Rescuing Christmas Music, Part Two

Read it here.

~Kingdom Advancing

Christmas Albums

Visit Kingdom Advancing to read about four of Kingdom Advancer's favorite Christmas albums.

~Kingdom Advancing

Democrat Xmas

You guys'll get a kick out of this. It's an email that my mom received from an old friend. Note: Please don't copy this and use it - I don't know who wrote it, so I don't know who gets the credit. It is simply too funny for me to resist posting it on The Christmas Watch. Also, I haven't been on here for a while, and I've just noticed that we have a new member, PatrickA. Welcome, PatrickA.

Okay, here's the email in red:

For My Democrat Friends:


"Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere, and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes. By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher."



For My Republican Friends: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I thought you all might enjoy that. I still haven't finished laughing!

"The Nativity Story" Review

Follow this link to Kingdom Advancing to read a review of The Nativity Story.

~Kingdom Advancer

The attack is on CHRISTIANITY

The Chicago Field Museum is the most anti-Christian organization I've ever come across. It is promoting a "Winter Holiday sale", while at the same time they are using "Common Era" dating for years prior to the year 1 (prior to Christ). For example, they will use "400 BCE" instead of "400 BC". "BC" of course means Before Christ, and "BCE" means Before the Common era. For example, this year is 2006 AD because it's 2,006 years since the birth of Jesus. But they would call it "2006 CE" or "2006 years since the common era". Why is there EVEN an alternative to BC and AD? Because it "offends non-Christians" that's why...WHAT??? Saying "400 BC" offends non-Christians? What about the fact that the days of the week are named after Nordic and Roman gods? For example, Wednesday is named after the Nordic god "Wodin"....but how many "non-Nordic alternative" systems are we seeing? NONE!!!

Apparently it's okay to offend non-Nordics when saying the days of the week, but it's not okay to offend non-Christians when saying the years prior to the year 1. But we say the days of the week almost EVERY DAY, and we RARELY EVER talk about years prior to the year 1, or "Before Christ".

My friends, these wars on Christmas and the Christian dating system are CONCERTED EFFORTS TO ABOLISH CHRISTIANITY FROM AMERICA (and the English-speaking world).

God help us all. Oh, and I must add — they are open 364 days of the year.... what day are they closed? Christmas Day!!! How unbelievably HYPOCRITICAL!

The Sunday Paper

Whenever one looks at the newspaper on a Sunday, there is an overwhelming amount of ads one could make notes of. Many ads this week stuck with the "holidays" vernacular, or avoided the controversy altogether--essentially saying "just great deals."
Since print advertisements don't necessarily entail the company's official position, I decided just to note some highlights:

America's Windows: At the top of the front page, it states "Winter Sale." Great, right? Well, don't worry, because just below, surrounded by an explosion graphic, it seems to shout, "Christmas Blowout." I don't know how many of The Christmas Watch's readers are planning on getting new windows for Christmas, but props to America's Windows nevertheless.

Sears: PatrickA has noted Sears indirectly, saying this: K-Mart and Sears are both owned by the Sears Holdings Corporation, but the funny thing is that Sears TV ads and website (apparently) are using explicitly "holiday". Well, Sears actually had two separate ads in today's paper. One had "Merry Christmas" on the front page--written tiny, with "holidays" also mentioned on the front page. On the other ad, "holidays" was written solely--but this time it was tiny. I don't quite get it. Perhaps they're trying to be on both sides of the fence at the same time (as many are trying).


On a sidenote, I saw a TV commercial for the grocery store Kroger that referenced "seasonal favorites" and "holiday favorites." Then, "Merry Christmas" was flashed up on the screen for about half a second before the end of the commercial.

~Kingdom Advancer

Checkin' the Naughty and Nice Lists (for the second time of many)

A site called War on the War on Christmas (Update: the list originally came from the Liberty Counsel at HelpSaveChristmas.org; thanks to Dumb Ox for pointing that out to me!) has their own version of the "Nice & Naughty" retailer list--like the one PatrickA has started. Here are some clips from their article of a few of the stores that Patrick has yet to mention that were noted there (By the way, I don't necessarily support that site; I'm just using it as a source here.). These are direct quotes from the other article, but I edited out stores that Patrick had already mentioned; I weeded out some less relevant details; and I stylized it a bit--with colors and bold and italics.
But with no more adieu:

NAUGHTY:

"Banana Republic – Web site has “Holiday Gift Guide” with no mention of any Christmas.

