Archive for October 2009
Kentucky Governor changes name of Capitol Christmas tree
‘Holiday tree’ terminology is “intended to be inclusive” says Gov. Steve Beshear spokeswoman
SCROOGE ALERT LEVEL: HIGH
AP: Christmas jeer: Kentucky governor’s ‘holiday tree’ angers critics
FRANKFORT, Kentucky — Gov. Steve Beshear has angered some Christians with his yuletide terminology.
A giant evergreen that will brighten the Capitol lawn this winter won’t be called a Christmas tree. Instead, the Beshear administration has dubbed it a “holiday tree.”
The Rev. Jeff Fugate, pastor of Clays Mill Baptist Church in Lexington, said Christians find the change troubling.
“If you call it a holiday tree,” Fugate asked, “which holiday are you talking about? We don’t put up a holiday tree for Easter or New Year’s or Thanksgiving. We put a tree up for Christmas.”
Beshear administration spokeswoman Cindy Lanham said the tree will be in celebration of a variety of winter holidays, including Christmas and Hanukkah…
Nativity scene gets axed before Halloween
Separation of church and state paranoia hits Michigan’s Satawa County
SCROOGE ALERT LEVEL: HIGH
WorldNetDaily: OK for 63 years, now Jesus in manger gets dumped
John Satawa’s family has displayed a nativity scene on a street median in Warren, Mich., virtually every Christmas season since 1945, but following an intimidating letter sent by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Satawa’s county has put stop to the 63-year-old tradition.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation proclaims its purpose in the letter to the Road Commission of Macomb County was to “protect the fundamental constitutional principle of separation of church and state.”
But Satawa contends there’s nothing unconstitutional about his privately owned and maintained Christmas display. With the help of the Thomas More Law Center, Satawa has filed a case in U.S. district court asking the judge to declare the county’s crèche rejection unconstitutional instead and order officials to permit its display.
Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Law Center, commented in a statement, “Every Christmas holiday, militant atheists … use the phrase ‘separation of church and state’ – nowhere found in our Constitution – as a means of intimidating municipalities and schools into removing expressions celebrating Christmas, a national holiday. Their goal is to cleanse our public square of all Christian symbols…
American Family Association Action Alert
Re-Twitter: @ScroogeReport PETITION: Ask Macomb County 2 recind their order removing a privately maintained Nativity scene http://bit.ly/10OdA0 #tcot #Christmas
Houston woman slaps city with lawsuit against opening prayer
This Week’s Top Scrooge feature has been in hiding for quite some time. I think it’s time to resurrect the dishoner at least one more time.
THIS WEEK’S TOP SCROOGE – OCT. 23, 2009
This from local ABC news (KTRK-TV):
HOUSTON — There’s another battle brewing in the fight over the separation over church and state. A Houston woman says she believes the city council is violating the constitution by beginning their meetings with a prayer.
Plaintiff Kay Staley and her attorney, Randall Kallinen, have slapped the city of Houston with a federal lawsuit, arguing that the long held tradition of saying a prayer before city council meetings is unconstitutional.
“Just because it always has been doesn’t make it right,” said Staley. “There are lots of people who feel exactly the same way I do. Most people are afraid to come out and say anything because of their jobs or their friends.”
Did Twitter ban user for “strange” Limbaugh activity?
Christian businessman James Paris says he never read so much hate on his Twitter feed in more than a year of participation on the micro-blogging site.
After pointing tweeps (Twitter users) via link to his sarcastic blog post, Why The NFL Was 100% Right In Banning Rush Limbaugh, the tweets (comments) back to him came fast and mean.
“It’s the first time since I have been on Twitter that I started receiving very hateful messages like ‘You are a racist … You are not a Christian … You are the devil,’” Paris said.
Then came something Paris wasn’t expecting: a one-week ban from Twitter.
“There was more than a 150 re-tweets of my article by various people who had come to my blog directly. I can only assume this ban is related to my Rush Limbaugh piece because that was really the only thing that happened last week and that’s what Twitter is claiming as the time frame where I violated their terms of service,” Paris said.
