[Dragon-Dancer]

raydan raydan:

It's maybe because when we have a story about Muslims using a school for religious purposes, we use the argument that religion has no place in the school. Then when stories like this come along, well... we kinda forget what we've said before.

Maybe the churches could organize the Christmas concert with the kids. Get the parents involved too. God knows, (pun intended) they need to do something to get people back to church.

Maybe they could rent the school gymnasium for the event? See it can work out for everyone. It worked for the Muslims renting out the cafeteria for their services after all.

I'm very consistent with my opposition to public schools catering to religions of any kind out of it's own already stretched funds or by excluding those not of a particular faith. If those religious bodies with to rent the space when it's not in use for school functions of their own free will then I don't mind at all.

andyt andyt:

How about Easter? Shouldn't we be completely banning it? When I was in the US, and asked if I got Easter off, they looked at me scornfully and said that they were a secular country. (Guess Christmas didn't register with them, since we did get that off.) So would be call Christmas Holiday 1 and easter holiday 2? Or how about calling Christmas Multikulti Day, and Easter "All Cultures are inherently equal day"?

Honestly I have no problem with that at all. I would happily exchange getting Easter off with getting something like Heritage day off instead. It honestly makes more sense as a Canadian holiday anyway.

[bootlegga]

andyt andyt:

How about Easter? Shouldn't we be completely banning it? When I was in the US, and asked if I got Easter off, they looked at me scornfully and said that they were a secular country. (Guess Christmas didn't register with them, since we did get that off.) So would be call Christmas Holiday 1 and easter holiday 2? Or how about calling Christmas Multikulti Day, and Easter "All Cultures are inherently equal day"?

The only thing I've ever celebrated at Easter is finding chocolate eggs - nothing very religious there and so nothing to ban IMHO - but I would be against schools celebrating the whole carrying the cross thing or Jesus's death/resurrection.

The Christians suborned Easter from the pagans in much the same way that they changed Saturnalia to Christmas. AFAIK, there were no Christmas trees in Bethlehem when Jesus was born, nor did people celebrate bunnies and eggs (fertility signs) when Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected a few days later.

I have no problem with Christians wanting to celebrate Jesus' birthday or when he died, I just don't think a public school is an appropriate place for it. Raydan's suggestion that church's should take it over seems right to me.

I suppose if the Christmas concert was ONLY about Rudolph and Santa and Christmas trees (and such - with no religious overtones), I'd be more upset. But the article doesn't say what past concerts entailed, so it's hard to rail about it too much.

Like I said, why not have something that hits the high notes for most people and then everyone can enjoy it, instead of just catering to a third/half of the people at this school.

[andyt]

But what are the schools celebrating? What religious rites are they practising? I don't recall any overt Christianity in my school, and that's going back a few decades. Bet it's even less now. There's Christmas carols (which do have Christian references to them) and decorations etc. Is that so bad? Santa Claus is based on a Christian saint - you going to get rid of him too?

[saturn_656]

$1:

Santa Claus is based on a Christian saint - you going to get rid of him too?

Yeah, they'll replace him with a similarly dressed multi-racial transgendered immigrant to the North Pole.

Santa, (or Festivus as he'll be called) should be reflect the times, wouldn't want anyone to be left out.

[andyt]

you forgot one legged, queer and differently abled, just off the top of my head.

[Thanos]

Why not just get it over with an replace all the old holidays with a White Guilt Day that's held a half-dozen times per year? And don't diss Festivus either. For a holiday that was started by a nut like like Frank Costanza, the way things are going with this PC bullshit Festivus might soon be the only old holiday left.

Don't acknowledge Kwaanza either. It was started by a militant supremacist rapist who only got away with it because he was black.

[Guy_Fawkes]

Christmas has drifted far enough away from a Christian holiday IMO that no one should really be offended by it. Hell even if they had kids doing a nativity play I would be down with it, as long as they dont push it as fact its cool with me.

[PluggyRug]

Why not go all the way back to Dec 21st and celebrating the winter solstice, which was highjacked by organised religion.

[andyt]

PluggyRug PluggyRug:

Why not go all the way back to Dec 21st and celebrating the winter solstice, which was highjacked by organised religion.

You saying the Romans were disorganized?

[stemmer]

This is just WRONG!!!!

[PluggyRug]

andyt andyt:

PluggyRug PluggyRug:

Why not go all the way back to Dec 21st and celebrating the winter solstice, which was highjacked by organised religion.

You saying the Romans were disorganized?

Pagans were organised.

[Public_Domain]

[andyt]

PluggyRug PluggyRug:

andyt andyt:

PluggyRug PluggyRug:

Why not go all the way back to Dec 21st and celebrating the winter solstice, which was highjacked by organised religion.

You saying the Romans were disorganized?

Pagans were organised.

So then Saturnalia practised by an organized religion was hijacked by another organized religion.

[commanderkai]

andyt andyt:

But what are the schools celebrating? What religious rites are they practising? I don't recall any overt Christianity in my school, and that's going back a few decades. Bet it's even less now. There's Christmas carols (which do have Christian references to them) and decorations etc. Is that so bad? Santa Claus is based on a Christian saint - you going to get rid of him too?

Exactly. Most schools don't have any overt religious references. It's one thing to be against pushing religion upon students, but Christmas is pretty secularized as it is, and now being against just having a simple Christmas concert is mind boggling. If a majority of Canadians are supposed to respect the beliefs of other cultures, at least give the majority of Canadians who are Christian some respect with their own beliefs. That does not mean you have to practice their faith, or celebrate their holidays as devout Christians would expect, but don't whitewash their faith out of the public sphere.

[2Cdo]

commanderkai commanderkai:

andyt andyt:

But what are the schools celebrating? What religious rites are they practising? I don't recall any overt Christianity in my school, and that's going back a few decades. Bet it's even less now. There's Christmas carols (which do have Christian references to them) and decorations etc. Is that so bad? Santa Claus is based on a Christian saint - you going to get rid of him too?

Exactly. Most schools don't have any overt religious references. It's one thing to be against pushing religion upon students, but Christmas is pretty secularized as it is, and now being against just having a simple Christmas concert is mind boggling. If a majority of Canadians are supposed to respect the beliefs of other cultures, at least give the majority of Canadians who are Christian some respect with their own beliefs. That does not mean you have to practice their faith, or celebrate their holidays as devout Christians would expect, but don't whitewash their faith out of the public sphere.

Well said.