Texas Passes "Merry Christmas" Law.

[Templar 331]

http://news.msn.com/us/texas-law-saf...eer-in-schools

Now to start off, I don't want this to be a religion bashing thread. But this seems to me a breach of separation of church and state. Even though this law accepts all religious holidays around Christmas, it seems to be mainly referring to Christmas.

It also allows teachers and students to sing Christmas songs, erect Christmas trees, holiday decorations and nativity scenes,

And here's what gets me.

as long as they do not include a "message that encourages adherence to a particular religion's belief."

How on Earth can you put up a tree, sing songs, and put out a nativity scene without shoving it down the throat's of everyone else who is not Christian? That's the whole point to separation of church and state. So as not to be endorsing a particular religion. Even if 99% of the class is christian, why should the 1% be forced to sit though the entire month listening to something they don't believe in? Why not just have kids go to school and learn? Why should they be celebrating anything in class? Boy, I'm such a Grinch. But this final thing is what set me off.

"It is Christmas activities that are being attacked over and over again," Saenz said.

Maybe because not everyone believes the same as you do and they don't want state/federal funding promoting a religion? If we just let them have this now, who's to say where it will stop?

[Kujako]

It's simple, you just recognize that Christmas is a pagan holiday the was simply cooped by the Catholic church when they couldn't keep the rabble form celebrating it. Of course we missed it since it's supposed to be on December 6th. Frankly, I find "Christians" claiming of the holiday kind of funny. Especially when they used to stone to death people they caught celebrating it.

[Hunterpower]

merry christmas sounds nicer than happy holidays.
that is my only thing to say about this topic.

[Wilian]

I'm against single-minded religious teaching in schools but there are traditions that can be considered being part of national identity and attacking them to be politically correct is stupid.

It has gone full retard already in Finland when here a traditional summer-start song in schools called Suvivirsi, a song that has religious origins is being pushed off just because of that, while no one takes it as religious shit other than the professionally insulted idiots. It's just traditional song for summer's start.

Same with Christmas. If it gets so damn offensive, maybe you should consider changing your own stance instead of attacking traditions of entire nation.

[Kujako]

merry christmas sounds nicer than happy holidays.
that is my only thing to say about this topic.

Have a merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Kwazy Kwanzaa, a tip-top Tet, and a solemn & dignified Ramadan.

Course that's a bit long winded for Wallmart to chant at every person through the doors.

[Calzaeth]

This one really is easy:

1. Teachers/students can celebrate and refer to ALL holidays.
2. No holiday-related activities in school, at all.

Those two options are the only valid ones if church and state are separated, anything in between makes a sham of said separation. Personally, I prefer (2), since many religious songs have great sing-along potential, and it would be a fun way to introduce students to all the religions present in their class/school. Then again, I'm a sucker for singing :P

[Ateista]

leave it to texas to keep this bullshit war on christmas thing going. because nothing screams jesus like a pagan holiday.

and believe me, while i'm no fan of religion, i'm seriously not trying to turn this into a religious debate; but anyone with a fucking education knows that christmas was never a "christian" thing to begin with.

fucking texas; they piss me off more and more on a daily basis.

[MrKnubbles]

merry christmas sounds nicer than happy holidays.
that is my only thing to say about this topic.

It's not about which sounds nicer. To be honest, I don't want to hear either. It's not about being a Scrooge or a Grouch either. Not everybody celebrates holidays and it gets really annoying to see EVERYBODY around you displaying their "holiday spirit". This goes for all holidays, not just Christmas and New Years.

[Outofmana]

The political correctness from the OP is astounding. Celebrating christmas is hardly promoting a religion.

[Adam Jensen]

How on Earth can you put up a tree, sing songs, and put out a nativity scene without shoving it down the throat's of everyone else who is not Christian? That's the whole point to separation of church and state. So as not to be endorsing a particular religion. Even if 99% of the class is christian, why should the 1% be forced to sit though the entire month listening to something they don't believe in? Why not just have kids go to school and learn? Why should they be celebrating anything in class? Boy, I'm such a Grinch. But this final thing is what set me off.

Bold parts are not Christian. Not every song is Christian. Jingle Bells, for example.

See, you think Christmas is exclusively Christian. It is not. Sure, Christians use the holiday to celebrate the birth of Christ and even had the name of the holiday changed to Christmas, but most of it is based on pagan traditions and celebrations that are not necessarily religious. There's nothing religious about giving gifts, spending time with family or having a feast on one of the shortest days of winter.

A non-Christian can celebrate most of Christmas without believing in Jesus. I know I do.

