Captures the Spirit of Thanksgiving?

“Holidays Are Great and Fun To Share With Our Pets, As Long As We Avoid the No-No Foods”

Christianity & Gun Owners in the Crosshairs: Chilling Tactic Exposed

A great read: Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity

Technorati Tags: Nativity,War on Christmas,Christmas,spirit of Christmas,charity,holidays,Hanukah,American Traditions,American values,War on Christianity,War on Religion,The War on… The War on Christmas,nativity scene,Freedom of Religion,Bill of Rights,Nativity Project,The Christian Defense Coalition,SCOTUS,Glory of Christmas,Crystal Cathedral,living nativities,Christmas pageants

God Rest Ye Merry Merchants - Christmas: An American Holiday and Tradition to Love and Preserve

Christmas: An American Holiday to Love and Preserve…

The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series at AskMarion – 3

Once upon a time not all that long ago – in fact, anyone over 50 will easily remember it – the word “Christmas” was everywhere during the month of December. Everywhere you looked – in stores, in town squares, in cities, in offices, and, of course, in private homes — there were Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, Christmas parties, and Christmas vacations. Even Jews got into the act… Hanukkah Bushes, Christmas lights in blue and white and an embracement of all the festivities. Just ask Ben Stein.

Christmas was arguably the most beloved of American holidays. Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving were important too; but Christmas was something more. It gave rise to a whole “Christmas season” during which people got into the “Christmas spirit.” The first words of a popular song, recorded by Johnny Mathis as a platinum hit, summed it up perfectly: “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas / Everywhere you go…”

Then something strange began to happen. The very thing that made the “season” special started to disappear from the public arena. Stores no longer held “Christmas sales.” Businesses, and soon after, individuals, ceased to hold “Christmas parties.” And on and on. “Christmas” became a dirty word, and was replaced by “holiday.” The War on Christmas had begun.

We’ve grown so accustomed to the change that we’ve lost sight of just how significant it is. “Christmas” is loaded with meaning and rich in spirit. It imparts rich feelings unlike anything else. “Holiday,” by contrast, is a bland word that can signify anything from Independence Day to Labor Day to “Sweetest Day.” At most, it means a day that you might get off from work if you’re lucky. And nothing else. Saying “holiday” and meaning Christmas is like saying “a long dead politician” and meaning Abraham Lincoln. Technically, it’s not wrong. But the whole significance is lost.

Of course, this didn’t happen by accident. Ask most people how it happened, and they’ll just shrug and say, “political correctness.” And in fact, “PC” is a cruel master, uncaring about what it destroys, and swift to punish those who violate it. So most choose to bow and submit.

But not here. We are part of the The Battle for Christmas. We hope to reclaim the richness and beauty of Christmas. But it’s more. Christmas is a treasure and and part of our heritage that we all should be actively working to preserve our traditional American culture in any and all forms. Because that culture is worth keeping. It’s part of what holds us together and makes us American… including those of us who are not Christians.

So let’s fight back in the war on Christmas. And to all who feel the same we do… happy holidays and Merry Christmas!: Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday

God Rest Ye Merry Merchants

“The Celebration of Christmas in America is not Just a Christian Holiday, but a Celebration of our National Past and Our Collective Wishes and Psyche as a Nation!”

In his mawkish 1942 hit "White Christmas," Bing Crosby yearned for a holiday "just like the one I used to know." The extraordinary popularity of Crosby’s nostalgic longing (the all-time top-selling single until it was eclipsed by "Candle in the Wind 1997," Elton John’s mawkish tribute to Princess Diana) suggests the holiday’s tremendous power to revive memories–perhaps only imaginary, idealized memories–of childhood and Christmases past. According to Karal Ann Marling, "Christmas is the universal memory" for contemporary Americans (whether they’re Christian or not), an event in which "virtually everybody has played a part." By telling the story of Americans’ celebration of Christmas, she promises to uncover a surprisingly neglected piece of not only our national past, but our collective wishes and psyche.