“People that were against Limbaugh were coming to my article after the re-tweets were posted thinking that they were going to read an article that would somehow buttress their viewpoint that the NFL was correct in banning Rush Limbaugh. When they realize they’ve been had … I believe that generated complaints to Twitter. I’ve never had one complaint from Twitter. I’ve never heard from them one way or the other. I honestly don’t understand exactly what the reason is that they are banning me.”
Paris responded to the ban by writing his post, Banned From Twitter For Supporting Rush Limbaugh, in which he states:
Well, I guess I know how Rush Limbaugh feels. This week I posted a blog piece supporting Rush and I received thousands of visits to my blog. I also engaged in probably one hundred ‘debates’ with people on Twitter about the whole Rush Limbaugh/NFL controversy. Today, I received the below message that I have been suspended from Twitter for one week. Obviously, someone did not like what I was saying in support of Rush…
What seems to be most upsetting to Paris is the page notification that comes up when people try to get to his Twitter page, username, “Jameslparis”:
Sorry, the account you were headed to has been suspended due to strange activity. Mosey along now, nothing to see here.
“For me to spend a year-and-a-half building up a Twitter following and then to have my Twitter account shut off and then when people go to my Twitter page it says that I’ve been disconnected for ‘strange activity’ … as far as anyone else knows I could have been involved with child pornography or some type of scam,” Paris said. “It really impugns my reputation for them to leave it so vague. It’s their responsibility to tell me why I was banned in much more clear terms than what they did in that suspension letter.
“The actual suspension is posted up on my blog and it makes reference to the word ‘bunch.’ They don’t use a numerical figure. They say that I violated their policy of spamming by posting to a quote ‘bunch’ of accounts. I’m not even exactly sure what that means. I do know that I personally was engaged with at least 100 people on Twitter about the whole Rush Limbaugh thing,” he said.
Paris said he wasn’t selling anything. “I never received any kind of screen warning that said, ‘you are responding too much … stop.’ I could never imagine that I am somehow dragging down their network or something with my meager activity.
“It was certainly just part of what I felt was the purpose of Twitter, which is social networking … going back and forth on issues and discussions. I had no idea that there was a limit to any of that. Especially something that was on topic,” Paris said.
Paris said he has not received an explanation from Twitter despite sending a request for one to its public relations department by e-mail.
“I’m not a big believer in coincidence and I don’t think this is a coincidence,” Paris said. “And it was all in relation to the spike in activity that happened to coincide with the Rush Limbaugh article that I posted.”
No response to a media request for an interview or statement from Twitter was received at the time of publication of this article.
Image found at James Paris business site, ChristianMoney.com.
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Related News Release: Businessman launches ‘Christian Chirp’ after Twitter suspension
Georgia admins vote ‘no’ on cheerleaders’ Bible-laced banners
Georgia school board upholds policy banning Bible banners
This from Associated Baptist Press:
RINGGOLD, Ga. — A school board in far northern Georgia upheld a policy Oct. 13 banning cheerleaders from displaying religious banners on the field at high-school football games.
Supporters of the signs, banned Sept. 28 by a superintendent who had been told by a Ringgold, Ga., woman that they violate federal law, rallied outside the first school-board meeting since the decision. They then packed the meeting room with a crowd estimated by local media at between 80 and 100 people strong.
Renzo Wiggins, attorney for Catoosa County Public Schools, told spectators the tradition of having football players at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School burst onto the field through paper signs displaying Bible verses violated the First Amendment’s ban on government endorsement of religion… read more
Bible verse ban spawns ‘wave of support for Christ’
This from OneNewsNow.com:
Despite a large public outcry over its decision to censor Bible verse banners held by high school football cheerleaders on the playing field, a Georgia school board is refusing to change its mind. However, the controversial policy has compelled many students to passionately defend their free-speech rights and proclaim their Christian beliefs…
…Many Christian parents and students in the community have voiced their disapproval of the ban by wearing “Warriors for Christ” T-shirts to football games and displaying scores of posters with Bible verses. And the Board’s decision on Tuesday night came despite another round of pleas from Christian parents who attended the meeting… read more
