That year, a sophomore girl objected to singing these songs because she was Jewish. She proceeded to file lawsuits against the choir, the conductor, the school, and the district attempting to prohibit the choir from singing these songs.
Those of us who experienced this knew the whole story -- that it was more a ploy of her hot-tempered father to get attention and possibly some money more than a sincere concern of hers.
The linked article appeared on the Jim Lehrer NewsHour in 1995. Read it and post your reactions.
6 comments:
"December dilemma" Wow, have we really become that politically corrected? To call Christmas a December dilemma?
If I was in that A'capella choir I would have happily sang a jewish song, or any other religious song that did not have to do with Christianity. For those who do not appreciate Christmas, I am sorry but
Truth is, 70% of America is christian. Christmas is interwoven into our American society. (http://religions.pewforum.org/affiliations)
We are as American's "One Nation Under God". Most of our founders believed in him, and included him into our American society and government.
To refresh memories, "The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them." -- Thomas Jefferson (Summary View of the Rights of British America, August 1774)
The official seal of America has a pyramid with 13 steps (representing the 13 colonies) and on the top it reads Annuit Coeptis. Which means "He (God) hath favored our undertaking."
So yes, worshipping he who made this nation great on Christmas time is a good idea. But I respect those who don't. Just please don't try to take it away from those who do.
I remember when this happened, I was young but felt so frustrated at this girl for trying to get rid of something so good, something that wasn't hurting anybody. She came into a very large Christian society and was disrespectful to the max. It is frustrating that the choirs rights were taken away in a sense. They wanted to sing songs that reminded them of Christmas and of the holidays and she was taking that away from them.
The separation of church and State has gone too far in my opinion. From the stopping of prayers to taking out God of the pledge of allegiance. It seems that today there are many things that get twisted in laws and amendments, but I guess that is just a sign of the times.
Is this really what it's come to? Can we just relax a little and stop getting offended by every little thing? Sure, I agree we shouldn't have prayer in schools. We also shouldn't preach in school, but singing Christmas carols? Really? Is it that offensive?
History, culture, diversity - we need these things. I am not Jewish, but love to learn about Jewish culture and beliefs and would be happy to learn or participate in a Jewish song or tradition. I don't believe in religion, but it doesn't stop me from wanting to learn more about them. Religion is tied to history and I love Christmas carols because they are part of our culture and tradition.
Okay, she doesn't believe that Jesus is the Messiah - well I don't believe Santa Clause delivers gifts to every good little girl and boy either, but I "respect him as a historical figure" too and I would not sue my school because they asked me to sing "here comes Santa Clause"every year. (For the record I don't really believe that my name is John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt either and they made me sing that when I was very young and impressionable. The nerve!)
If the girl really felt that uncomfortable singing Christmas songs, then she could have gone to the teacher and asked to be dismissed from that part of the class. Better yet, If she felt that they were focusing too much on only one belief, perhaps she could have suggested some other songs or offered to share something about other cultures, instead of trying to sue a public school.
Can't people open their mind a little and realize that learning little more about a religion, belief or culture, doesn't mean that you are denying your own.
Winslow-
"Under God" wasn't IN the pledge until the 50's, during the rage of Communism:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E1DA153EF934A15755C0A9649C8B63
Also, I would be curious to hear what people who are for prayer in schools think about having Muslim prayers in school. Or Buddhist, or Pagan, or Jewish, or anything other than Christian. I am all for a moment of silence each day in which people can reflect on their day or pray if they so choose, but I think that if the school chooses to have a prayer, they must have a diverse set of prayers.
I'm slightly torn on this. I went to West and I knew the girl in question by association (a friend of mine is Jewish and they went to the same synagogue), so I don't know that I ever believed that this was all it was cracked up to be. However, this girl ended up leaving the school after this was all said and done, so I'm not sure why anyone would submit to that much public ridicule and essentially being driven from her friends just for giggles, so who knows.
Anyway, the Christmas songs thing I think was a bit ridiculous, especially since that choir often went to all types of places to sing (churches, retirement homes, etc). With "Friends", though, that gets a bit trickier, in my opinion.
Firstly, here are the lyrics:
http://www.geocities.com/me4uandu4me2000/poem-friends.html
Now, that song has a really special place in my heart because it's the graduation song at West. My dad graduated from West as well, and I've always known I'd go there, so it has quite a legacy for me. I was in the 8th grade when all of this stuff went down, and I remember watching in awe as the seniors sang the song despite the ban on it. I was so proud that they were being "disobedient" and carrying on tradition even though they were told not to.
Now, I'm older (and more crazy liberal!!) and while I still like the song and love the part of history it has for me, I have to question if it's okay to do things simply because they've always been done, which was my main argument with "Friends." The song is clearly religious (I'm not sure on the origin of it, but it seems heavy with LDS themes) and I'm not sure I'm okay with the idea of people having to sit through religious songs when they don't really want to. On the other hand, I think there's also a bit of tolerance that comes with everything, and even in my slightly anti-LDS youth I figured that the song was meaningful in other ways despite what it was originally intended to be and I enjoyed it from that perspective.
I guess my point is that we should never do things simply because it's history or because we feel we have the right to. We should stop and think about other peoples' feelings, but that goes for both sides. People should try to come up with solutions that work for everyone and not let their pride get in the way, even if that means sitting through a song you don't necessarily agree with in the name of tradition OR changing a song or two in a program to be more inclusive to people who might be uncomfortable.
i feel that taking god out of school or christ out of christmas or taking christmas songs out of christmas is a bunch of B.S. to be blunt about it... we wouldn't celebrate christmas unless it was for christ. I mean we have never asked jewish people to stop using the phrase happy hanukah
I agree with ZZ nuge on this one, I think that most of us christians would be open and willing to sing jewish songs or songs of other religions. Even though I don't agree with some other religions i would sing their songs out of respect for them.
This girl could have just sat out on the christian songs or even joined in out of respect. I dont think that this should have been turned into a legal issue or a freedom of religion issue. It sounds to me like she and her dad wanted attention and money. Its kind of sad that people make such big deals out of such small things all for money.
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