Marling, a prolific and inventive cultural historian at the University of Minnesota who has written books on topics ranging from George Washington (George Washington Slept Here: Colonial Revivals and American Culture, 1876-1986) and Norman Rockwell to Disneyland (Designing Disney’s Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance) and Graceland (Graceland: Going Home with Elvis) and As Seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s, now turns her attention to the history of America’s most lavishly celebrated holiday. Marling has a keen eye for offbeat topics, arresting detail and original interpretations, and refuses "to plug the contents of the national Christmas stocking into the socket of orthodox historical discourse" (certainly that sounds unadvisable). She insists instead that her goal is to unwrap the hidden meaning of quotidian, but telling objects and practices to reveal the holiday’s deeper significance.

Myriad "scraps of Christmas detritus"–and Christmas generates loads of detritus–supply Marling with ample material: Shortly after Halloween, America’s shopping malls and stores are festooned with red and green and stocked from floor to ceiling with Christmas gifts. In the days after Christmas, discarded trees, still dangling tinsel, lie amid trash bags stuffed with discarded wrapping paper and packaging on curbs across the nation. Somewhere in between the shopping bags and the trash bags, millions of Americans attend their annual office party, endure children’s pageants, spend billions of dollars buying presents, cook traditional feasts, and gather with family and friends to exchange gifts and celebrate the nation’s most extravagant holiday. Wrapping paper, lights, ornaments, store window displays, trees, cards, Santas and cookies fill the thematic chapters of Merry Christmas! The history of Christmas, as Marling observes promisingly, is in the details.

Americans commonly assume that Christmas endured for centuries as a solemn religious holiday, before being corrupted by consumer capitalism. As early as the 1870s, critics of Christmas were engaging in "breast-beating over soulless American materialism." In 1949, opponents of the holiday’s excess launched a crusade to "restore" its "original" character. Billboards, posters and bumper stickers urging Americans to "Put Christ Back into Christmas" were a common sight during the holiday season throughout the 1950s. Like many tales of decline, this Christmas story proves a fable. In colonial America, Christmas was either not celebrated at all (it was actually illegal to celebrate the holiday in many Puritan communities), or an occasion for boisterous, drunken revelry.

In fact nearly all of Americans’ Christmas rituals and icons are 19th-century inventions, created to venerate home and family, not the birth of Jesus. Christmas trees, artfully bedecked with ornaments, became the focal point of Americans’ Christmas celebrations in the 1850s. Santa Claus became an icon in the 1860s and 1870s, springing from the pen of cartoonist Thomas Nast. Gift-giving became commonplace in the 1870s and 1880s, as more Americans adopted the practice of purchasing inexpensive, factory-made trinkets–"gewgaws" and "gimcracks"–and wrapping the presents to produce surprise. By century’s end, Christmas had become a legal holiday in every state, and the year’s most eagerly anticipated holiday for millions. In the 1920s, advertisers transformed Santa into a jovial salesman, whose girth and cheerfulness embodied consumer abundance: According to Marling, St. Nick, not that gangly, gaunt Uncle Sam, best personifies America.

As Marling observes, Americans’ celebration of Christmas grew along with material abundance and consumer culture, and the department store window, not the Nativity scene, has always furnished the holiday’s central icon. "Christmas," she writes, "is all about stores and shopping." Conversely, stores and shopping rely heavily on Christmas. Last year, Americans spent a record $184 billion during the Christmas shopping season (officially, the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas), and many retailers depend on Christmas sales for one quarter of their annual revenue.

But Marling is most interesting when she discusses the holiday’s paradoxes, which mingle materialism and generosity. Retailers and advertisers deliberately have exploited holidays to encourage consumption, but they have by no means stripped these "holy days" of their deeper meaning altogether. Marling notes that our most materialistic holiday is also ironically "the primary occasion for considering the harsh realities of the world, and those who have no trees and puddings."

As a result, charitable giving to the poor has accompanied the holiday since the 19th century. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which has ranked among Americans’ most beloved Christmas stories since its publication in 1843, offers a largely secular plea on behalf of the less fortunate. Funding charity dinners for the poor at Christmas time became an annual ritual of penance for the well-to-do in American cities in the late 19th century. Wealthy benefactors congratulated themselves for bestowing feasts and presents on their less fortunate neighbors, but could not have failed to recognize the troubling gulf, let alone the connection, between their abundance and others’ privation. Christmas’ mixture of materialism and charity remains paradoxical to our own day: Each December, as it has since 1912, the New York Times juxtaposes full-page advertisements for luxury gifts with small-font reminders urging readers to "Remember the Neediest."

