Council takes Christ out of Christmas
By Ruth Gledhill

THE festive season is not yet upon us, but Christmas has already been banned from some seasonal light displays.

The latest local authority to take the Christ out of Christmas is Lambeth in South London, where bureaucrats in all but one district are making sure their seasonal lights are bereft of any connotation of Christianity. Instead, council officials have used the words “Winter Lights” and “Celebrity Lights”.

Lambeth, once a Labour-controlled council, is now run by a joint Liberal Democrat and Conservative administration. Bernard Gentry, a Tory councillor and a Roman Catholic, said: “We should not be too scared to acknowledge the Christian festival of Christmas in the same way as we mark the Hindu festival of Diwali, the Muslim month of Ramadan and the Jewish Yom Kippur.”

A council spokesman said: “The term winter lights simply reflects the fact that a number of religious festivals take place over the winter period when the lights are switched on.” Story


Group takes offensive with Nativity scenes
Counters removal from public square with call for displays nationwide
Posted: November 3, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

A group is launching a Christmas-season campaign to counter efforts to remove Christian symbols of the holiday from the public square.

"Operation Nativity," a project of The Truth Matters, is urging Christians nationwide to set up nativity scenes on their own property.
The rest