Falwell: New Heroes Emerging in the Battle for Christmas

[meegbear]

FALWELL CONFIDENTIAL
Insider weekly newsletter to The Moral Majority Coalition and
The Liberty Alliance http://www.moralmajority.com <http://www.moralmajority.com/>

Date: December 8, 2005
From: Jerry Falwell

NEW HEROES EMERGING IN THE BATTLE FOR CHRISTMAS

Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia has become a hero of the Christmas season.

After a staff member sent out an e-mail news release announcing that Gov. Perdue and his wife Mary would be lighting a “holiday tree” at the governor’s mansion, the governor — an outspoken Christian — quickly set the record straight.

Within moments after that initial e-mail had gone out, Gov. Perdue sent out a follow-up e-mail announcing that he would be lighting a “Christmas tree” — not a “holiday tree.”

The follow-up e-mail from Gov. Perdue’s office was a classic.

It read: “Due to a politically-correct staff brain-freeze, the press office erroneously used the word ‘holiday tree’ to describe the coniferous flora that the governor and first lady will light this Sunday.”

It continued, “It is, in fact, a Christmas tree. The staffer responsible can be contacted at P.O. Box 432, Anchorage, Alaska, 99501.”

The message from Gov. Perdue was clear: he will not tolerate the diluting of Christmas.

As the issue of public religious expression — particularly during the Christmas season — has become increasingly contentious, it is energizing to see a high-profile political leader take such a bold stand in defense of Christmas.

Gov. Perdue, who spoke at Liberty University earlier this year, has become one of the most vocal Christian leaders in our nation. And it is fitting that he has charged head-first into this important political debate.

While we celebrate Gov. Perdue’s action, we continue to see numerous examples of education officials and public managers taking anti-Christmas postures.

In Seattle this week, a school district decided to reprint lunch menus for 23 elementary schools because they bore the message of “Merry Christmas.” The News Tribune of Tacoma reported that the district actually reprinted the menus so that they read “Happy Holidays.”

In Dodgeville, Wis., officials at an elementary school determined that their “winter program” would alter the carol “Silent Night” so that it is sung as “Cold in the Night.”

The lyrics have been secularized as follows:

“Cold in the night,
no one in sight,
winter winds whirl and bite,
how I wish I were happy and warm,
safe with my family out of the storm.”

The school’s program will include decorating classrooms with images of Santa Claus, Kwanza, Menorahs and Labafana (a Christmas witch).

The Orlando, Fla.-based Liberty Counsel has issued a demand letter to the school stating that its actions violate the Constitution. Liberty Counsel is prepared to file suit if the district does not remedy the situation.

These are just a couple of examples of school officials who want to eradicate Christmas.

Last week, a skit on Saturday Night Live had the cast spoofing the effort to restrain Christmas. Instead of singing “Hallelujah,” a politically-correct choir utilized the words, “How Ya Doing?”

Sadly, it probably gave the author of the “Cold in the Night” lyrics some new ideas.

Apparently, anti-Christmas school officials believe that saying “Merry Christmas” or singing “Silent Night” is an establishment of religion.

In reality, printing “Merry Christmas” on a menu or singing “Silent Night” in a school program is an establishment of religion in the same way that eating a nut makes you a squirrel.

It’s that ludicrous!

Liberty Counsel president and general counsel Mat Staver and I have been hitting the talk shows in recent days, identifying this war on Christmas across our nation. (Watch for Mat Friday night on the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes” broadcast..) Liberty Counsel is providing the free legal services of 700 Constitutional attorneys to any persons whose religious freedom is being denied or curtailed... available at [e-mail] <mailto:[e-mail]> .

We have been talking about the national “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign,” in which pastors across the country are purchasing full-page newspaper ads announcing that Christmas is still legal.

The most recent pastor to join this campaign is Dr. Richard Lee, pastor of First Redeemer Church in Cummings, Ga. The church is placing ads in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other local newspapers to defend public displays and expressions of Christmas.

Readers may view the ad that churches are utilizing by clicking on this link ( http://www.falwell.com/christmas.pdf <http://www.falwell.com/christmas.pdf> ) Readers may also call my National Liberty Journal newspaper office (434-582-2432) to have our graphics department help in the creation of an ad.
We have taken the offensive in the battle for Christmas. I urge pastors across the nation to join with us in protecting this important part of our national heritage.

[LittleClarkie]

1. Conversely, the POTUS is NOT a hero in the Xmas War

What happened to our "Christian" president? What did he do, go AWOL?

[Initech]

2. Fuck it, I'm celebrating Festivus this year!

[grytpype]

3. PRAISE JESUS!

[rucky]

9. Notice how HE didn't make it on the list? n/t

[FreedomAngel82]

4. So what about other people's

religious belief systems? Selfish much? I can't stand all the selfishness with people who are supposed to be caring.

[rateyes]

5. Perdue's son attends Southeastern Baptist Seminary,

in Wake Forest, NC. Ralph Reed is running for Lt. Governor of Georgia. Zell Miller zig-zagged and is now a DINO...the whole damned state of Georgia has gone freaking nuts.

Happy Chrismakwanzukkah!

[Democrats_win]

6. I nominate those ladies who sewed the parade costumes for Denver's Parade.

Just think, they could have been in our suburban streets proclaiming the Christmas message! The horror!

Another Festivus Miracle!

[Dawgs]

7. One of the most hated Governers in the whole country!!!

I'm sad to say he is mine.

[derby378]

8. Mansei! Mansei! Mansei!

Victory for the True Father for ten thousand fucking years, y'all!

(Confused? Falwell's had some dealings with Sun Myung Moon.)

