War on Christmas Fraud Exposed: The Silent Night “Rewrite” That Wasn’t

[Pirate Smile]

From Think Progress:

War on Christmas Fraud Exposed: The Silent Night "Rewrite" That Wasn't

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.



O'Reilly was by no means the only conservative to repeat this story. During a Dec. 10 appearance on Fox News, Mathew Staver of the Liberty Counsel said the presentation at Ridgewood Elementary had "no balance here. They have no Christian Christmas carols." He even threatened to sue the school:

People are outraged. We sent a demand letter asking them to immediately change the song and allow the actual lyrics of "Silent Night," and if they do not, if they insist on this ridiculous course of action, we'll file a federal lawsuit.

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."

http://www.thinkprogress.org/

edit to add another O'Reilly lie caught in case anyone missed it:

E-mail sent to parents in the Plano, TX school district

Dear Plano ISD eNews Subscribers:

On Friday, December 9, on the Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," with Bill O'Reilly and guest Jim Pinkerton, Fox 4 News analyst, it was falsely reported in a segment entitled "More Victories for Christmas" that ...

... "In Plano, Texas, a school told students they couldn't wear red and green because they are Christmas colors."......

Due to the number of e-mails, inquiries and phone calls to Plano ISD regarding students "wearing red and green," Superintendent of schools Dr. Doug Otto is e-mailing this communication to eNews subscribers (and has posted this message on the PISD website) to assure the school community that this rumor is false.

The school district does not restrict students or staff from wearing certain color clothes during holiday times or any other school days," noted Dr. Otto, who said that the school district's attorney has requested that Mr. O'Reilly retract the statement.

http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=10778

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5591990

[The Witch]

1. mwahahahaha! k&r.

I wonder how crow tastes?

[saigon68]

67. HATEFUL DIRT BAG O'LEILLY gets penis caught in zipper

Screams loudly

[shoelace414]

2. you could print the correction on every front page it wouldn't matter

the phony war on christmas is now percieved to be real.

[Supersedeas]

48. just another success diversions of public attention

[LostinVA]

3. These people couldn't tell the truth if a gun was put to their

Little Freeper heads... I mean, this isn't even hyperbole, it's LIES!

[9119495]

26. Well, has anyone tried the gun to the head thing? Or am I just

being a bit too radical for a Thursday morning?

Guns aren't really my style but...

[Swede]

4. This is getting weird already.

[seabeyond]

5. reported plano tx, no green and red. supervisor says lie

not true. second story here blantantly false

[wryter2000]

6. Thanks!

Okay, now I'm waiting for a freeper to tell me this story. I'll hit 'em with facts!

[JHB]

29. Hit them with the REAL war on Christians...

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051206/METRO/512060440

ACLU sues over faith-based rehab: Catholic man forced into Pentecostal program

By Norman Sinclair / The Detroit News
DETROIT - In a lawsuit filed on his behalf by the civil rights group, a 23-year-old Catholic man from Genesee County is asking a federal judge to set aside a drug conviction, saying he was punished for not completing a Pentecostal rehabilitation program.

Joseph Hanas was 19 when he pleaded guilty to a marijuana possession charge in February 2001 in Genesee Circuit Court and was placed in a diversion program for young, non-violent offenders.
Upon the recommendation of a probation officer, Judge Robert Ransom sentenced Hanas to the state-sponsored rehabilitation program - the Inner City Christian Outreach Residential Program, run by a Pentecostal church.

Hanas said the program did not offer drug treatment or counseling, nor did it have any organized program other than reading the Bible and attending Pentecostal services. He said his rosary and prayer book was taken from him and his religion was denounced as "witchcraft." Hanas said he was told his only chance of avoiding prison and a felony record was to convert to the Pentecostal faith.

After seven weeks, his mother and lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union in Flint succeeded in getting Hanas back to court.
------------------------------------------

Why so upset about 'the war on Christmas' bill? You're not a Christian, you're a witch! The Pentacostalists say so! With your tax dollars!

[Reverend_Smitty]

65. wow now thats offensive

As someone who was raised Catholic, if someone said that to me I would have punched them in the face right there. He showed more restraint than I would have

[Warren DeMontague]

74. Course, if the guy was an atheist, he'd be screwed.

They fucked up, though, by messing with someone with a 'legitimate' belief system.

