tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-307804590747987204.post2922528355516037596..comments2023-08-08T08:19:30.857-06:00Comments on Family Lines - Welcome to my blog!: A few thoughts on the coming season....Debbiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18321961122545967282noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-307804590747987204.post-39946457154241641782008-11-16T22:59:00.000-07:002008-11-16T22:59:00.000-07:00I realize that I'm late to this party. Sorry. But ...I realize that I'm late to this party. Sorry. But I do need to comment. Bill O'Reilly is credited as the guy who got everyone upset about the "War on Christmas". He's a nutjob, and his employment relies on getting people excited about controversial issues. <BR/><BR/>Consider that the holiday season includes Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, and other religious and cultural celebrations. To term it "The Christmas Season" would be inaccurate for retailers as they are targeting more than just Christians. <BR/><BR/>The issue is even bigger in public schools where the December Dilemma is faced every year: teach about the religious and cultural celebrations while remaining true to the constitutional requirement of remaining religiously unbiased. <BR/><BR/>It reminds me of when BYU shut down their women's gymnastics program because they didn't have a men's gymnastics program and that got them in trouble with their athletic conference (WAC? I forget) because that's unfair to guys. But they couldn't find enough guys interested in gymnastics, nor sponsors to fund men's gymnastics, so they had to shut down the women's team in order to obey the rules. I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the switch from WAC. <BR/><BR/>Anyway, how do you teach unbiased religious celebrations without teaching the songs of all of those cultures, even if there isn't anyone in the class/school/district familiar with the other religions? (That there aren't any Jews in a particular school/class/district isn't the point. There doesn't have to be for the sole observation of Christmas to be unbalanced.) In order to teach all the songs of all of the religions that celebrate at that time of year you would have to do nothing but music time in December. Hardly fair. <BR/><BR/>Is the system perfect? Not even close. But keep it in perspective with the problems they face, instead of just criticizing the way they've handled it. I mean every retailer operates in fear of litigation from the religious if they don't mention Christmas, and the athiests if they do. Christians creating an uproar because a retailer didn't mention Christmas in an ad just makes the situation worse. Spread the Word through your own efforts, without trying to force corporations to do it for you. <BR/><BR/>(I'm using the universal/generic "you" here.) <BR/><BR/><BR/>- JonJonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13717235038880261084noreply@blogger.com