"Bed Bath & Beyond – No mention of any holidays.

...

"Dick’s Sporting Goods – Web site says gifts and has images, but no mention of Christmas.

"Eddie Bauer – Customer service would not recognize Christmas...

"Gap – “Holiday Survival Guide” no mention of Christmas.

...

"Lowes – In 2005, Lows stated they would modify their ads and no longer say things such as “Holiday trees”, however, their Web site has Holiday Living department and Holiday gift cards. Will not allow employees to greet customers with “Merry Christmas”.

...

"Mills Fleet Farm – (WI, MN, IA and ND) Changed their Christmas Catalog to “Toy and Gift Catalog”, replaced Christmas signs with “Holiday” signs. No mention of Christmas at all.

... "


It's interesting to note that this site put both K-Mart and Toys R' Us on the NAUGHTY list, whereas Patrick put it on the NICE list. Here's a comparison of their opinions:

Patrick on K-Mart: Another great example of a company not afraid to mention Christmas. Watch one of their commercials and you'll be pleased to hear copious mention of the term, and their slogan is "Where Christmas comes together". Also, they have one particular ad that begins with the slogan "Christmas on Elm Street", and two women go through the commercial singing alternative lyrics to the tune of "Hark! The Herald Angels, Sing". Sure, it wasn't the real lyrics about Jesus but it's closer than the new-age crap some of the retailers dish out, LOL....

Other site on K-Mart: Selling “Holiday trees” and “Holiday wreaths.”

Patrick on Toys R' Us: I'm not very familiar with Toys 'R' Us' initial Christmas campaign this year, but I think they were originally using "holiday", and were forced to use "Christmas" after a few threatened boycotts from small groups. Now, they still feature a "Holiday Shop", but have the slogan "Make it merrier this Christmas". It's a start. In either case, in today's PC-world we are forced to be content with even one measly mention of Christmas.

Other site on Toys R' Us: No mention of Christmas. “…Toys ‘R’ Us aims to be neutral in this regard… We endeavor to make our stores festive, while respecting that our customers celebrate many different customs throughout the holidays.”.

I guess you decide where these companies are on your list.

NICE:

"Dillard’s ~ Advertising their Christmas Catalog.

"JC Penney ~ Web site has their Christmas shipping countdown.

"Joann Fabrics ~ Offers Christmas and Holiday fabrics.

...

"L.L. Bean ~ Advertising and distributing their Christmas Catalog.

"Linens ‘N Things ~ Has a Christmas Shop and Christmas Checklist.

"Macy’s ~ “Merry Christmas!” on the homepage of their Web site.

"Michaels ~ Web site has a Christmas section.

... "


This list still isn't complete--of course--and, as I pointed out, there are points of controversy to be resolved. But, there are some good pieces of information in here.

~ Kingdom Advancer

More Than One Way to War on Christmas

From Pushing Back the Frontiers of Ignorance and BREITBART.com :

"A Muslim convert who talked about his desire to wage jihad against civilians was charged Friday in a plot to set off hand grenades at a shopping mall during the Christmas rush, authorities said.
Investigators said Derrick Shareef, 22, of Rockford, was acting alone and never actually obtained any grenades.
"He fixed on a day of December 22nd on Friday ... because it was the Friday before Christmas and thought that would be the highest concentration of shoppers that he could kill and injure," said Robert Grant, the agent in charge of the Chicago FBI office. Authorities said Shareef had been under investigation since September, when he told an acquaintance that "he wanted to commit acts of violent jihad against targets in the United States as well as commit other crimes." "

I know this doesn't have much to do with what we traditionally think of as the War on Christmas, but I found it intriguing anyway. I just wonder what some stores would say his reasoning was: "Because it was the Friday before December 25th" ; "Because it was the Friday before 'The Holidays'" ; "Because it would've been the holiday rush" ; "Because people would've been doing their last minute shopping before December 24th." Please...
The heart of America (Christians, traditionalists, and even some moderates) is fighting two battles simultaneously: one against secular-progressives and one against Islamic Fascists. One is trying to push Christians and traditionalists (and their beliefs and views) out of the public eye and square and into a dark, hidden corner--provided that they still get our money--and the other is trying to kill us. Both clearly disdain our faith and our views. While one might try to openly deny it, the other doesn't mind blatantly calling us "The Great Satan" and calling for "jihad." One seems to somewhat accept all religions except fundamentalist Christianity, and the other despises all religions except Islam.

