War on Christmas? Mom Objects to Church Field Trip

"A longtime holiday show, beloved by children, inadvertently sparked a controversy in Little Rock over the separation of church and state.

It happened when some teachers at Terry Elementary school sent letters home offering to shuttle first and second graders to see a stage version of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" at Agape, a local church.

"We're not saying anything bad about Charlie Brown," said Anne Orsi, a Little Rock Attorney and Vice President of the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers."*

Conservatives are in a "War on Christmas" panic after news broke out that an Atheist mother in Arkansas pulled her child out from a school trip to see a production of "It's Christmas, Charlie Brown" that was being held in a church. Was the mother and was the school being fair? Is this just desperate posturing to maintain the myth of the War on Christmas? Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down.

*Read more from Jonathan Athens/ Arkansas Matters:
http://arkansasmatters.com/fulltext?n...

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• Category

  News & Politics

[Juliet Docherty]

One thing : Ana says the war on Christmas continues and then Cenk says "Thank God" ???

[MaryannWeso]

This type of crap is so deceptive.Christmas has nothing to do with God, or Jesus as some call him. Jeremiah Chapter 10 makes it very plain what Christmas is and how it should be treated so I don't get why "Christians" would worry about it in the first place. On a bigger level this, "minority get to tell the majority what to do" and those who like to act like dictators, like the ACLU etc.are something that people are being primed for, the hammer is going to fall soon because cowards dont stand up

[Jared Lancaster]

I'm an atheist even I think that was a dick move.I don't care what other people believe just keep it to yourself

[dioseoloreturns]

Read it again.

[CrystalFox25]

How so? I disagree with that one because that was a personal experience that I have had repeated many times. I don't see what you are trying to say. Why not expand why personal opinions of the parents is wrong? Parents decide whats okay/ right for their kids as is so why not in this situation?

[bill allen]

wrong anyway. wrong any-old-how.

wrong for all the reasons i've already said.

wrong, darlin' wrong, simply wrong again.

[CrystalFox25]

I wasn't deputing that if one person cant do it then nobody should. I was pointing out that it is a religious holiday and I cant wish someone a Merry Christmas without offending people. My ruling on a case like this would be simple, if some parents want to send their kids knowingly to see the play, they should be allowed to. The mom could have just removed her child from going that day or ask that the school find someone else to show a play that day instead.

[Coteer]

Really, I think you've missed the entire point of the play, which was completely neutral to all religions (oh and anti-religions) if you undertand it. The message applies to all religious holidays (and some secular holidays such as MLK day) which have lost their point because of rampant commercialism. Just because they mentioned it with the one religious holiday that's really bad for commercialism doesn't actually mean that they're excluding everything else.

[Mazzmaker69]

Wait,if one parent didn't want her kid to go,why cancel the whole thing? I'm an atheist,and when my school had the annual christmas festivities and they went to church,I just went home before they went to church. Never got any shit for doing so after I told my teachers I didn't believe in anything the church is selling.