If Christmas provides a "universal memory" for Americans, it is in large part because advertising and celebrating the holiday are so ubiquitous; even Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, railing against the evils on modern technology in his Montana cabin, took time to write Christmas cards to his neighbors each December. Christmas is so omnipresent that many nonbelievers celebrate the holiday, and even members of other faiths cannot altogether ignore it, try as they might. Stephen Nissenbaum, for example, prefaces his own history of the holiday, The Battle for Christmas, with a touching reminiscence of his boyhood memories of Christmas as an outsider growing up in an Orthodox Jewish household.

But surely different groups of Americans have distinct recollections of the holiday. Protestants and Catholics, rich and poor, white, Asian, black and Latino–all have celebrated on December 25, but they have not celebrated alike. Marling’s attempt to delineate the diversity of Christmas traditions, a grab-bag chapter on "Somebody Else’s Christmas," lumps together Christmas in warm climes, white Northerners’ sentimental but patronizing fascination with black Southerners’ humble Christmas celebrations in the 19th century, immigrants’ Christmas traditions, even Kwanzaa. A more systematic discussion would fulfill Marling’s ambition of recasting our understanding of the holiday. And yet, though Merry Christmas! does not completely transform our view of the Christmas we "used to know," it does detail the little gestures and objects that supply the stuff of which Christmases are made.

Chris Rasmussen teaches American history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During this holiday season, he urges Americans of all faiths to "Put the Christ Back into Christmas."It is part of American heritage and tradition! (Originally Posted in December 2009)

By Karal Ann Marling – Author of Merry Christmas! : Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday

On Glenn Beck’s 2010 Post-Thanksgiving Review Program Rabbi Daniel Lapin (who founded the American Alliance of Christians and Jews) said: Although I am Jewish and do not celebrate Christmas I respect the traditions and the holiday and like the holiday for two good reasons: It helps the economy and it makes people better… (95% of the money spent at Christmastime is for others… rather than for ourselves).

Lapin has spoken against the secularization of Christmas, saying that "We see obsequious regard for faiths like Judaism and even Islam, while Christianity is treated with contempt". He is opposed to replacing the "Merry Christmas" greeting with "Happy Holidays", saying instead "Let us all go out of our way to wish our many wonderful Christian friends a very merry Christmas… Nationwide, Christmas Nativity scenes are banned from city halls and shopping malls but Chanukah menorahs are permitted.  One of the latest incidents: School Replaces Baby Jesus With Frosty The Snowman After Pressure From Obama Admin.

Merry Christmas! : Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday

A great book on Losing Our Religion by atheist S. E. Cupp, who says she is he perfect person for this book because she has no dog in the hunt, takes on the all too often avoided question and discussion of religion in America…

The Battle for Christmas

Related:

Advent – The Season of Anticipation and Hope

The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series at AskMarion

Red Kettles & Bell Ringers

Atheists intimidate Santa Monica into eliminating Nativity… And So the War on Christmas and Freedom of Religion Continues

Black Friday Holiday Shopping Kick-off Overshadows True Meaning of Christmas

What Movies in History Best Captures the Spirit of Thanksgiving?

“Holidays Are Great and Fun To Share With Our Pets, As Long As We Avoid the No-No Foods”

Technorati Tags: War on Christmas,Christmas,spirit of Christmas,charity,holidays,Hanukah,American Traditions,American values,War on Christianity,War on Religion,The War on… The War on Christmas,political correctness,Merry Christmas

The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series at AskMarion

Once upon a time not all that long ago – in fact, anyone over 50 will easily remember it – the word “Christmas” was everywhere during the month of December. Everywhere you looked – in stores, in town squares, in cities, in offices, and of course… in private homes — there were Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, Christmas parties, Christmas vacations and yes… Nativity Scenes. Even Jews got into the act… Hanukah Bushes, Christmas lights in blue and white and an embracement of all the festivities.

Just ask Ben Stein:

“The More We Enjoy Each Other’s Holidays and Traditions, the More Beautiful the World Looks!”

