OU Supports Congressional Resolution Against [Bogus] "War On Christmas"
JTA reports,
A congressional resolution to protect Christmas symbols and another marking Jewish history month are in keeping with religious diversity, the Orthodox Union said.
An O.U. statement Thursday commented on a resolution introduced by Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-Va.) — which “recognizes the importance of the symbols and traditions of Christmas” and “strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas” — as well as one by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) that calls for the establishment of an American Jewish history month.
The resolutions are in keeping with “a public domain which embraces and protects religious diversity,” the Orthodox Union said. “We concur with those who say that the Framers of the Constitution did not intend to demand that America’s public square be purely secular.”
Feh on this
in my post on this i add to that the irony that some reps asked for the same protection for chanukah which they dont mention
How about a War on Warmakers? Or a War on Idiots? It’s funny that the Spamblock! word for this post is “everywhere.”
The words “shooting themselves in the foot” come to mind. As do “missing the point completely” and “dumb political move”.
Why does the OU always side with the Christian right on almost every issue. This “war on christmas” is stupid. While I dont make much of the reefs and music in shopping malls, why are people berating those who actually want to acknowledge that there are other faiths in this country?
Planet Earth calling Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz : Aren’t we like 2 % of the population or something?
Who cares if we’re 2% of the population? We’re 92% of the creative genius. That’s why we get all the blame (credit?) for all the conspiracies.
Maybe a month is just the wrong way to go about it. Why not a national holiday? That way there’s a full day off work, which should gain the sympathies of blue-collar rednecks, and it would be over and done with in a BANG, instead of wheezing away slowly for a month.
isnt it interesting that religious jews who have a strong belief in their own faith have the least difficulty with the religious of other faiths, including public displays of other religious symbols – and secular jews are the most like to go crazy over xmas decorations and the like. and perhaps it all makes sense, since the religious have the least fear of their children drifting over to xtianity, and statistically the secular jews lose most of their children and grandchildren to xtianity.
Interesting story at jta.org: “Pam Gawley, founder of the new Long Island chapter [of an interfaith group], grew up Reform but didn’t realize how important Judaism was to her when she married a practicing Christian 21 years ago. It was only when their children began asking about God that she and her husband knew they had some hard decisions to make.“Being interfaith is not my first choice,†she admits. “I’d rather raise my children Jewish, but that’s not an option.â€
so which better insures jews for the future – going crazy over because a store says merry christmas – or observing at least some of judaisms religious aspects and making sure we marry other jews? literally thank g-d for religious jews!
I tend to agree with the religious Jews. The constitution attempts to balance various theistic views – not atheism and theism. Atheism and theism can never be balanced because atheism is only defined in the negative, ie. the absence of a belief in G-d. A positive assertion such as theism can never be balanced by its negation. The negation acts like a vacuum in physics and subsumes the positive. I do not believe the founders were illogical so the establishment clause must have been intended as a balance between theistic perspectives. Accordingly, the government should be free to promote theism generally while not promoting any particular faith. This is what the constitution means when it says the government can pass no law respecting “an establishment of religion.”