At the Bottom of the Steps

At the Bottom of the Steps
watercolor

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Ruffled Feathers on the Holiday Goose or how I learned to quit struggling and embrace the ignorance of the ACLU

They're at it again, according to the news. the ACLU wants the nativity set in Denver moved to a church. The government should not support ANY religion, they say. I would refer them to the scripture found in Matthew 7, which has nothing to do with Christmas and everything to do with fairness.
The ACLU challenged the rights of a charter school, which was largely Muslim, to allow school closure on Muslim holidays and to offer Muslim food in the cafeteria, among other things.
One of the observances during the legal proceedings?

"The danger here is that since essentially all mores have some religious origin, when the ACLU sues about mores it objects to, it is in effect using the courts to establish religion by selectively labeling "religious" those mores originating with religious beliefs it dislikes but not mores based on religions it approves of."

Santa Claus, for instance, has his roots in Christianity. His given name is ST. Nicolas. SOOOOOOOOO no Santa for you, ACLU.
That's right. Forget the presents, too. Oh, that isn't a Christian tradition, especially. It comes from the celebration of the Winter Solstice, which had a lot of religious participation...Celts and the Japanese...
So do the lights.
So no tree, for you. And the state should certainly NOT be lighting up the city and county building!
And on December 25th, feel free to report to work. After all, that's one of the traditional celebration days of Winter Solstice. Christianity just adopted it. You wouldn't want to observe it as a holiday from work, would you?
Another thing which originated with the Winter Solstice celebration was the feast
(So you can't, in good conscience, have a big family meal on December 25th-- or any of the other traditional Solstice observance days, for that matter)

You see, there are a lot of religions besides the mainstream ones against which you rail. Paganism is a recognized religion, for Pete's sake! A lot of customs and behaviors have their roots in observances of these religions: think Halloween, funerals and even wedding rings.
So, strip that cherished wedding band off your hands. The nerve of some people allowing that thing in government recognized marriage ceremonies! Close your drapes at Halloween and never, ever allow your children to dress up ( and if the post office hands out Tootsie Rolls to the kids that day, take them to court!)
And if the flag is lowered to observe a state funeral, well...you just march right up there and raise it again. Feel free.
Unless, of course, it's for one of your kids killed during combat...fighting to protect the real rights of EVERYONE and not just the silly nit-picked rights that keep your lawyers employed and your names in the local media.
In the words of the great WC Fields: "Go home, kids. you bother me."

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