Nativity "Offensive" at a Christmas Celebration!

[ironman]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01315.html

My friend works for the marketing company that serves New Line. He had worked for weeks getting everything put together for this only to have the rug pulled from under him at the last second. And no one wants to take responsibility. The Market says it's the city's call, the city says it's the Market's. Nice. He said his office employs a large number of Jewish people and a few Muslims and basically everyone laughed at how stupid this is.

CHICAGO -- A public Christmas festival is no place for the Christmas story, the city says. Officials have asked organizers of a downtown Christmas festival, the German Christkindlmarket, to reconsider using a movie studio as a sponsor because it is worried ads for its film "The Nativity Story" might offend non-Christians.

New Line Cinema, which said it was dropped, had planned to play a loop of the new film on televisions at the event. The decision had both the studio and a prominent Christian group shaking their heads.

"The last time I checked, the first six letters of Christmas still spell out Christ," said Paul Braoudakis, spokesman for the Barrington, Ill.-based Willow Creek Association, a group of more than 11,000 churches of various denominations. "It's tantamount to celebrating Lincoln's birthday without talking about Abraham Lincoln."

He also said that there is a nativity scene in Daley Plaza _ and that some vendors at the festival sell items related to the nativity.

The city does not want to appear to endorse one religion over another, said Cindy Gatziolis, a spokeswoman for the Mayor's Office of Special Events. She acknowledged there is a nativity scene, but also said there will be representations of other faiths, including a Jewish menorah, all put up by private groups. She stressed that the city did not order organizers to drop the studio as a sponsor.

"Our guidance was that this very prominently placed 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, executive director of the office, said in a statement.

Officials with the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest, which has organized the event for several years, did not immediately return calls for comment. The festival started Thursday.

An executive vice president with New Line Cinema, Christina Kounelias, said the studio's plan to spend $12,000 in Chicago was part of an advertising campaign around the country. Kounelias said that as far as she knew, the Chicago festival was the only instance where the studio was turned down.

Kounelias said she finds it hard to believe that non-Christians who attended something called Christkindlmarket would be surprised or offended by the presence of posters, brochures and other advertisements of the movie.

"One would assume that if (people) were to go to Christkindlmarket, they'd know it is about Christmas," she said.

[Madison]

"The last time I checked, the first six letters of Christmas still spell out Christ,"

"It's tantamount to celebrating Lincoln's birthday without talking about Abraham Lincoln."

Exactly. Christmas is about the birth of Christ. It's a religious holiday. Crazy to celebrate the birth of Christ when Christ isn't allowed to be seen, spoken of, or pictured there.

The city does not want to appear to endorse one religion over another, said Cindy Gatziolis, a spokeswoman for the Mayor's Office of Special Events.

Then they need to celebrate ALL religious holidays, or NONE of them. Take their pick, but they cannot remove Christ from Christmas and say they are not choosing sides.

[acsguitar]

The war against xmas!!!!

Get em !!

Yea thats dumb especially since the market is called christkindlmarket or something.

[Omaha Red Sox]

Who's being more discriminated against here?

[BritSox]

Then they need to celebrate ALL religious holidays, or NONE of them. Take their pick, but they cannot remove Christ from Christmas and say they are not choosing sides.

Do they actively celebrate Hanukkah and Eid then?

[acsguitar]

Then they need to celebrate ALL religious holidays, or NONE of them. Take their pick, but they cannot remove Christ from Christmas and say they are not choosing sides.

Do they actively celebrate Hanukkah and Eid then?

I'm sure that they actively celebrate it in different ways but unfortunately in this country people like to complain alot! Also if catholics complained about a Hannukah celebration they would be chalked up as anti-semites.

[chadlincoln]

We are too politically correct in America.

[Omaha Red Sox]

We are too politically correct in America.

Pretty much sums it up in 7 words right there.

Of course, this would not be tolerated at all if this 'discrimination' were targeted at another religion...

[acsguitar]

We are too politically correct in America.

Pretty much sums it up in 7 words right there.

Of course, this would not be tolerated at all if this 'discrimination' were targeted at another religion...

Yep if this was a fight against kwanza or hannukah then their would be hell to pay

[ironman]

"The last time I checked, the first six letters of Christmas still spell out Christ,"

"It's tantamount to celebrating Lincoln's birthday without talking about Abraham Lincoln."

Exactly. Christmas is about the birth of Christ. It's a religious holiday. Crazy to celebrate the birth of Christ when Christ isn't allowed to be seen, spoken of, or pictured there.

The city does not want to appear to endorse one religion over another, said Cindy Gatziolis, a spokeswoman for the Mayor's Office of Special Events.

Then they need to celebrate ALL religious holidays, or NONE of them. Take their pick, but they cannot remove Christ from Christmas and say they are not choosing sides.

The insanity is they have a nativity scene there! So the nativity scene is there but promoting a movie that tells the story of it is offensive? Why not just turn it into the Christmas pageant from South Park where the kids are all dressed in unitards, dancing to minimalist music composed by Phillip Glass.

Seriously who's walking by some sort of Christmas-y thing and getting offended? And if they are getting offended can we round them up and ship them off somewhere? Because it's lameass crybabies like that, that are ruining everything.