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Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development officials have announced a ban on any decorations in HUD housing complexes that mention Jesus or represent religion for the Christmas season, and the American Family Association has responded with a petition drive to overturn the decision. The AFA has set up a link to allow constituents to send e-mails to the HUD secretary or President Bush expressing their objections to the policy. The issue arose at the Plant City Living Center in Plant City, Fla., where 85-year-old Mrs. Arnold was told that federal law now prohibits her from displaying anything that references religion – words, decorations and the like – in the common area of her apartment building, a HUD facility.
The grandmother told AFA she was instructed that even an angel decoration would be disallowed by the ban, which makes her think of the restrictions in Germany during World War II. According to the center, HUD has issued a directive banning "any religious symbols or religious words associated with Christmas," which effectively prevents Mrs. Arnold from placing a small Christmas tree outside her door if it contains any religious symbols or words.
- JJ Commentary: Satan’s assault against Christ(mas) continues to be aided and abetted by our very own government.
ANKARA, Turkey — Some residents of a Turkish town were horrified by the decision to install a Santa Claus statue, replete with cotton-candy beard and red-and-white outfit, in place of a more solemn sculpture of St. Nicholas that was a gift from the Orthodox Christian community, and featured him with a halo and an open bible. St. Nicholas served as bishop of Demre in the 4th century A.D. From there, the legend of his generosity spread around the world and became interwoven with mythical stories of the jolly gift-bringer. For many Orthodox Christian Russians, St. Nicholas is an object of deep veneration rather than the father Christmas known to millions around the world.
The Santa character later took on the white beard of the pagan god Odin and Odin's eight-legged flying horse became eight reindeer. The ability to enter houses down the chimney comes from an old Norse legend, and the tradition of leaving him cookies and milk is derived from a medieval German tale. In the 12th century, French nuns began to give gifts in St. Nicholas' name on his feast day, Dec. 6. St. Nicholas gift-giving was later blended with the three wise men bearing gifts for the newborn Jesus and associated with Christmas. The image of today's Santa is a product of Coca-Cola commercials in the 1930s. And Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer, was created for an ad campaign for the Montgomery Ward department store chain.
Less than half of British children between the ages of seven and 11 are aware that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, according to a BBC poll published on Tuesday. Just 44% of 1,063 children questioned understood that Christmas returns each year for the birth of Christ. Among the children questioned, 29% said Christmas was primarily about thinking of others, while 24% said it more about giving than receiving presents
- JJ Commentary: That’s the devil’s way, twist the truth, twist it some more until finally we are left with a pagan fairy tale to replace saints and Christ.
The poor showing of "The Nativity Story" this Christmas season is bad news for people of faith who hope Hollywood will make more feature films their families can enjoy, according to Christian movie reviewer Ted Baehr. "It's a very serious setback," said Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission. The poor showing is all the more significant, Baehr told WND, because, unlike blockbusters "The Passion of the Christ" and "The Chronicles of Narnia," "Nativity was produced by a major studio, New Line Cinema.
Right now, Baehr noted, the easy money is made on "extremely bigoted, anti-Christian movies" such as "Borat" and "Jackass 2." Baehr said the performance of "Nativity" is especially disappointing because it's an exceptionally good film that adheres closely to the Bible. But as of Tuesday, "Nativity," with a production budget of $35 million, has an estimated gross box office of just $24.6 million in the U.S. since opening Dec. 1.- JJ Commentary: CHRISTmas “spirit” has been replaced with Xmas greed, and people don’t want to be reminded of what this season is really all about, because then they might not get their plasma TV
