[QUOTE=christmasvalleyfarms;298968]Read my last two paragraphs? It's about free expression - look around you and whether it's the school kid being criminalized for bringing a Christmas gift to his classmates that mentions Jesus (most extreme is the recent court challenge, which failed, fortunately, against including the Rudolph song in a school "holiday" pageant because it mentioned the word "Christmas" and "Santa" which were too Christian and thus offensive), or the attempts to remove the mention of "God" from any national expression or monument - to allow any sort of perversion or immorality to fill the airwaves in the name of free speech, but to censor a church's preaching against homosexuality which their faith demands they do - I know, MOE, you will probably just write me off as a histrionic fanatic. But I really do cry about this - I did just this morning as I had a talk with my son, and am doing so again as I write this. I don't know if you're LDS. But here's my heart - trample it if you will.[QUOTE]
Nobody's religious freedoms were restricted in these instances. The First Amendment defines the government's role in religion, and that role is that it should remain neutral. A lot of that gets determined at the community level. You speak of a kid being criminalized for bringing a Christmas gift to his classmates (a source would be nice here), but yet, the ACLU defended the right of a Christian group in Massachusetts to distribute
candy canes with a Christian message in school. If you look at the cases that are building instead of the cases that terrify you, you might find that the level of tolerance for Christianity is higher than perceived.
In some communities, school choirs are discouraged from singing religious songs. In other communities, the choirs sing songs from multiple religions. The question is about neutrality and fair representation. Some communities achieve that by not presenting any, others try it by presenting them all. In Washington state, there's a community that said, "we're putting up a nativity scene, any other religious groups may share the space to put up emblems and tokens of their religion." This is perhaps most fair as it allows representation of all groups in proportion to their numbers.
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Basically, I love my Heavenly Father so so much. I owe to Him all that I have and I am. He gave me (us) my life, my liberty, the gospel and prophets to keep me safe and headed in the right direction in the midst of the world's increasing insanity - the Savior gave me His life. And I think of the proverb that says "how sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child." And it breaks my heart to see my Father, and my Savior, mocked, and derided, and excluded from our national consciousness in the name of including every other special interest group that squeals the loudest. My heart breaks for the hate, for the misunderstanding that the adversary exploits... and all the hurt.
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So do everything you can not to perpetuate it. Saying things like, "they won't be happy until all the Christians are locked in a closet" only increases tensions and animosities.
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There is no room in the inn anymore. In the very nation He led us to and inspired the founding of so that we could worship Him freely and honor Him in our daily lives. I am old enough to remember going downtown with my family to enjoy the beautiful Nativity display in front of the County Courthouse - we weren't the worse society for it - we all, Christian, Jew, Muslim, atheist alike, that we knew-and our family knew some of each - were able to share in a unique season of goodwill to all regardless of who or what we worshiped. To me Christmas is the ultimate expression of inclusivity - the message that God loves us all, whomever, Jewish, Muslim, atheists too(!), equally and that at least for that season we could put aside those differences and come together in the almost magical spirit of love and brotherhood. And the exclusion of the beautiful influence of that unifying spirit, that I remember experiencing at this time of year, is something I feel very sorely denied - and that my children will never know.
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Ending Christmas displays at public venues is not the same as limiting one's self expression. You are free to put up any Christian symbol on your property you like. You are free to wear whatever religious clothing you like. You are free to proselyte in any forum where people freely gather (note, public schools are not such a place, which is why administrators go to such lengths, sometimes over-zealously, to avoid the appearance of such activity).
Eliminating religious expressions in government is not the same as trampling the right to religious expression. I know that can hurt sometimes, but it is the price you pay for living in a society where you are free to express yourself.