Efforts to squelch public expressions of faith in Jesus Christ intensify each year and this year they’re starting early. Activists may cause temporary chaos, but will ultimately fail to blot out God completely. This nation-wide agenda and lack of tolerance for Christianity includes government-run schools.
Many parents were outraged this week in Wausau, Wisconsin, after learning Christmas concerts would be cancelled when the school district launched an agenda against Christmas music.
Director of Wausau West High School choral program since 1981, Phil Buch said district administrators gave music educators three options:
“Choose five secular or non-religious songs for each religious (Christmas) song performed; hold a concert and have no holiday music whatsoever; or postpone any concerts in December.”
Buch also stated he has never received a single complaint about Christmas music in his 31 years with the group.
Sadly, nursing homes, area businesses, and grade schools in the community won’t be hearing the group’s Christmas program due to this decision. Wausau School Board President Michelle Schaefer said they wanted more balance in ‘holiday’ music out of respect for (fear of) the minority of other faiths, and noted concern over “the amount of religious music performed in the schools.”
The 15 elementary schools in the Wausau School District have jointly decided to cancel all winter concerts. This is a blatant assault on Christianity, a national Christian holiday, and a threat to our religious freedom.
I love what Fox News’ Todd Starnes said:
The Wausau, Wis. School District says it’s okay to jingle bells and don gay apparel but lay off the Baby Jesus stuff – and that has parents and students ready to deck somebody’s halls.
This battle is not a new one. About ten years ago, a friend of mine shared an unfortunate story about her little sister getting upset with some classmates when they sang,
“Joy to the world, the teacher’s dead. We just chopped off her head. What happened to the body? We flushed it down the potty. And round and round it goes; and round and round it goes…”
She told them to stop singing those words because the song is about Jesus. An argument ensued. And guess who was sent to the principal’s office? Hint: it wasn’t the kids singing about cutting off their teacher’s head. True story.
But what do the majority believe?
According to a 2012 Rasmussen Reports poll, 82% of American adults voted in favor of celebrating Christmas on public school campuses, and 76% believe Christmas should be more about Jesus than Santa.
In the face of facts and against the will of most Americans, public schools, government agencies, the secular media, and atheistic organizations continue to attack, criticize, and vilify the majority who believe and celebrate the Christian holiday.
Going directly against Jesus’ own words to “Let your light shine among men,” some are trying to get Christians to be silent and hide their faith under baskets. Liberals and progressives may deny there is a ‘war on Christmas’ but here’s a partial list from last year:
· A North Carolina first grader was not allowed to recite a poem in an assembly because it mentioned God.
· Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee replaced the state’s Christmas tree with a “holiday tree.”
· In Alsip, Illinois, a forty-year Christmas tradition of displaying a cross on the water tower was stopped.
· In Santa Monica, California, a sixty-year tradition of displaying a Nativity scene in a public park was discontinued due to atheist demands.
· In Moanalua, Hawaii, the High School orchestra cancelled its Christmas concert.
· In Warren, Michigan, they were forced to remove their Nativity scene (displayed since 1945) due to an atheist lawsuit.
· A Florida elementary school replaced a Nativity scene with Frosty the Snowman.
We often back down because we don’t know our constitutional rights. According to Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver, Christmas displays in a classroom “may include a nativity scene or other religious imagery, so long as the context also includes secular symbols.” He also emphasized school concerts can include a majority of religious songs as long as secular songs are allowed as well. The Wausau School District has it backwards.
Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter which includes the following:
It has come to our attention that teachers in the Wausau School District (the “District”) recently canceled a number of holiday choir performances after administrators severely restricted their ability to include traditional Christmas carols in school programs… We request a response to our letter by October 11, 2013, confirming that the Board of Education will right this wrong by immediately rescinding the new practice put in place by administrative officials and restoring Wausau School District’s lost holiday programs.
Christian students may feel intimidated about handing out Christmas cards or other religious material, but they are legally permitted to do so during non-instructional time. They are also allowed to wear Christian clothing or jewelry.
Why should we be bullied by Leftists when those of us who believe in Jesus Christ and celebrate Christmas are the overwhelming majority? One problem is that the malignant media trumpets the cause of the godless.
Where public schools are concerned, there are many good teachers that feel pressure in the environment in which they work, and there are some Christian teachers that really need our prayers to stand for their faith in the midst of opposition.
Activists successfully removed prayer, the Bible, and God from schools, but they can never take Jesus Christ out of the hearts of believers. They won’t stop pushing their anti-Christian agendas and try to blot out God from America if it were possible, but we all know that in the end – eternity is what matters. To them, this life is all they live for, but Christians have a higher calling and an eternal purpose which cannot be changed by public pressure or threats.
***UPDATE: Wausau, WI school board meeting held: Not-so-silent Night in Wausau; Parents Call for Supt. to be Fired/Apology to Music Teacher, [Oct 11 by Wisconsin Family Action]
Eradicate: Blotting Out God in America 