[leveymg]

10. Gov. Perdue revealed the secret CIA torture camp in Anchorage, Alaska

US CENTERAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
LANGLEY, VA
EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION ORDER No. 05-1172-US-02

08 DEC 2005
14:44 EST

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue has violated the Official Secrets Act -- you know, the secret, secrets law -- by revealing the location of our classified facility in Alaska. It is hereby ordered that the Governor and the First Lady of Georgia be secretly renditioned by federal secret agents via a Gulfstream V that is waiting at an undisclosed location.

Allow Gov. Perdue to pack some woolen socks.

Signed - Your Secret Santa
Director, Central Intelligence

[arcane1]

11. "this important political debate"

I can't even make a smart-ass comment to that, only: :eyes::eyes::eyes:

[troubleinwinter]

12. History of the War on Christmas Meme-

"In 1959, the recently formed John Birch Society issued an urgent alert: Christmas was under attack. In a JBS pamphlet titled "There Goes Christmas?!" a writer named Hubert Kregeloh warned, "One of the techniques now being applied by the Reds to weaken the pillar of religion in our country is the drive to take Christ out of Christmas -- to denude the event of its religious meaning." The central front in this perfidious assault was American department stores, where the "Godless UN" was scheming to replace religious decorations with internationalist celebrations of universal brotherhood.
"The UN fanatics launched their assault on Christmas in 1958, but too late to get very far before the holy day was at hand," the pamphlet explained. "They are already busy, however, at this very moment, on efforts to poison the 1959 Christmas season with their high-pressure propaganda. What they now want to put over on the American people is simply this: Department stores throughout the country are to utilize UN symbols and emblems as Christmas decorations."

<snip>

And she also goes back even further, earlier than the John Birch Society, to the viciously anti-semitic Henry Ford, who blamed it all on Jews:

Gibson, of course, is not the first to connect the dots. The John Birch Society wasn't, either. As the Web site News Hounds pointed out last year, Henry Ford was sounding the alarm about the war on Christmas in his notorious 1921 tract "The International Jew." "The whole record of the Jewish opposition to Christmas, Easter and other Christian festivals, and their opposition to certain patriotic songs, shows the venom and directness of attack," Ford wrote. He listed local outrages: "Christmas celebrations or carols in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Paul and New York met with strong Jewish opposition ... Local Council of Jewish Women of Baltimore petitions school board to prohibit Christmas exercises ... The Council of the University Settlement, at the request of the New York Kehillah , adopts this resolution: 'That in the holiday celebrations held annually by the Kindergarten Association at the University Settlement every feature of any sectarian character, including Christmas trees, Christmas programs and Christmas songs, shall be eliminated.'"
To compare today's "war on Christmas" demagogues to Henry Ford is not to call them anti-Semites. Rather, they are purveyors of a conspiracy theory that repeatedly crops up in America. The malefactors change -- Jews, the U.N., the ACLU -- but the outlines stay the same. The scheme is always massive, reaching up to the highest levels of power.

<snip>

In fact, there is no war on Christmas. What there is, rather, is a burgeoning myth of a war on Christmas, assembled out of old reactionary tropes, urban legends, exaggerated anecdotes and increasingly organized hostility to the American Civil Liberties Union. It's a myth that can be self-fulfilling, as school board members and local politicians believe the false conservative claim that they can't celebrate Christmas without getting sued by the ACLU and thus jettison beloved traditions, enraging citizens and perpetuating a potent culture-war meme. This in turn furthers the myth of an anti-Christmas conspiracy.

<snip>

The entire "War on Christmas" meme is nothing more than naked demagoguery. It's utter nonsense, peddled by the dishonest to the credulous and the ignorant, people eager to cast themselves as victims of persecution. That eagerness is easily manipulated by those who want to keep the donations flowing by whipping up the emotions of the easily conned.

http://www.stcynic.com/blog/archives/2005/11/history_of_the_war_on_christma.php

[jobycom]

13. Falwell's driven more people from Christianity than any other American.

I kinda hope he's right, and there is a god and a Heaven and Hell, just so I can watch the stunned look on his face.

[Rob H.]

14. "Due to a politically-correct staff brain-freeze..."

If I were that staffer, my next email would be to the governor himself and would read as follows: "Fuck you, you dick. I quit."

And Falwell is a complete moron. To whit:

In Dodgeville, Wis., officials at an elementary school determined that their “winter program” would alter the carol “Silent Night” so that it is sung as “Cold in the Night.”

According to this article...

Diane Messer, administrator of the Dodgeville School District, said the holiday show is titled "The Little Tree's Christmas Gift'' and was copyrighted in . It's about a family that goes to buy a Christmas tree and uses a collection of familiar Christmas carol melodies to tell the story.

"Somebody totally misunderstood and had the belief that one of our teachers took it upon herself to rewrite the words to 'Silent Night,''' she said. "This program is well within our district's policy which allows us the use of both religious and secular content in our curriculum and in our productions and performances.''

Messer said the program has been performed "several times'' over the last 18 years and the school district has no immediate plans to address the Liberty Counsel's concerns.

"It's a misunderstanding and people have drawn all sorts of absurd conclusions from it,'' she said.

(Emphases added by me.)

[madrchsod]

15. i saw jesus

at the gas station and asked him about the controversy. he told me he was just in dodgeville and it was so cold that he changed "silent night" to "cold in the night" to get the crowd warmed up! as he was walking out the door he turned back and said to us--"happy holiday`s! i`m spending my birthday in new orleans!"

[newspeak]

16. you know, it's always about a war on something

Some people are just too unbelievable. They create their own little problems, so they can fix them. Totally delusional!!

[BJW]

17. and fleece their gullible followers

Check out this expose I posted on the Sekulow (head of ACLF) family's extravagant lifestyle here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x178273

Truly, truly disgusting!