All the more reason to hammer home that there ARE wholly secular alternatives to 12 step programs. Not that 12 steps and higher powers don't work for lots of folks.. but no one should be forced by the government to sit around and say the lord's prayer.

[tanyev]

7. And don't forget this one.

A bah humbug moment (Bill O'Reilly lies about Saginaw, Michigan)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1984434

Bill, please, just stop talking. You're only hurting yourself.

[Celebration]

8. And remember this?

http://mediamatters.org/items/200512010004

But tonight's winner: Bill O'Reilly! You know this whole attack on Christmas nonsense that he made up? Some sort of fantasy in which the liberals are coming to your town to force you and your family to not call it Christmas anymore? The fantasy that we can't say "Merry Christmas," but you can only say "Happy Holidays"? The thing designed to stir up religious hatred and paranoia in this country? Guess what they're selling over at the Fox News online store? The Fox News "Holiday" ornament! And the O'Reilly Factor "Holiday" ornament. Who is trying to change "Merry Christmas" into "Happy Holidays"? Bill O'Reilly, that's who. Today's worst person in the world!

HAHA. After Keith announced this the Fox webpage changed it to "Christmas" ornament. Hysterical.

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. Gee, I once wrote a short musical play that used the music from

"The Marriage of Figaro" with lyrics I invented.

No one accused me of waging war on Mozart (though the charge might have stuck if they had).

[Lefty48197]

10. Bill O'Reilly: Serial Liar

This guy is deeply disturbed. Why doesn't he seek help for his mental illness?

[CrackpotAmerica]

11. Sad, yet dangerous...

Mayo Sammich eating Americans who are fans of this douche are generally not objective enough to realize that they have believed a proven lie..

It is a testing of the waters for something bigger, me thinks!

:nominated:

[rocktivity]

12. Your move, Mr. Olbermann.

And I expect Air America and Stephanie Miller to get a few shots in, too.

:headbang:
rocknation

[NoAmericanTaliban]

13. Gobbles was more honest than O'Lielly

He made no bones about what he was - Minister of Propaganda - I am in charge of the lies

The way I deal with this 'war' on X-Mass is to radically agree with them (reverse psychology). I tell my Repub. friends & relatives that they are right. We should boycott all stores that use Holiday instead of Christmas. Not only that but, we should only buy products made by Christians and especially not ones made by the atheist-communist Chinese & other non-believers (some right wingers include Catholics in this group, but Catholics don't seem to realize that). Also, we shouldn't shop at any store that hires non-Christians. There is no gray area in this matter.

After my little rant - I usually get looks of horror & statements like - 'we can't do that, it would ruin the economy if we don't shop'. The scary part is that some actually agree with me. :)

[FreedomAngel82]

20. You got them there!

It's always good to make them look like fools so they will rethink what they are doing.

[Wind Dancer]

50. I like your style!

If that doesn't scare some sense into their persecuted illusions, nothing will.

[Hyernel]

14. I could tell it was a clumsy lie from the start.

[Pachamama]

15. The guy on CNN debating Sam Seder the other night about the War on Xmas

repeated this same story too!

What a bunch of phony baloney lying sacks of sh*t these so-called "moralists" are....

:grr:

[AnneD]

62. And did Sam ever mop the floor with that sac o'shit.

And Sam nailed that ass clown on the Nazi crap in a way that Sam or any other Jewish person could. It was a dig at Sam and he gave it right back. You da man Sam...

[Pachamama]

64. I agree...I was laughing so hard and was also cheering Sam Seder on!

The things that ass clown said referencing Nazis was way over the top and Sam slammed that one down real fast. I'm not jewish, but my grandparents escaped Nazi Germany and I can tell you that the real Nazi comparisons are with the tactics that the Neocons and X-tian fundies are using.

[yellowcanine]

16. Do these wing nuts think lying for Jesus is ok? Someone is just making

shit up. Do they think no one is going to find out?

[FreedomAngel82]

21. Last time I looked in my Bible

lying was one of the six deadly sins that God hates.

[sproutster]

17. So let me get this straight...

This guy is on a "news" show - states untruths, causes time and money on the parties he maligns and is allowed to concoct new LIES?

How is he even allowed on the air?

