http://thinkprogress.org/2005/12/14/silent-night-fraud/
On Friday, Bill O’Reilly took to the airwaves to share the latest “War
on Christmas” outrage:
In Dodgeville, Wisconsin, the Ridgewood Elementary School has changed
the song Silent Night to Cold in the Night and forced the kids to sing
the lyrics, “Cold in the night, No one in sight, Winter winds whirl
and bite,” to the tune of the original Silent Night
As it turns out, the entire story is a fraud.
Ridgeway Elementary didn’t change the lyrics to “Silent Night.” What
they did was perform a 1988 copyrighted play called “The Little Tree’s
Christmas Gift.”
That play actually contains numerous songs about Christmas, including
the grand finale, an audience-led group singing of “We Wish You A
Merry Christmas.” The play’s creator, Dwight Elrich, happens to lead
the New Covenant Singers of Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los
Angeles.
In fact, “The Little Tree’s Christmas Gift” has been performed in
several churches, including the Oakwood Forest Christian Church in
Kingsport, Tennessee, the St. Anthony Parish School in Des Moines,
Iowa, and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church of Abeline, Texas.
So why are the Silent Night lyrics changed in “Little Tree’s
Christmas”? Because the play is about a small, lonely Christmas tree
that is told it is “too scraggly, it will never sell.” That character
sings the revised lyrics — “Cold in the night, No one in sight, Winter
winds whirl and bite” — in a scene lamenting his sad state. The
rewording has absolutely nothing to do with “secularizing” the song.
Sorry, Virginia, there is no “War on Christmas.”
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Yang
a.a. #28
AthD (h.c.) conferred by the regents of the LCL
a.a. pastor #-273.15, the most frigid church of Celcius nee Kelvin
EAC Econometric Forecast and Sorcery Division
Proudly plonked by Lani Girl and Crazyalec (aka aka Yang's little poltregeist *****)
The Bush 'balanced' budget: 1.6 trillion and worsening
The Bush 'economic' policy: 12.5 million FEWER jobs than Clinton and counting
The Bush Iraq lie: -2151 GIs, one friend's co-worker's son and mounting
Having Bush ***** up my country: Worthless
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"Now, did I want to go? Hell no."
-duke (duckgumbo32@cox.net), aka PedophilEarl J Weber, 63
year old mateless, heirless biological failure
of Afton Oaks Apartment, Baton Rouge, on why
a Neocon chickenhawk like him pussied out of
the Vietnam War.
.
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