~Kingdom Advancer

US Retailers—NAUGHTY / NICE lists for 2006

So, what's the scoop on media mention of Christmas this year, you ask? Read on my friends!
(P.S—this section on Naughty / Nice lists is being copied at Wikipedia for Wikipedia users to read and for y'all to access as well. It's much easier to read there and it's easier to post comments and responses. Click HERE to access the Wikipedia version, and click HERE to comment on it at Wikipedia's article discussion page. My username at Wikipedia is "CrazyInSane" in case you get confused. LOL. Also, it may not be completely copied yet as I am now going to bed for a while.)

Provided with links from their respective websites (if it is their website's content in question), I will herein establish which retailers in both the US and Canada are using Christmas and which ones aren't.

I will update this list accordingly if any listed retailers change their position on the subject before Christmas. If you notice any errors from your own experiences with the retailers, please notify me by leaving a comment. Also, this list in NO WAY is complete. PLEASE tell me about any other retailers that are naughty or nice so I can list them. ALSO, PLEASE FORWARD THIS LIST TO ANY FRIENDS, AND TELL THEM NOT TO SHOP AT THE NAUGHTY STORES! WE CAN STOP THIS.


NAUGHTY LIST (updated 9 December, 2006)

• Verizon Wireless — has a TV ad that shows Santa Claus, has a man saying "All I want ____ is a phone" (omitting "for Christmas"), and wishes customers "Happy Holidays" at the end of the ad. It's website offers a "Holiday Gift Guide" that is officially labeled "Wireless Gift Guide, Holiday 2006", with not a single mention of Christmas anywhere. [1]



• Best Buy (US & Canada) — has officially stated that it condemns usage of "Christmas" and "Merry Christmas". Has proven this by airing a TV ad that has two friends greeting each other with gifts, saying "Happy Holidays" to each other. NO ONE tells someone they know "Happy Holidays". Also, Best Buy's website is void of Christmas, saying "December 25" and "holiday" at every specific reference to Christmas Eve/Day. Also, they offer Hanukkah-themed gift cards but NO Christmas-themed ones, only winter-themed ones. [2], [3]



• The Home Depot — One look at their website tells all. They have a category called plainly "Holiday", and refer to Christmas decorations, trees, gifts, entertainment, meals, wreaths, and more as "Holiday" rather than "Christmas". The word "Christmas" is mentioned in a section called "Christmas Kitchen", but I was turned off when a spokesperson told me that this was done because "a bunch of crazy people called us telling us to say Christmas, so we had to". I absolutely despise Home Depot. Don't be fooled by their sparse, miniscule mentions of Christmas. It probably almost killed them just to write it. [1]



• OLD NAVY — This company is ridiculous. At the beginning of the Christmas holiday season, after Thanksgiving, Old Navy proudly offered their grammatically-incorrect slogan "HOLIDAY IS HERE", just to boast about their anti-Christmas stance. Old Navy is well-known for loving the fact they don't mention Christmas, with one spokesperson telling the American Family Association that "Christmas is merely a non-Christian, pagan tradition".



• New York City Public schools — the public school system in New York City has BANNED the display of Nativity scenes in their "holiday displays", all the while allowing religious displays from the Muslim holiday of Eid and the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. They claim that the religious displays for those non-Christian holidays are simply "cultural, not religious", and that the Nativity of Jesus is "completely religious, thus unconstitutional". Not only are they WRONG about the Muslim and Jewish symbols, but they're wrong about the Nativity scene. JESUS IS A HISTORICAL PERSON, thus depicting his birth is not necessarily religious, it REALLY DID HAPPEN. No offense to anyone involved in 9/11 but ... you'd think that after 9/11 New York city officials wouldn't go around promoting Muslim holidays over Christian ones. Yeesh.