“I am a Jew and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish, and it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautifully lit-up, bejeweled trees ‘Christmas trees’.” …Ben Stein

Confessions for the Holidays by Ben Stein

*The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary, December 18, 2005.

Here at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:

I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are.

I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I’m buying my dog biscuits. I still don’t know. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores who they are. They don’t know who Nick and Jessica are, either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they’ve broken up? Why are they so darned important?

I don’t know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I don’t care at all about Tom Cruise’s baby.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I’m a subversive? Maybe. But I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young? Hm, not so bad.

Next confession: I am a Jew and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish, and it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautifully lit-up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees.

I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are — Christmas trees. It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they’re slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we’re all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.

It doesn’t bother me one bit that there’s a manger scene on display at a key intersection at my beach house in Malibu.

If people want a creche, fine. The menorah a few hundred yards away is fine, too. I do not like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way. Where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we used to know went to.

— by Ben Stein: "Confessions for the Holidays." CBS News Transcripts. 18 December 2005.

So let’s take a quick look at where many these traditions came from… that the Atheists and secularists now both fear and fight.

Video: CHRISTMAS - History Channel [ Part 1 of 5 ]

Video: CHRISTMAS - History Channel [ Part 2 of 5 ]

Video: CHRISTMAS - History Channel [ Part 3 of 5 ]

Video: CHRISTMAS - History Channel [ Part 4 of 5 ]

Video: CHRISTMAS - History Channel [ Part 5 of 5 ]

How to Build a Christmas Photo Collage Using Wondershare Photo Collage Studio

Related:

Red Kettles & Bell Ringers

Atheists intimidate Santa Monica into eliminating Nativity… And So the War on Christmas and Freedom of Religion Continues

Black Friday Holiday Shopping Kick-off Overshadows True Meaning of Christmas

What Movies in History Best Captures the Spirit of Thanksgiving?

Technorati Tags: War on Christmas,Christmas,spirit of Christmas,charity,holidays,Hanukah,American Traditions,American values,War on Christianity,War on Religion,The War on… The War on Christmas,Hanukkah,Ben Stein,secularism,atheists,Jews,Christians

Thousands Rally to Save Nativity Scene

As many as 5,000 attended a rally in a small Texas community to show their support for a Nativity scene under attack by a Wisconsin-based atheist group, according to a minister who organized the event.

FOLLOW CULTURE WAR NEWS AT TODD’S FACEBOOK PAGE

“We are humbled at the turnout of the crowd,” said Nathan Lorick, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Malakoff and one of the organizers of Saturday’s rally in Athens.

“We believe that God led us to do this and so we knew he was up to something great,” he told Fox News & Commentary in an email message. “This message is resonating in the hearts of people all over the country. This was a real statement to the nation that Christians are tired of the persecution and suppression. We want all to know that we are ready to contend for the faith.”

Video: Henderson County Nativity Rally crowd

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a group based in Wisconsin, sent a letter to Henderson County explaining that a local resident had complained and they wanted the Nativity removed from the courthouse lawn.

The FFRF alleged that the Nativity sent a message of intimidation and exclusion to non-Christians.

But their attack prompted a tremendous outcry not just in Henderson County, but across the nation.

The Texas Attorney General offered to defend the county in the event the atheists sued, arguing that the county has no legal obligation to remove the Nativity scene from the courthouse grounds.

“Our message to the atheists is don’t mess with Texas and our Nativity scenes or the Ten Commandments,” Attorney General Greg Abbott told Fox News & Commentary. “I want the Freedom From Religion Foundation to know that our office has a history of defending religious displays in this state.”

Attorney General Abbott said the organization is trying to “bully local governmental bodies” and he said he wanted to make sure Henderson County knows “there is a person, a lawyer and an organization in this state that has their back, that has the law, that has the muscle and firepower to go toe-to-toe with these organizations that come from out of state trying to bully governmental bodies into tearing down things like Nativity scenes.”

Pastor Lorick said Saturday’s rally was peaceful and included speeches, patriotic music, Christmas carols and prayers. Nevertheless, he said they intended to send a message to the nation.

