Tonight Central Florida’s Fox 35 news broadcast mentioned a debate dubbed "War on Christmas: the Nativity Debate." According to the news story the nation's school systems permit such religion icons as the Jewish Menorah, the Muslim Crescent, and the Christmas tree to be displayed, but not the Nativity scene. And, this has enraged a New York woman and millions of other parents. These parents have taken the disagreement with their local school system to the Supreme Court. It will be a decision that will affect schools nationwide. As with all their stories, Fox 35 has created a blog for its viewers to post their opinions and thoughts. This is what I posted:
Like a majority of the American population I have grown up in a Christian household, with Christian beliefs, but that is about as far as the similarities between myself and everyone else go. I know that as much as Christians would prefer believe that their religion “…is the one ‘true’ religion” it is not. There are thousands of religions in the world and that is something that our forefathers and the American government recognize. Being “the land of the free” people from all over the world have moved to America in order to make their lives better and to be able to practice their religion as they see fit for them, not everyone else. For those reasons I will not take it upon myself to tell you how to practice your own religion in private, but I will state as to why the Nativity scene has not been accepted as one of the religious symbols displayed on public school Holiday billboard.
The Christmas Tree was not an original Christian icon, it was adopted into the religion when Ancient Rome had invaded and conquered Western Europe, as an attempt to convert Pagans. The Christmas Tree was a Pagan way of celebrating “the coming of the sun” on the solstice – the time of the year when the nights begin to grow shorter and the days begin to grow longer. The Christmas tree has become recognized as the Christian “holiday” symbol is because when ancient Rome adopted it a star was placed on the top to symbolize the star that appeared in the skies announcing and leading the wise men and shepherds to the birthplace of Jesus.
The Nativity scene, as many have already stated, is most commonly associated with the Catholic faith. It is not accepted by all division of the Christian religion. The Christmas is.
Now that you know what I had to say about the subject, you can either go to http://community.myfoxorlando.com/blogs/category/NEWS to view what other Central Florida residents had to say or you can post your thoughts here.
I don't understand why it's okay to display other religious symbols, but not the Nativity Scene. It should be no religious symbols if one isn't able to be displayed.