1 John 3:1 Behold,what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,that we should be called the sons of God:therefore the world knoweth us not,because it knew him not.
With the day after Thanksgiving past us,we are fully into the Christmas season. Although many places would much rather call it the holiday season. Many towns would rather remove traditional nativity scenes rather than risk offending someone. Many schools will no longer sing traditional Christmas songs that mention the name of Jesus Christ because they are afraid of offending someone. Listen to this news report from November 30,2009:
The 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has upheld a school district’s ban on Christmas carols such as “Silent Night,”“Joy to the World,”“Oh,Come All Ye Faithful”and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”– and approved “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”and “Frosty the Snowman.”In the Nov. 24 ruling the Third Circuit approved the school policy banning all religious Christmas music,including instrumentals,which had been part of the South Orange–Maplewood School District’s Christmas program for years – until one parent complained. Attorneys with the Thomas More Law Center,a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor,Mich.,argued to reverse a lower-court ruling affirming the policy. The firm argued the district’s ban on religious music conveys a government-sponsored message of disapproval and hostility toward religion in violation of the Establishment Clause. “Christmas is a national holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ,not the birth of Frosty the Snowman or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,”said Richard Thompson,president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center. “This ruling is another example of how the courts have tyrannically twisted the Establishment Clause as a weapon against Christians in the War on Christmas.”The law firm says the school’s ban was specifically aimed at preventing Christmas music,including simple instrumentals without words,during holiday concerts. The district had allowed the performance of traditional Christmas music for more than 60 years but in 2004 suddenly banned it. The district’s decree ordered that only selections such as “Winter Wonderland”and “Frosty the Snowman”would be allowed,with a complete ban on tunes about Jesus and even Santa Claus. The high school’s brass ensemble had to rebuild its repertoire,the Martin Luther King Gospel Choir was ordered not to perform and printed programs were edited to remove any “graphics which refer to the holidays,such as Christmas trees.”