Are Christian Holidays Observed?

Why not celebrate Sept. 11 as the paramount Christianist holy day, when all the wacko fundamentalists and apartheid zionists (i.e., Chuckie's base) did their damnedest to force Jesus to satisfy their Armaggedon wet dreams.

Better yet, become a Buddhist, Mr. Colson. They actually practice what Christ taught.

POSTED BY: JUSTILLTHEN
===

Indeed. In the brouhaha of Palin, Ensign, and Michael Jackson, it is easy to forget the very Christian-like behavior of the Sri Lankan Buddhists.

We do celebrate Christmas because it is a Christian holiday. The fact that other people do not claim to treat it as such, or mark the trampling deaths at Walmart on December 26th in celebrations is not relevant

Any idea why, in your thorough analysis of Christian school holidays, you forgot Easter?

Muslim holidays deserve no different treatment than Christian ones.

Best NOT to have any for religious reason, but allow excused absences for those who do wish to celebrate them.

Why don't you'al just combine your holidays of Winter and Spring breaks and call them the Bi-Annual-Intolerant-Religious-Festivals of your collectively small and shallow god of Abraham? Then you can join hands, bake, decorate, party, dance, sing, pray, hate, judge, condemn and exclude others together in pleasant harmony. I'm sure Coca Cola would re-write their little holiday commercials for you.

Again, sorry to rant. But, TTetcec, ...had a look at you 'book people's 'Holy lands' lately?

They're *deserts,* full of strife and hatred and conflict.

They didn't necessarily start out that way.

Capiche?

While, of course, you fall upon each other in vicious sectarian fighting when you run out of 'outsiders' to scapegoat.

Yaknow, TT?

This pluralistic, society, based in unalienable rights, and theoretically, rational discourse with checks and balances on power, but guarantees of individual liberty, along with management of the common defense, general welfare, and domestic tranquility, for ourselves and our posterity.... may *scare* you, but your way's been done.

Getting here has been *expensive.*

Instead of blaming people you can hardly claim to have been even *aware* of when you set all this mess up, how about we give this America thing a fair shake?

You can go back to your way, anytime. Easy as falling off a civilization.

Oh, yea, forgot to mention TTetcetc:

I can assure you that Pagans have no interest whatsoever in 'deposing' a Godform we don't believe in from a 'throne' we *also* don't believe in, never mind having any interest whatsoever in 'taking over' the mess you've made of things, nor the 'creatively-incompetent' breeding contest you seem to be referring to.

Having a lot of 'numbers' may *sound* mighty and good....

Till the food runs out, you can't manage the microbes for your population density and the 'Kingdom's' supply lines get thin.

Guess maybe that's why you're so fixated on the 'end of the world.' Does seem to keep happening for you, doesn't it?

TTetcetc:
"The Pagans have been trying to defeat God since time began by making their own gods, and they are worse off than when they began. Catholicism alone is up to 1.3 billion members world wide and growing."

You really *do* just think the world revolves around you, even retroactively before 'you' or your God existed, ...don't you?

Yeah, everyone else's spiritual life was all a big conspiracy to stop Evangelical proselytizing in American schools, all the way back to Catal Huyuk.

Cause there was all that extra time, and all.

Vanity.

"My question as a Christian would be, what Christian holiday is observed? Christmas is observed not as the birthday of Christ-"

What? Who cares? How pious Christians may or may not be to your satisfaction has nothing to with whether or not Christians should get, or claim to be the ones to 'extend' certain privileges.

If the whole world *stops* for your holidays, even if you don't pray, why are you even questioning the right of others to take a day to observe their own religions?

I agree with the notorious Mr. Colson. Eliminate all religious holidays from the official public school schedule and the problem is solved.

Public schools should continue to recognize official holidays for Winter and Spring breaks but they should schedule them on the last Friday in Dec. and the 2nd Monday in April (for example), regardless of where the religious holidays happen to fall. And then give kids/families the option of taking a limited number of personal days to cover any religious observances each student may want to celebrate.

The problem is best solved by simply divorcing all religious holidays from the public school calender.

I think the NY City Council, instead of worrying about holidays, (as if they don't have enough) might start worrying about the five percent of pedophiles they harbor and shift around to different schools.

Did not the Liberal left public go berserk over some 0.25 percent of Catholic pedophile priest over the last 30 years? They have been dealt with, and homosexuals are no longer admitted to the priesthood.

Moreover, since NY is countenancing near bankruptcy, they might try firing some 700 teachers, or deal with them. They sitting around doing nothing and drawing full salery and vacations to the tune of some $65 million.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090622/ap_on_re_us/us_rubber_rooms
Because their union contract makes it extremely difficult to fire them, the teachers have been banished by the school system to its "rubber rooms" — off-campus office space where they wait months, even years, for their disciplinary hearings.

The 700 or so teachers can practice yoga, work on their novels, paint portraits of their colleagues — pretty much anything but school work. They have summer vacation just like their classroom colleagues and enjoy weekends and holidays through the school year.