Video:  Nativity Rally for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

Looking down on the rally outside the Henderson County Courthouse in Athens, TX

By Todd Starnes/TWITTER

The Digital Story of Nativity… Very Creative

Digital Story of the Nativity

Video: The Digital Story of Nativity… Very Creative

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZrf0PbAGSk

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Merry Christmas! : Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday

A great book on Losing Our Religion by aethiest S. E. Cupp, who says she is he perfect person for this book because she has no dog in the hunt, takes on the all too often avoided question and discussion of religion in America…

The Battle for Christmas

The Snow Angel

Posted at  Just One More Pet or Ask Marion – h/t to Alex Piacenza

Christmas With the Obamas

Many watched Oprah’s Special on ABC, billed as Christmas in the White House. Many were disappointed because it was really a combination attempt to present a false front by the Obama’s through their friend Oprah to placate the 80+ percent of Americans who are Christians and the others who love the Christmas traditions because they are part of the American experience.

Oprah begins her show with the President in the Oval Office where they look at one of the Christmas Trees that surprisingly, like the cookies at the White House Christmas Party, was filled with ACORNS… Hmmmm… a secret (or not so secret) message??

We met Beau the dog wearing a Christmas Bell collar; saw how the White House Gingerbread house is made; saw the decoupage ornaments and cranberries in the red room and discussed how many of the framed photos in the White House were swapped out for holiday photos from former administrations. There were tree lighting and Menorah lighting ceremonies this year, but the spectacular White House Nativity Scene, that was almost not put up this year, was nowhere to be seen and the White House is sending out Holiday Cards… not Christmas Cards.

It was reported in the pro-Obama The New York Times that the President Obama and the First Family were planning a “non-religious Christmas,” according to Social Secretary Desiree Rogers. Ms. Rogers reportedly told a gathering of former social secretaries that the Obamas did not intend on putting the Nativity scene on display – a longtime East Room tradition. (Now does this in anyway make sense to anyone, if the Obama's were Christians, even on practicing Christians... or apathetic Agnostics??... Of course it doesn't!!).

The account was reported in the Fashion and Style section of The New York Times. The White House confirmed to the Times that there had been internal discussions about making Christmas more inclusive – but in the end – tradition won out – and the Nativity scene is once again in its traditional East Room spot.

Later after many complaints and negative press, Michelle Obama said, “It has been a part of White House Christmas decorations in the past, it is on display in the East Room for all to enjoy and it will continue to be a part of White House Christmas decorations moving forward.”

There was a discussion between Oprah and Obama about the President spending his first 10-minutes in the Oval Office alone and mention of a prayer, but no other references to prayer or the reason for Christmas were made. Odd for a president to sold himself to the American People as a Christian; just as it is odd for a Christian President not to attend or even find a church in DC for himself or his family. Church and prayer sustain most presidents during the difficult times in the White House.

The most time spent on “Christ” mas discussion on Oprah Winfrey's Christmas special from the White House was where she sits down with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle in the Green Room and they the Obama’s quibble about bad Christmas gifts.

In this clip (below) of Oprah Winfrey's Christmas special from the White House where she sits down with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle and they quibble over bad Christmas Gifts. President Obama just comes right out and says - in front of Michelle:

"Here's the general rule: I give nicer stuff than I get." Michelle responds, "No way! I gave you good gifts last year." Obama then says, Ahhhh, come on. Please!" And finally Michelle ends with, “You do give good gifts… Keep it up~”

After ‘the gift exchange’ when Oprah asked about family Christmas traditions, new and old, the Obama’s mentioned that they would be heading to Hawaii to celebrate.

“Unlike almost all Americans—including atheists—the Obamas do not give their children Christmas gifts. We know this because Barack bragged about this last year to People magazine. So it should come as no big surprise that he and his wife would like to neuter Christmas in the White House. That’s their natural step—to ban the public display of Christian symbols. Have any doubts? Last April, Georgetown University was ordered to put a drape over the name of Jesus as a condition of the president speaking there. Obama said that Santa brings the girls and all of them gifts, but there was no mention of any true Christmas celebrations or traditions in the Obama home of family. (Even when their yearly ‘Christmas’ trip to Hawaii was mentioned, the discussion revolved around a talent contest… not church, prayer or even traditional gift giving.) Even Oprah, who has been pushing new age types of religion made an odd comment on the special. “I thought that (referring to a pearl necklace Michelle was wearing) had to be something more special than just Christmas. Hmmm for Christians there are no more important days that Christmas and Easter.

