Debunking Christmas Battle Stories
I’ve decided to start debunking some of the misleading “War on Christmas” stories posted on WorldNetDaily. It’s a big pain in the ass, but I don’t wanna let MediaMatters do all the work. Let’s start with this one, called “Housing Officials ‘Cancel’ Christmas”:
Managers in charge of two federally subsidized housing facilities have told residents in one case they cannot sing Christmas carols, and in another they can’t decorate their own entry doors with religious symbols, according to a religious-liberty law firm.
This is what I love about WorldNetDaily’s so-called “reporting”: throughout the entire piece they rely on one source, the Liberty Foundation, for all their information. They never even bother contacting the accused institutions to get their side of the story.
For some actual reporting on this matter, let’s go to WFTV in Florida:
A local man wanted to spread the joy of Christmas at his assisted living facility but was told no. Jay Dyer said he couldn’t believe that the place he has lived for half his life wouldn’t let caroler’s come in for a small party.
OK, that’s significantly different from what WorldNetDaily told us. Instead of banning residents from singing Christmas carols, the assisted living home simply told one resident that he couldn’t bring carolers in during a small party. Now, I’m willing to admit that’s a stupid policy if they indeed were afraid people would get offended by having carolers in the building. But that’s all null and void, because the living facility has reversed the policy and is now allowing carolers to come to the holiday party:
The center Wednesday changed its tune. The carolers can come in, no doubt music to Jay Dyer’s ears.
Channel 9 tried to get a comment from the facility, but did not receive a call back. Meanwhile, Dyer said the original party date of December 3 had passed and he’ll try to organize something for Saturday.
And again, the facility still hasn’t commented publicly on this issue, so we have no idea why they actually made the decision. My guess is that some bureaucrats made an idiotic decision, and quickly reversed it when they realized how stupid it was. Sadly, bureaucrats making dumb decisions does not constitute a war against Christmas.
OK, now let’s go to another sordid anti-Christmas tale, called “Silent Night Gets Repreive”:
A Wisconsin school that had secularized the lyrics of the beloved Christmas carol “Silent Night” has now agreed to change the words back to the original after receiving countless phone calls and e-mails about the issue.
Liberty Counsel, the law firm working on behalf of parents upset about the secularization of the carol, says it was both public pressure and two letters attorneys sent to the school that prompted the change.
Once again, WND uses exactly one goddamn source throughout the entire story. It’s literally a Liberty Council press release.
After doing some quick digging, I found this ABC News story about the “Silent Night” controversy in Wisconsin. Notice how ABC actually bothered to contact the school to get their side (emphasis added):
Dodgeville School District officials say traditional, unaltered carols will also be sung, and that “Cold in the Night” [the secularized version of “Silent Night”] is part of a decades-old Christmas play that students have performed in years past, and is not an attack on the religious nature of the holiday.
“There’s been a tremendous misunderstanding here,” said District Administrator Diane Messer. “Somebody locally, I believe, misunderstood ? even after our discussion with them ? that one of our teachers took the liberty of changing the lyrics.”
Students at the school will present “The Little Tree’s Christmas Gift,” a musical production that tells the story of a family going out to buy a Christmas tree. Other melodies include “Jingle Bells,” “We Three Kings,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Chanukah.” “Each one has the lyrics changed in order to tell the story,” Messer said. “It’s so that young children know the melodies.”
“You can go to children’s programs in any season and you will find adaptations of music with new lyrics to tell a story, and you can go to any music store and find music that has been adapted,” she added. “Those things occur.”
So it turns out that the altered “Silent Night” lyrics weren’t part of a dastardly plot to undermine Christmas- instead they were part of a Christmas play that had been performed by the school for decades. Let’s see how Liberty Council President Matthew Staver responds to this:
Staver said the history of the play in Dodgeville does not matter. “The fact is, if they’ve performed it in the past, they’ve been wrong in the past and they need to correct it,” he said. “To take ‘Silent Night’ and to intentionally change the words as they do here is wrong. No matter if they’ve done it in the past, no matter if somebody else wrote the song, it’s the school’s actions [that are the problem].”
Uhm. Okay. I’m pretty sure that the melody to “Silent Night” is public domain, Mr. Staver, so the school is well within their rights to alter the lyrics.