• United States Postal Service (USPS) — The USPS is a monolopy corporation so Americans NEED to use it for mail. There is no alternative. Because of this, it is essential that we ensure that they respect our beliefs. USPS has a "holiday page" with no reference to Christmas at all, even in their recommended "Holiday delivery dates" for "December 25". *ACK*. They offer religious stamps at their store, but show three stamps for Eid, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa in a group ABOVE the Madonna stamp for Christmas. *SMASHES HEAD ON TABLE*. My God, it's things like this that make me think America is as atheist as the former Russia that was once their enemy. In fact, the reason the "under God" was added to the US pledge during the war was to show the enemy that the US was religious, as opposed to the atheistic Russians. I'm surprised "under God" is still standing. [1]



• Barnes & Noble — They avoid any mention of Christmas on their website, but in one particular (isolated) incident they do write out "Holiday or Christmas gifts" (in small text). They offer shipping delivery deadlines for "December 25" and have a "Holiday Gift Guide". Also, one of my friends spoke of an incident last year where in their stores they had three separate book stacks, one saying "Hanukkah", another "Kwanzaa", and another "Holiday". When he told the store manager about this, she blew him off. I'm not sure if that's the case again this year, but that deserves a place on this naughty list.



• Disney Shopping — I'm listing Disney Shopping because it's saddening that an organization of official Disney status such as this is ruining Christmas. Think of all the Disney Christmas specials, butchered by the words used in the Disney Shop. They have "Holiday decor", "Holiday Fashions", "Santa's Top Toys" (with no inner reference to Christmas), "Holiday Gift Shop". UPDATE: They do reference "Christmas" in the delivery dates though. On a sidenote, you'll see that "Discovery Channel store" is listed below in the NICE section ... funny to think that a purely science-related store is using "Christmas" and a children's gem company isn't. Hmm.

NICE LIST (updated 9 December 2006)

• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc — In a relatively daring move, Walmart decided in early November to exclusively adhere to use of the term "Christmas" instead of "holiday" during the season. For the most part, they seem to be doing just that. On their website, they have a Christmas section dedicated to everything Christmas, and the word "holiday" isn't used except in select descriptions. Also, as for their TV ads, in a similar vein to Target Stores, they add "Merry Christmas" at the end of the ad, except it differs from Target in the fact that a woman says "Merry Christmas" out loud instead of it being spelled out, as in Target. Good job, Walmart, too bad your sales are way down though.



• Hallmark Cards, Inc. — Five stars for Hallmark. I'm getting all my Christmas cards from them this year! Hallmark adorns their website with Christmas, not being afraid to use the word. But the best part about Hallmark, that really made me like 'em, was their TV ad that exclusively mentions Christmas, with no mention of "holiday(s)" whatsoever. It also makes usage of "Merry Christmas". I guess you'd expect this kinda advertising from a card company since they rely SO MUCH on Christmas, but I think last year Hallmark was using "holiday", so it's good.



• K–Mart Stores, Inc. — Another great example of a company not afraid to mention Christmas. Watch one of their commercials and you'll be pleased to hear copious mention of the term, and their slogan is "Where Christmas comes together". Also, they have one particular ad that begins with the slogan "Christmas on Elm Street", and two women go through the commercial singing alternative lyrics to the tune of "Hark! The Herald Angels, Sing". Sure, it wasn't the real lyrics about Jesus but it's closer than the new-age crap some of the retailers dish out, LOL. Also I wanted to mention something quite odd... K-Mart and Sears are both owned by the Sears Holdings Corporation, but the funny thing is that Sears TV ads and website (apparently) are using explicitly "holiday".



• AJ Wright Stores — Pretty much just as good as K-Mart when it comes to explicit mention of Christmas. Although I can't see any mention of Christmas on AJ's website (but no mention of "holidays" or anything seasonal at all), the TV ads did me in. In the ads, the voice-over mentions Christmas about 1-3 times depending on the specific ad, and then at the end she says "AJ Wright ... more of what you want, this Christmas" (that is their real slogan, with "this Christmas" added to the end). Bravo, AJ!