If the Obamas want to deprive their children of celebrating Christmas, that is their business. It is the business of the public to hold them accountable for the way they celebrate Christmas in the White House. We know one thing for sure: no other administration ever entertained internal discussions on whether to display a nativity scene in the White House.”

At the end of the program Oprah asked what wish the President would leave on the the White House’s Wish Tree for the American People. He replied, “I would wish for confidence by the American People that everything will be alright.” Mr. President, if that is true… you are living far outside of the reality bubble…

And as far as church goes perhaps it is not a priority if you don’t want the American people to know your real religion?!?

Obama taking off his shoes and getting ready to worship with other Muslim men; not something a non-Muslim and especially a non-Muslim US President would do…

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Obama leaves the gifting to Santa

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) tells People magazine in the issue out Friday that he and his wife, Michelle, do not give Christmas or birthday presents to their two young daughters.

Obama tells the magazine’s Sandra Sobieraj Westfall in a seven-page cover story that he and his wife follow the unusual practice because they “want to teach some limits.”

In the interview earlier this summer, Obama noted that they do spend “hundreds” of dollars on birthday slumber parties.

Michelle Obama told People: “Malia says, ‘I know there is a Santa because there’s no way you’d buy me all that stuff.’ ”

Wink.

The cover says: “THE OBAMAS AT HOME – EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS! – From piano practice and pillow talk to who does the chores (not him!), Barack, Michelle and daughters Sasha [7] and Malia [10] offer a rare look into their Chicago home.”

Westfall writes: “The girls may be irreverent, but they are also well mannered, slipping off their shoes before climbing on the velvet sofa. ‘There are downstairs rules,’ Michelle says later, like

no shoes on the furniture. But in the girls’ third-floor playroom the couch doubles as a trampoline. ‘So there are different rules in different parts of the house,’ Michelle continues.

“In the kitchen, where it’s the girls’ job to set and clear the dinner table, sunlight streams through a solarium-style glass wall, showing off black granite countertops—and dust collecting on an unopened bottle of Kendall- Jackson chardonnay. Michelle’s 71-year-old mother, Marian Robinson, is unpacking the family’s takeout lunch from Subway."

Here are the seven “Obama House Rules” listed by the magazine:

1) “No whining, arguing or annoying teasing,” says Michelle Obama.

2) Make the bed. “Doesn’t have to look good—just throw the sheet over it,” says Mom.

3) Set your own alarm clock. “They get themselves up, get their own clothes,” says Sasha and Malia’s grandmother Marian Robinson. “They’re very easy to take care of; there’s not much left for me to do!”

4) Keep playroom toy closet clean.

5) Allowance from Dad for doing chores: $1 per week. “I’m out of town all the time,” says Barack, “so Malia will say, ‘Hey, you owe me 10 weeks!’ ”

6) No birthday or Christmas presents from Mom and Dad, who spend “hundreds” on birthday slumber parties and, as Barack puts it, “want to teach some limits.” Says Michelle: “Malia says, ‘I know there is a Santa because there’s no way you’d buy me all that stuff.’ ”

7) Lights out at 8:30. “They got an extra half hour when they were ready to read on their own,” says Michelle.

I would say that this system of Christmas keeps them from addressing the actual holiday and meaning behind it; keeps them out of church, and keeps the Obama’s out of explaining their Muslim leanings. Santa is more of a children’s cult figure and really has nothing to do with the true meaning of “Christ”mas or the religious based traditions. (It is kind of like Jews who put up a Hanukah Bush/Tree and have Santa bring presents, so their kids don’t feel left out. This is just the Obama Muslim version).

The question for America is, “When are you going to be tired of being had and lied to?? And are you going to stand-up before there is nothing left to stand up for or after they have taken your freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion and the right to bear arms away from you… so that there is no way to fight back??

Merry Christmas and May God Bless and Keep America and her (His) People Safe!!

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