"You just basically sit there for eight hours," said Orlando Ramos, who spent seven months in a rubber room, officially known as a temporary reassignment center, in 2004-05. "I saw several near-fights. `This is my seat.' `I've been sitting here for six months.'

Because the teachers collect their full salaries of $70,000 or more, the city Department of Education estimates the practice costs the taxpayers $65 million a year."

How can anyone take this crank seriously? The question is whether students should get time off for holidays, not whether they are "observed" to Mr. Colson's personal satisfaction.

IN REPLY TO (IRT)
CELEBRATING MUSLIM PUBLIC HOLIDAYS:

IRT:
“Stop the pretense that we are observing Christmas as a Christian holiday and you'll solve most of your problems. It doesn't make me happy, but the desacralization of Christmas is an accomplished fact.”

ANS:
I am not as cynical as you because I still see the heathens trying to suppress any idea of God, especially in Public Schools. If it is bothering them so much, then Christianity is not dead and it will never be.

The Secularist have intentionally made it a point to not make spring brake the same as the religious Easter and Christmas break. The Christian religion has been a thorn in the side of the ACLU since the Fifties. God is their nemesis; even silence in the class room drives the Atheist ACLU up the wall. Abstinence Programs have them running into brick walls.

The USSR couldn’t defeat Christianity; Poland, is one example. Hitler’s Germany couldn’t defeat the Pope nor could Stalin.

They have since been buried by the Christian principles of “Love one another as God has so loved you,“ and “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.“

The Pagans have been trying to defeat God since time began by making their own gods, and they are worse off than when they began. Catholicism alone is up to 1.3 billion members world wide and growing.

The Muslims adopted many of the Christian concepts because they are Truth. Think about where Christianity began, viz. in a little unknown town in Bethlehem.

Think about a little Catholic nun in Calcutta, against the most volatile and hostile anti-Christian people in the world. She defeated them; she became their national hero. Millions lined the street during her funeral to pay homage to her. She was a Christian "par excellence."

As long as Christmas is a national holiday, we are reminded of the love our Creator has had for all mankind. Consumerism, isn’t a bad thing. People work hard for their money, and at Christmas they give this hard work in the guise of gifts to their loved ones. It is a way of saying to those who are loved thank you for yourself.

Hence it is written of Jesus‘ words to Peter, “The gates of Hell shall not prevail against Her.” Neither will the ACLU, Obama, and his minions of troglodytes, barbarians and philistines.

Colin

Tough.

You atheists just have to suck it up.

Calling yourself a "rationalist" does not make you one. Self acclaimed status of rationality. that is a hoot.

Same difference. The two breaks "coincide" with Christmas and Easter. The length varies from state to state, college to college, etc., but, in total, they are also disruptive of the academic year, particularly, for K12.
--------------------------------------------
I study at the University of Virginia, and our spring break began in February, no where near Easter. Nor did we get off school for Holy Week or Easter Monday. Winter break comes at the end of the fall semester. At least for colleges, to argue that these religious holidays are harming our educational process is merely anti-Christian political posturing.

I agree with Chuck. My daughters school does not bet off for Christmas, they get a "winter break". Neither do they get off for Easter, its called Spring break. In fact its worse than that, its illegal to bring a Bible to school or mention the name of Jesus, but muslim children get a special classroom and time off during the day to say their muslim prayers.
=================
Same difference. The two breaks "coincide" with Christmas and Easter. The length varies from state to state, college to college, etc., but, in total, they are also disruptive of the academic year, particularly, for K12.

I agree with Chuck. My daughters school does not bet off for Christmas, they get a "winter break". Neither do they get off for Easter, its called Spring break. In fact its worse than that, its illegal to bring a Bible to school or mention the name of Jesus, but muslim children get a special classroom and time off during the day to say their muslim prayers.

Mr Colson;

\you write;

"The simple solution is for the school to recognize days of religious observance and give various individuals freedom to miss a day of school to observe their faith's holidays. This could be applied to Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, and Jews alike."
But what about the atheists? Don't we get some time off? Why do folks who believe fairy tales of Skygods and demons get all the holidays and us rationalists get none?
It ain't fair I tell you.

The simple solution is for the school to recognize days of religious observance and give various individuals freedom to miss a day of school to observe their faith's holidays. This could be applied to Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, and Jews alike.
============================
AGreed. this should be done for students of all faiths. The same should be done for civil service workers. Things would get tricky for nonobservant students since, they, too, would have to be given some free days, but that could be worked out. In the case of workers, the problem could be handled with a couple of additional "personal" days.

The line of reasoning that Christian holidays are not in truth being celebrated and so other religions should not have designated holidays is intellectually dishonest in the extreme, which I must say is a common practice for Mr. Colson. Although I can recognize that he is not happy with the level, and form, of worship practiced by the general public in observance of Christmas, that does dilute in the least that Christmas is a holiday in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, and so Christianity.

Mr. Colson will have to come up with some other rationalization to avert the Antichrist, in the form of other religious perceptions of the Creator, from making inroads towards mainstream legitimization in America. Rationalizations that are actually honest and valid, as opposed to dishonest and false.

Better yet, become a Buddhist, Mr. Colson. They actually practice what Christ taught.