Anyway, those are our two debunked War on Christmas stories for today. If you’d like to get in on the action, shoot me an e-mail with a debunked anti-Christmas story and I’ll try to get it posted.
*As an aside, I just wanna point out that WorldNetDaily never even mentioned the name of the goddamn living facility in their article. That’s some fancy reportin’ right there.
” Then up spoke the eldest pauper,
And his face was as hard as brass,
You can keep your christmas pudding,
You can stick it up your ass!
You’re just trying to get some of all that freely flowing Soros money, admit it!
David Brock will declare war on you too, if you get between him and his anti-Santa cash. Just ask Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly.
Next thing you know, you’ll be framed for drug crimes or sexual harrassment.
Beware!
You’re just trying to get some of all that freely flowing Soros money, admit it!
It’d be nice, but I sadly do this shit for free 😉
I wonder if Matthew Staver thinks we should revert to the original words for the melody of our national anthem?
What the hell are they doing singing Silent Night in English?! That’s not the way it was written and it’s a sacrilege to sing it as such!
And don’t get me started on “O Tannenbaum”
Or “Adeste Fideles.” And then there’s the whole “What Child is This” travesty.
You can keep your christmas pudding,
You can stick it up your ass!
Is that like the Yuletide version of Limp Bizkit’s “Nookie”?
Score: US, Bill O’Reilly!
Do you sadly do this shit for free or is it sad that you do it for free?
I just knew those stories were full of shit.
When the facts are on your side, stick to the facts. The facts never seem to be on their side; hence, the dishonesty. I also like the ominous, “they need to correct it.”
Here’s my guess as to back story behind the “Assisted Living Center Bans Christmas Carols” incident: The center was having a scheduled party for the old folks. Jay Dyer invited some folks from from his house of worship, the “You’re All Going to Hell” megachurch, to come sing a few songs and call the other residents to repentence. The person in charge of the program said that they couldn’t crash the event, so the “You’re All Going to Hell” megachurch contacted the Libery Foundation, which told them that their rights were being violated, and that the group would sue the center. You know what happened next (yeah, the whiny carolers got their way).
Now, this is just supposition on my part, but reading about some other Liberty cases (including one where Liberty claimed that a Senior Citizens center wouldn’t let the old folks pray or sing gospel songs, when it turned out that the center’s new administrator had just told a church group that it couldn’t turn all of the center’s activities into prayer meetings – and that a compromise would have been quickly worked out if Liberty hadn’t sued the town), I’m pretty sure that Liberty’s account of the incident isn’t completely accurate.
Does the RW EVER tell the truth about anything? Sadly, as people increasingly only read websites that already conform to their world view, this kind of nonsense is only going to get worse.
What if the Bible actually had something to say on this topic…? Would Bill O’Reilly shut up for a minute and listen to St. Paul?
Letter to the Colossians 2:16-17
“Therefore let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food or drink or with regard to a festival [King James: “holyday”] or new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” [note in the Oxford Annotated Bible: “The Colossian’s error involved excessive ritualism.” So it’s pretty clear that Paul considers what the girl at the cash register says to you to be pretty unimportant.]
Colossians 2:23
“These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.” [But I’m sure no one involved in this “war” has ever had trouble with indulgence of the flesh…and least since the sexual harrassment case was settled.]
Colossians 3:8-9
“But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another…”
Peace.
I mentioned this to my husband, who has a degree in musicology and studied quite a bit of music history, and he just laughed. Apparently, such borrowing is a long-standing tradition, in both directions. It’s called contrafactum. So, long story short, Matty’s a cobmunch.
Tigrismus, I’m thumbing frantically through Leviticus — surely there’s a commandment against contrafactum in there somewhere.
In the meantime, we could make up buttons or rubber bracelets to sell: “the baby Jesus hates contrafactum”.
But nobody better mess with the words to “God Save the Queen”, that’s all I can say.
Maybe it’s like wool and linen: they’re both permissable on their own, just no kinky mixing of the two.
Oh, but it gets better!
Go check out Media Matters.
Bill-O thinks that the Catholic Church’s silence on the issue of the War on Christmas is the same as its silence on the pedophilia of Catholic priests.
Yes, that’s right, we secularists are molesting the baby Jesus with our refusal to say “Merry Christmas” enough!
Can there be any doubt that Bill O’Reilly is fucking batshit insane?