[Deleted]

I think this is great. I'm an atheist, basically an anti-theist. I dislike religion very much, but I respect people's beliefs and their right to stand by it. I think that christmas has been ruined (I love christmas. We celebrate it in my family too, but not because we're religious) in my country since it's full of feminists/communists that have a weird way of what political correctness is and should be.

I don't know if it's common in the U.S. but we celebrate Lucia in scandinavia. It's pretty much as big as thanksgiving in the U.S. and we have events in our schools where the children dress up and sing songs. There are different characters to choose from. Girls have 1 (1 girl gets to be Lucia) and the boys have 3. Gingerbread men, tomtenisse (it's like a christmas gnome. Tomte = santa claus in Sweden and tomtenisse look like santa's helpers, but they aren't connected to him) and stjärngossar (dunno how to explain them, I don't know what they stand for)

Last year, a lot of schools forbid boys to dress up as gingerbread men. Why? Because they're brown and they didn't want anyone to be offended by the brown color.

It sounds ridiculous, right? Well, the stjärngossar are dressed in white robes with a white hat. That's equally offensive to white people = not even slightly offensive to anyone.

Stuff like that are ruining traditions in my country right now and laws to prevent discrimination of holiday celebrations would be awesome.

[Wells]

The political correctness from the OP is astounding. Celebrating christmas is hardly promoting a religion.

How would you feel if everyone in your school was told to celebrate Ramadan and singing Muslim songs and there were Muslim decorations everywhere?

Would feel an awful lot like promoting it would it.

[Skullslasher]

Nativity set is a bit much. I don't see the problem with Christmas trees..nor Christmas songs for the most part.
You'd have to be pretty sensitive to think Christmas trees are shoving Christianity down your throat.


I mean really how the hell does singing Rudolph the Red-nosed Rain-deer equate to proselytizing.

[vindicatorx]

The political correctness from the OP is astounding. Celebrating christmas is hardly promoting a religion.

Never seen those "Jesus is the reason for the season" signs then have you? I am an atheist and I don't mind Christmas trees and decorations I do however mind when they do the whole Jesus story stuff along with it because it is promoting their religion. The fact that only 2 religious holidays are being protected is also pretty shitty if you protect one you have to protect all.

[Athabaska]

anyone with a fucking education knows that christmas was never a "christian" thing to begin with.

Oh god. CHRIST-MASS. At least use terms like "winter solstice" if you want to go deep. Pretend you have a fucking education.

[Kezmaefele]

I just want to say Merry Christmas to all.

I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus. If you don't believe he was the son of God, that's OK, I totally understand because I have had my doubts throughout my life. But regardless, I hope you can at least appreciate his message of peace and love and please forgive the all too human messengers that pass on his word in a sometimes imperfect way.

I hope Merry Christmas can convey the right message to all no matter where it comes from or how it got to your ears.

[Wells]

I just want to say Merry Christmas to all.

I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus. If you don't believe he was the son of God, that's OK, I totally understand because I have had my doubts throughout my life. But regardless, I hope you can at least appreciate his message of peace and love and please forgive the all too human messengers that pass on his word in a sometimes imperfect way.

I hope Merry Christmas can convey the right message to all no matter where it comes from or how it got to your ears.

You're not the government.

[vindicatorx]

I just want to say Merry Christmas to all.

I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus. If you don't believe he was the son of God, that's OK, I totally understand because I have had my doubts throughout my life. But regardless, I hope you can at least appreciate his message of peace and love and please forgive the all too human messengers that pass on his word in a sometimes imperfect way.

I hope Merry Christmas can convey the right message to all no matter where it comes from or how it got to your ears.

This is definitely not the message Christianity sends to non-Christians. I'm not trying to knock your religious views but to many it's just a symbol of oppression and hate.

[Zython]

The political correctness from the OP is astounding. Celebrating christmas is hardly promoting a religion.

You DO realize there are religions other than Christianity, right?

[PACOX]

Something thats was needed IMO. Christmas is as part of American culture as it is a religious holiday. In fact most of the festivities surrounding Christmas have nothing to do with the religious aspect of the holiday. When I was in elementary when song Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa songs, freaking Feliz Navidad and no one gave a shit. Part of living in a multicultural society means you might not always celebrate/participate in whatever festivity that's going on a whatever time. How many speak up for that poor Jahovah Witness kid we all went to school with that had to sit out every time someone had a birthday or you had Halloween/Christmas/whatever day? People so picky and choosy about what should and shouldn't be allowed, pretty much just stuff that they agree with to be honest.