• KOHL's —I was pretty much on the fence with KOHL's throughout the first part of the season, but held out hope for them since they officially declared in November that they would be using "Christmas" this year. From November until just yesterday, they never used the word once. Even at their website they had a banner that said "22 days until December 25th" (which they still have), although their shipping deadlines did and still do mention Christmas Day (as well as Hanukkah). Two major things won me over though, the first being their recently-promoted "Incredible Christmas Sale", which is mentioned both on their site, on TV, and likely elsewhere. The second thing they did, something that really allowed me to praise them, is the fact that they offer a gift card depicting the Nativity of Jesus, and it says "Merry Christmas". Wonderful, KOHL's; companies are usually too scared to do that. Bravo. So, in conclusion, shop at KOHL's!.



• Target Corp. — I'm almost reluctant to list Target in the nice list, because they only used "Christmas" after over 750,000 separate e-mails were sent to their server and around 200,000 people called their customer service ... but in the end, they deserve it. Lat year, Target was boycotted by the AFA and surrendered soon after, when publicity of the boycott went national. Target was exclusively avoiding the word "Christmas", along with also blowing the Salvation Army off—two things that won't leave Christians happy. But, in late December 2005 they smartened up and included Christmas in their ads, and have continued to do so this year. On their website they often mention Christmas, and when they advertise outside of their respective site they use a banner that says "Shop Christmas at Target". Also, they put a "Merry Christmas" greeting under their logo at the end of each of their Christmas commercials.



• Toys 'R' Us — I'm not very familiar with Toys 'R' Us' initial Christmas campaign this year, but I think they were originally using "holiday", and were forced to use "Christmas" after a few threatened boycotts from small groups. Now, they still feature a "Holiday Shop", but have the slogan "Make it merrier this Christmas". It's a start. In either case, in today's PC-world we are forced to be content with even one measly mention of Christmas.



• Office Max — In a move I didn't expect, Office Max changed something on their website to "cover all angles", apparently. On their original "holiday gift guide" page, they've recently changed that title to say "christmas & holiday gift guide" (sic), which is actually what a lot of companies seem to be doing now; using "Christmas & holiday" to essentially cover all bases while still mentioning Christmas and pleasing the majority. It's a mouthful and it's long to spell out, but apparently they don't care. Who can blame them though—that way no one will be "offended". MSN Shopping seems to be doing the same thing.



• Discovery Channel Store — Although not a big box retailer, I'm listing the DCS here because of it's ironic pro-Christmas stance. You'd think, out of all the retailers, the Discovery Channel would be the one place to have reason to avoid mention of Jesus Christ (not that anyone ever has a good reason), since they're a purely scientific organization, and sell all things related to physical science, usually considered the polar opposite of God and religion. The DCS has a "12 days of Christmas" campaign, and shipping deadlines "for Christmas". I really, really commend the DCS for doing this. Excellent.

That's all for now, but the list is nowhere near done—I still have much more companies. I'll add to it soon. I hope you all appreciate it and please leave comments. Thanks.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTERESTING UPDATE: As I was writing this I was watching Jay Leno. Jay also hates usage of the term "holiday". In his monologue, he just said "...people are putting up their holiday decora .... ahh, oh shutupp (swings arm dismissively) ... CHRISTMAS decorations...", having mistakingly said "holiday". That just PROVES how scary it is that the secular progressives (SP) are shoving "holiday" so far down our throats that WE often accidently use the term in reference to Christmas. In 20 years, CHRISTMAS WILL BE ERADICATED IF WE DON'T STOP THIS! ARGH! Anyway, hehe, got a little carried away.

ANOTHER UPDATE WITH JAY: As the show continued as I was writing on, Jay was reading from a pre-written prompt when he said "and from a very popular holiday... CHRISTMAS holiday special, I present to you, Charlie Brown...". You rock, Jay! To hell with your writers who wrote the prompt! LOL. Christmas all the way! HEHE

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Retailers aren't "being inclusive", they're avoiding having to write "CHRIST"

As is usual with retailers, Microsoft's XBOX website tells its customers to "Have yourself an XBOX 360 Holiday", missing the perfect slogan opportunity for "XBOX XMAS", instead opting for for political correctness.

