Grace, I think what Big Al was trying to say was that us christians should not be intimidated by political correctness. We should be allowed to have nativity scenes in kindergartens and day care centres without worrying about who we might upset. After all, it is a free countrty isn't it???

Well said missantar. These bureaucrats pushing "political correctness" have destroyed the Christmas spirit in kindergartens, schools etc. Grace thinks I have lost the spirit of Christmas because I have been highly critical of them. I admit using colourful terms, but it's clear that they mean to undermine Christianity in every way possible, including banning all symbols and mention of Christ during the festival celebrating His birth! As I said before, it's having a birthday party and then IGNORING the Guest of Honour! " Political correctness" has even banned the sale of Nativity sets by one major chain store. What's next? Are they going to ban the sale of crosses on necklaces? This is how THEY observe "the spirit of Christmas". Christians should stop wringing their hands and saying "It's terrible but what can we do about it? First of all we must get off our backsides and let our politicians know that we are fed up and want DISCRIMINATION against Christianity in the matters I have mentioned, stopped immediately. No more "open season" against Christians .Write to the Press. Use Talkback radio and TV. The time for turning the other cheek has passed. It's time to stand up and fight.

A quote from THE AUSTRALIAN 17/12/04, that seems to confirm what Waleed Aly and I believe:

St Paul's Langmead believes the religious groups in a multi-faith society are tolerant of each other's holy days. "My sense is that Muslim and Jewish people are not against Christians celebrating Christmas but what is happening is that secular people are using multi-faith society as an excuse to drown out the story of Jesus," he says.

Yasser Soliman from the Islamic Council of Victoria echoes this sentiment. "It is not for us to tell Christians how to celebrate," he says. "We would not want to impose our faith on
anyone, nor have their faith imposed on us."

Missantar said, "After all, it is a free country isn't it?"
I thought so too, until yesterday's handing down of a guilty verdict in the Victorian courts, of the two pastors who had apparently 'vilified' the Muslim faith. Much of what they were found guilty of was quoting the Koran - they merely expressed their opinions!

From what I have seen and read, the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act in Victoria is VERY UN-AUSTRALIAN, and is VERY open to abuse by anti-Christian extremists. Yesterday's finding was the end of free speech in our fair country!

Has anyone noticed that the annual christmas carols that are telecast from Sydney and Melbourne, are holding firm with , if not increasing, their Christian content each year? I remember at last year's Melbourne carols, Ray Martin even mentioned midnight Mass!

Last night's Sydney christmas carols had the largest crowd ever! Guy Sebastian sang a song that had Jesus' name in it about 100 times - and the crowd loved it!!

Did anybody read Melbourne's Herald Sun Newspaper on Saturday? The article titled 'Scrooge is back in Britain' was most disturbing. The word 'Christmas' has been dropped from greeting cards and many other christmas traditions have also been dropped as so not to offend non-christians. PLEASE don't let Australia go down the same path!!!!!!