Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Legal group tells city of Merced no need to change name of annual Christmas Parade

“Constitutionally protected activities”

News release from Alliance Defense Fund

MERCED -- Alliance Defense Fund attorneys sent a letter yesterday, Monday, Nov. 30, to the mayor and officials of the city of Merced urging them to change the name of the town’s newly dubbed holiday parade back to the Christmas parade. City officials replaced “Christmas” with “holiday” in the name of the town’s public parade, but ADF attorneys have assured them that, if the change was motivated by fear of lawsuits, keeping the former name is a decision that is constitutionally protected.

“It’s ridiculous that the people of Merced have to think twice about whether it’s okay to have a ‘Christmas’ parade,” said ADF Senior Counsel Nate Kellum. “An overwhelming majority of Americans celebrate Christmas and are opposed to any kind of censorship of Christmas. City officials shouldn’t self-censor the perfectly constitutional name of their town’s Christmas parade because of unfounded beliefs spread by groups hostile to our nation’s traditions.”

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The city of Merced has held the annual Christmas parade since 1995, but this year, on Dec. 5, the new “Downtown Holiday Parade” is scheduled to take its place. ADF attorneys contacted city officials through a letter encouraging them to uphold their town’s traditions and retain the name of the Christmas parade in full confidence that such a decision would be constitutionally protected. In the event of threatened litigation, ADF attorneys have offered free legal assistance.
“You can be assured that your participation in and acknowledgement of the Christmas holiday and a Christmas parade are constitutionally protected activities,” the letter stated. “The City is free to support a parade regarding Christmas, and you are under no obligation to satisfy the demands of any disgruntled individual or civil libertarian group that may oppose such action.”
Despite the widespread coverage given to those opposing Christmas, a 2008 Gallup Poll reported that 93 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas, and a 2005 Gallup poll reported that 97 percent of Americans say they are not bothered by the public celebration of Christmas.

** UPDATE: THE CITY OF MERCED HAS REPORTEDLY RESOLVED THIS SITUATION AND HAS RETURNED TO THE "CHRISTMAS PARADE" NAME AFTER AN OUTCRY FROM RESIDENTS. **

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Quotes from 'The Glories of Mary':

‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head.’

(Gen. 3:15)

“Since the devil is the head of original sin, this head it was that Mary crushed: for sin never had any entry into the soul of this Blessed Virgin, which was consequently free from all stain.”

Saint Augustine

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PSALM 71 SPEAKS TO MY HEART

Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent

In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame!
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me, and save me!

Be to me a rock of refuge,
to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother's womb.
My praise is continually of you.

I have been as a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
My mouth is filled with your praise,
and with your glory all the day.
Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
forsake me not when my strength is spent.

For my enemies speak concerning me;
those who watch for my life consult together
and say, “God has forsaken him;
pursue and seize him,
for there is none to deliver him.”

O God, be not far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me!
May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
with scorn and disgrace may they be covered
who seek my hurt.

But I will hope continually
and will praise you yet more and more.
My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge.

With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.

O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
Your righteousness, O God,
reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you?

You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
you will bring me up again.
You will increase my greatness
and comfort me again.

I will also praise you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
My lips will shout for joy,
when I sing praises to you;
my soul also, which you have redeemed.

And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,
for they have been put to shame and disappointed
who sought to do me hurt.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Legal group tells city of Merced no need to change name of annual Christmas Parade

“Constitutionally protected activities”

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