The website goes further downhill by saying "Gamers tell Trixie what they're hoping to find under the tree this holiday." What holiday? Obviously it can't be Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, or New Year's because they said "under the TREE". God knows, maybe they're trying to be sensitive to neo-Pagans who might still celebrate the ancient Yule or Winter Solstice Festival. Yeesh!. This just further proves that companies are willing to cash in on promoting the aspects of Christmas (i.e.–Christmas trees, Santa Claus, Christmas lights) but somehow calculate that using the term "Christmas" along with these Christmas aspects might alienate 4% of the non-Christmas celebrating population. Well guess what—having a CHRISTMAS TREE and SANTA CLAUS in your promotions already sends those people the message that you're promoting Christmas!

I guess what I'm saying here is that it's becoming very, very apparent that retailers (and others) are not trying to "be inclusive" when they avoid the term "Christmas" as they claim, but they're trying to avoid a direct association with Jesus (i.e.–Christmas) and still be able to rake in profits from the 96% of Americans who spend their Christmas dollars this season. Makes me want to throw up! They know that nobody's going to question them because they're "being diverse", so they are thus able to get away with avoiding the term Christmas at the same time that they promote Santa Claus and Christmas trees (for example, Best Buy has Santa and Christmas trees and music in their TV ads). Retailers get their cake and eat it too—they get away with avoiding Jesus and raking in profits from his huge amount of followers at the same time! What a bargain for those secular progressives!

As a final note to push my point home about the "inclusiveness" scam, I will direct you to "Gifts.com", whereas they give you the option of choosing an "Occasion", and then they have a list of holidays like Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's. Click on Kwanzaa, it directs you to a "Kwanzaa" section. Click on Hanukkah, it directs you to a "Hanukkah" section. Click New Year's and it directs you to "New Year's Day" section — and, as you probably have already guessed — click on "Christmas" and it directs you to ... a "Holiday" section. Yep. That's right. They have divided up all the holidays of the season but still call the Christmas-specific section "Holiday". What the hell is that about?!

Christmas is UNDER ATTACK!

My first post—overview of select retailers

A large majority of Americans are Christian, a 2001 poll says 80 percent. However, it is not only Christians who celebrate Christmas—the Gallup polling organization reports that 96% of Americans celebrate Christmas. Ninety-six! Doesn't that make it so unbelievably stunning to consider the stretches most companies (and schools, and city councils) go to avoid using the word "Christmas"? It's ludicrous. In this first post I'm going to highlight two companies, one of them being Best Buy (including Best Buy Canada), the other is the United States Postal Service (USPS).

BEST BUY CORPORATION OVERVIEW

At first glance of their American website, Best Buy offers no inclusion of the term "Christmas", with "Holiday Gift Ideas" one of their central graphics.

As you continue to browse, you'll see that it is obvious that Best Buy is going to strenuous lengths to avoid the term "Christmas", even in it's shipping deadlines for December 24/25.

BEST BUY'S "HANUKKAH ISSUE"

But that's not the most disturbing aspect of Best Buy's "holiday" marketing. The worst part is that they offer a selection of "Holiday" gift cards ... and although they claim to have a "generic holiday" theme at their stores this year, they offer two Hanukkah-styled gift cards with the specific title "Hanukkah". All other Christmas-themed cards are labeled "Holiday", including 'Holiday Cookies", "Holiday Words" (none of which specify anything to do with Christmas), and generic snowmen.

Upon contacting them over this, a Best Buy spokesperson actually had the nerve to lay me the usual line, "We need to respect people of all cultures and beliefs", when that's exactly the OPPOSITE of what they're doing by blatantly promoting Hanukkah and censoring Christmas.

I may update on USPS at a later time.

John Gibson's Book

I've never read this book (I just heard about it), soI can't officially endorse it necessarily, but it has to be an interesting read. Note the subtitle:

How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse Than You Thought.

Well, maybe worse than YOU thought. ;)

I do know John Gibson, for he is the anchor of the Fox News Channel show "The Big Story with John Gibson," which usually airs at 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. You don't need much more info than this book's subtitle to tell that he's conservative in his viewpoints.

