{"id":8577,"date":"2013-06-16T17:31:54","date_gmt":"2013-06-16T17:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=8577"},"modified":"2013-06-16T17:31:54","modified_gmt":"2013-06-16T17:31:54","slug":"rick-perrys-merry-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/rick-perrys-merry-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Perry\u2019s \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"East<\/a>MSN reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday signed a law protecting Christmas and other holiday celebrations in Texas public schools from legal challenges \u2014 but also stressed that freedom of religion is not the same thing as freedom from religion\u2026Dubbed the “Merry Christmas” bill, the bipartisan measure sailed through the state House and Senate to reach Perry’s desk.<\/p>\n

It removes legal risks of saying “Merry Christmas” in schools while also protecting traditional holiday symbols, such as a menorah or nativity scene, as long as more than one religion and a secular symbol are also reflected.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is, of course, sad and stupid that there can be \u201clegal risks\u201d associated with exchanging Christmas greetings in schools. If the new law fixes that, it\u2019ll be all to the good, but quite what makes a \u201csecular symbol\u201d eludes me. I\u2019m with the atheist shoemakers in Berlin who said this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

There are already hundreds of symbols for atheism and none of them tickle us in quite the right place\u2026 either they\u2019re too sciency, or too literal, or just plain ugly\u2026 Well, our solution is inspired by a Christian friend (thanks Matt) who accused us of having god-shaped-holes. And we think a gaping, BLACK HOLE is absolutely perfect\u2026 And what says \u201cI believe in nothing\u201d better than nothing?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Quite. But it\u2019s difficult to imagine a black hole nestling between the manger and the menorah. There is, however, another candidate, jovial, genially syncretic and refreshingly appreciative of the joys of consumerism.<\/p>\n

Yup, Santa would do very well indeed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MSN reports: AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday signed a law protecting Christmas and other holiday celebrations in Texas public schools from legal challenges \u2014 but also stressed that freedom of religion is not the same thing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[9,26],"tags":[27,801,492],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8577"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8582,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8577\/revisions\/8582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}