Is this the sort of thing people who have been sexually abused by priests or anyone else needs to hear from a sexual harrasser? I don’t even believe in hell, but if there’s any justice, Bill ought to end up there.
For once, I actually agree with you, Sidhe. Though I admire his compassion for Christmas, linking the reticence of Catholic leaders on the pedophilia issue with the apparent reticence of Catholic leaders as it concerns the Christmas issue was a prime example of tortured logic. There is probably a connection there somewhere, but it is admittedly a very weak one.
“And then there’s the whole “What Child is This?” travesty.”
Tigrismus, if you’re not happy with what they did to Greensleeves, I’m curious about how you feel about me taking it a step further. This is to the tune of Greensleeves aka What Child is This?
What Land is This?
new words by Dr. BLT (c)2005
sung by Dr. BLT Cover Artist “Monique”
http://www.drblt.com/music/whatLand.mp3
Next thing you know, some schmoe is going to get carried away and write new words to “To Anacreon in Heaven.”
Though I admire his compassion for Christmas, linking the reticence of Catholic leaders on the pedophilia issue with the apparent reticence of Catholic leaders as it concerns the Christmas issue was a prime example of tortured logic.
Wow. O’Reilly is now too illogical for Dr. BLT 😉
Yes, Brad, even me, Dr. BLT %), the paragon of all things right-wing.
Bill O’Reilly is bright and witty in many respects, but he’s incredibly narcissistic and his brain doesn’t seem to be running on all cylinders. One moment he can say something clever, (occasionally even something bordering on brillian, but the next moment he comes out with something totally idiotic. Moreover, he also tries to please too many people. He tries to have it both ways, just so he can give the appearance of being “fair and balanced.” But O’Reilly is not the only Fox man I have trouble with. Sean Hannity, though he is sharp, and likable in certain respects, (and, for the most part, him and I share the same Weltanschuuang), he rarely listens to guests who disagree with him, he is too much of a Bush/Republican apologist (something Sidhe falsely and carelessly accuses me of being), and, at times, Hannity’s patriotism borders on being jingoistic. Also, unlike Power Line, Hugh Hewitt, Rusty Humphries, and a handful of radio stations that have added me to their playlist, his people consistently pass over my tunes, relying exclusively on hackneyed Charlie Daniels tunes to represent their cause.
Sort of continuing with Dr. BLT’s thoughts, what really bothers me about O’Reilly is not so much that he disagrees with me about, oh, everything, or even that he does it rudely.
What bothers me is this; He’s built up this sort of down-to-earth, everyman, cut-through the bullshit persona, and he’s really good at acting it out. The “no-spin zone” and all that. But it’s a ruse. He’s the source a at least 40% of the bullshit out there right now. If he really cut through political bullshit, he’d end up mincing himself.
But he’s so good at acting his part, that people buy into it, and turn to him for information.
To me, if you’re in the position where people are relying on you to convey information, you have a responsibility to get it right. You have a responsibility not to lie to the very people who keep you on the air.
And Bill just keeps lying. It pisses me off.
Yes, the messenger is flawed, but I support the message: Nobody should be ashamed to say Merry Christmas through either words or symbols. We need to find a new messenger, someone who doesn’t sensationalize the season but someone who savors it enough to salvage its traditions. I would volunteer to be the messenger, except that I’m hearing voices again. Wait, maybe, these are simply the voices of reason and common sense.
Do You Hear What I Hear?
arranged and performed by
Dr. BLT (c)2005
http://www.drblt.com/music/doyoup.mp3
I didn’t think so.
“Dr. BLT, The Song Blogger said,
December 18, 2005 at 8:12
Yes, the messenger is flawed, but I support the message: Nobody should be ashamed to say Merry Christmas through either words or symbols. We need to find a new messenger, someone who doesn’t sensationalize the season but someone who savors it enough to salvage its traditions. I would volunteer to be the messenger, except that I’m hearing voices again. Wait, maybe, these are simply the voices of reason and common sense.”
Followed by:
“Do You Hear What I Hear?
arranged and performed by
Dr. BLT (c)2005
http://www.drblt.com/music/doyoup.mp3
“Dr. BLT, The Song Blogger said,
December 22, 2005 at 8:16
I didn’t think so. “.
BwahahahahHAAHAHAAH!