This book was written last year, but it seems just as relevant today (or more).

Here are some tidbits from the book that I got from Amazon.com (to read a fuller description, take this link to Amazon):

• In Illinois, state government workers were forbidden from saying the words “Merry Christmas” while at work.

• In Rhode Island, local officials banned Christians from participating in a public project to decorate the lawn of City Hall.

• A New Jersey school banned even instrumental versions of traditional Christmas carols.

• Arizona school officials ruled it unconstitutional for a student to make any reference to the religious history of Christmas in a class project

~Kingdom Advancer

ACLU and a Nativity Scene: WHAT A COMBO!!!

I found this at Faultline USA. Linked from there was The Rapture is at Hand. They linked the site Ice Station Tango for the story, and Stop the ACLU for the picture, which actually comes from Right on the Right. (Just wanted to give proper credit. I don't know how accurate my "credit" is, but it's as best as I can do.)

Story:

The Young Conservatives of Texas - University of Texas Chapter announced today that they will be displaying an “ACLU Nativity Scene” on the West Mall of the University of Texas campus on Monday and Tuesday, December 4th and 5th. The group’s intent is to raise awareness on the extremity of the ACLU, and bring to light its secular-progressive efforts to remove Christmas from the public sphere. The display, the first of its kind in the nation, will feature characters that are quite a bit different than the standard crèche.
“We’ve got Gary and Joseph instead of Mary and Joseph in order to symbolize ACLU support for homosexual marriage, and of course there isn’t a Jesus in the manger,” said Chairman Tony McDonald. “The three Wise Men are Lenin, Marx, and Stalin because the founders of the ACLU were strident supporters of Soviet style Communism. The whole scene is a tongue-in-cheek way of showing the many ways that the ACLU and the far left are out of touch with the values of mainstream America.”
The scene will also display a terrorist shepherd and an angel in the form of Nancy Pelosi.
“The ACLU and other left-wing extremist groups are working diligently to destroy American’s rights to the free expression of religion,” said Executive Director Joseph Wyly. “We’ve already seen in Chicago an attempt to censor the nativity by a city government this week. It’s just more evidence that there is a War on Christmas being waged by the far-left in this country."




This is kind of out of the blue, but it has a good chance of doing a lot more good than one regular nativity scene. We'll see.

~Kingdom Advancer

Dickens on the Square

I just got back from Dickens on the Square, a Christmas event in my hometown every year. It's happening tonight, and tomorrow morning. First, we caroled (in English and American Sign Language), and then we watched the parade. The parade included a nativity scene, which I was happy to see. It was followed by a Santa Claus sleigh. The girl next to me (someone from my old church) said, "Ooh Santa!" I said, "Interesting, Jesus passed by and you said nothing, but Santa gets cheers!" She said that she didn't believe in Santa anyway, but I know she believes in Jesus. Interesting...

Then we ate at Taco Bell (just thought I'd throw that in).

Anyway, the point is, my home town is still old-school enough to include a nativity in their Christmas parade. Go Lockhart!

The signing went well - I was surprisingly comfortable with it. We practiced last night at our teacher's house (her daughter is a year older than me, and she's Deaf).
I can't wait until I can actually carry a conversation with someone. That will be nice.

Yeah, yeah, I know - too much about me, not enough about Christ being taken out of Christmas. You'll get over it.

Happy birthday, Jesus!

-Austin

K-Mart: That's What I'm Talking About!

In the retailer chain K-Mart's latest TV commercial, Christmas is explicitly mentioned twice. First, saying "...a Christmas to remember..." and ending the commercial with K-Mart's apparent Christmas slogan: "Where Christmas comes together."

It seems that K-Mart can be added to the list of companies who are taking the step to cater to Christians and all Christmas fans this season, while many others are sticking with generic "holiday" references.

~Kingdom Advancer

"Nativity" Ad Loses Support

"Our guidance was that this very prominently placed [Christmas] advertisement would not only be insensitive to the many people of different faiths who come to enjoy the market for its food and unique gifts, but also it would be contrary to acceptable advertising standards suggested to the many festivals holding events on Daley Plaza," Jim Law

Full story here

PETA and Live Nativity Scenes

It seems that PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has decided to get in on the battle for Christmas. They'll certainly pose as non-religious, concerned only with the welfare of animals, but ultimately, it looks as though they'll fall on the side of the battleline opposite of most Christians.

I got this story from Pushing Back the Frontiers of Ignorance. The details are a little sparse, and I'll update this is if I find out where the story is directly from, but until then, the gist of the story is here.

Update: LINK TO FULL STORY
The Rev. Jason Armstrong was confused by an e-mail this week from PETA, which admonished him for subjecting animals "to cruel treatment and danger," by forcing them into roles in the church's annual manger scene.
"We've never had live animals, so I just figured this was some spam thing," Armstrong said. "It's rough enough on us people standing out there in the cold. So we're definitely not using animals."
Jackie Vergerio, PETA's captive animals in entertainment specialist, said her organization tracks churches nationwide that use real animals in "living nativity scenes." Seems the confusion started with the church's choice of phrase. PETA flagged Free Methodist's display as a "living nativity," and indeed, that's how the church describes it on its Web site....In the letter to Armstrong, Vergerio shared some sad fates of previous nativity animals - like Brighty the donkey, snatched from a nativity scene in Virginia and beaten by three young men. Ernie the camel fled a creche in Maryland but was struck and killed by a car. Two sheep and a donkey had to be euthanized after a dog mauling at a manger scene in Virginia. "Free Methodist's display is peaceful," Armstrong said. "The congregation erects the stable. Members spread straw and don costumes. Some even dress as manger animals."

I should note that it is essential that Christians stay level-headed. Any number of cruel and despicable things could be done to animals in nativity scenes. Those actions should be condemned. However, a list of a few freak cases is not sufficient to try to eliminate all living nativity scenes. Then, of course, there's the irony of it all: that live animals weren't even going to be used. Also, the unprofessional nature of receiving an e-mail rather than a phone call or even a personal visit. Plus, the subtle thing of saying that animals are "forced" into playing roles in nativities. Are they supposed to be asked...or, what exactly?

Why should Christians care about the difference between a regular nativity and a living nativity? Well, mainly, there's the concern of "give'em an inch, and they'll take a mile." Christians have largely ignored that concern for hundreds of years.
Then, there's the fact that Jesus' birth is a very real thing--and Christians should try to reenact it as realistically as possible in order to maximize its evangelistic and faith-strengthening value.

~ Kingdom Advancer

Who Do You Know?

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to balance Kingdom Advancing, The Christmas Watch, the rest of my life, and blog-surfing in order to create a strong core of teammembers on this blog for the next month and into the foreseeable future. Now, I think my resources are being a bit exhausted. So, my question for Austin, Jonathan, Keith, Lanna, and any visitor is: who do you know who might like to be a teammember? We may have a sufficient amount as it is, but, in a blog such as this, you never really can have too many.

So, let me know...or, if you feel so inclined, go to their blogs yourselves and invite them.

I'll post a real update as soon as possible and relevant.

~Kingdom Advancing

P.S. Keith, your blog is linked now.

Happy Thanksgiving and Buckle Your Seatbelts!

Happy Thanksgiving! And, if you've been enjoying the pre-Thanksgiving "calm before the storm," all I can say is: enjoy it while it lasts! ;)

Starting just a little over 24 hours from now are the biggest 30 or so shopping days of the year. And, that along with other things, means that the battle over Christmas will only heat up even more. That's what The Christmas Watch is here for.

~Kingdom Advancer

Turkey Day?

Okay, I confess, this is about Thanksgiving, not Christmas. Sue me.

I just wanted to share that today, while I was at ACC (Austin Community College, where I take Chemistry for both high school and college credit), this guy was talking on the phone, and I heard him say something like, "Okay, so what are you doing for - ". He paused, "...turkey day?" It seemed like he was going to say thanksgiving, but decided that it wouldn't be appropriate to mention thanks to God. Rather, one should call it "Turkey Day," so as not to insult anyone.

I'm going caroling soon (in ASL, what's more), and all the songs are about Jesus, except "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," but that's just one in about ten, and theres nothing about Santa or Rudolph or anything like that, plus, it has the words "good tidings," which are straight out of the Bible.