[AnneD]

63. In a bizare twist ....

Fox went to court and won their case that they didn't have to get their facts accurate on the news (if memory serves me). I guess you call their news 'infotainment'. I'd love to be at a staff meeting when they pull these stories out of their butts.

[rman]

18. why does this not surprise me

[FreedomAngel82]

19. So is anything going to happen to him for lying like this?

People are really believing this b.s.

[Miss Chybil]

24. No, in Bushworld, bad things only happen to those who tell the truth. nt

[NMMNG]

22. What's new?

All these people do is lie and distort the truth in order to whip up support for their twisted agenda. And time and time again the sheeple fall for it, frothing at the mouth just as their puppet-masters planned. :eyes:

[No Exit]

23. Wow, it's all exactly like the Bush Iraq war!

Phony stories to inflame the public, phony "intelligence", divisiveness ("you're either with us or against us"), breaking down of everything everyone holds sacred, ruining what could be a prosperous, constructive time for the country... it's all there!

But it won't be a complete repeat of Bush's phony Iraq war until we see some INDICTMENTS! Let's start with Bill O'Pervert. J'accuse!

[tanyev]

25. I saw coverage on 2 DFW stations about the Plano story.

Both made it pretty clear that O'Lielly doesn't know what he's talking about.

Link to WFAA video clip:
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=43067&catId=104

[mwb970]

27. How many of these fake stories has Bill spewed?

I'm starting to lose count. What a strange MO - make up a "controversy" that doesn't exist, then make up false (and easily disprovable) "facts" to support it. Then repeat the false, made-up "facts" over and over and over, thereby establishing the "controversy".

An earlier poster got it right - this is exactly the way the cretins in the White House sold Bush's Phony Iraq War to the public.

These people are beyond disgusting.

[long_green]

28. This is great

The people being demonized are almost certainly the sort of average Americans we need woken up.

[Javaman]

30. It's beginning to look a lot like class action suit time, la la la...n/t

[Dukkha]

31. sadly it doesn't matter just like the swiftboats

They knew it was a lie but ran with it anyway. There will be no retraction and these bogus stories will make their way through the usual hate chain emails that end with "if your a real American you'll forward this to everyone!"

The damage has been done and John & Jane Moran in middle America will believe it.

[underpants]

32. OMG that is too funny-Locla talk radio was all over this yesterday

Too damned funny.

[madmark]

33. I am so sick of these attempts pretend the War on Christmas is a myth

I am a member of the People's Death To Christmas Committee and we have undertaken very significant steps to destroy Christmas. Just one example, we have infiltrated Toys R Us management and insured that all the stores are stocked with poor quality yet expensive crap that nobody would want, have cramped aisles, useless staff, and provide such an awful shopping experience that any prospective Christmas celebrant that goes into these stores will, at least for a little bit, want to kill themselves.

[underpants]

36. I got dropped off the email list-when is the next meeting?

:evilgrin:

[Anakin Skywalker]

47. LOL!

[newportdadde]

34. Guy who was talking against Seder on CNN used this. Bunch of liars.

He went off on this whole 'Silent Night' talking point as well. Fucking liars. The sad thing is this stupid thing will spur off into urban legend now. Its not about reporting or talking about truth its all about having the best lie that you can use to fan the flames.

[gatorboy]

35. O'Reilly forgot to mention that churches have performed this play

http://texnews.com/religion97/local121397.html

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS PRODUCTION
A Christmas musical/drama, "The Little Tree's Christmas Gift," will be presented by the Children's Church at 10:35 a.m. Sunday at Bethel Temple Christian Center, 3101 N. 12th.
The musical, written by Ann Lambert and Dwight Elrich, stresses that everyone has something special to offer.

[progressivebydesign]

37. O'Reilly's War on Brain Cells seems to be going well.

His part in fighting the War on Christmas.. not so well.

[redqueen]

38. The only thing these morans know how to do is lie.

Shame the sheeple that lap their lies up are too dim to catch on ... or too stupid to care.

[DarkTirade]

39. And everyone who is surprised by the depths to which this guy will stoop..

raise your hand now.
Show of hands... anyone? Anyone?

[rd_kent]

40. What a DOUCHEBAG!!!!!

HAHAHAHAHA! I hope this is the beginning of the end for BO.

[saigon68]

69. DOUCHE BAG

[Joanne98]

41. It's an outrage! OOPS!

[arcane1]

42. amazingly, he was more honest on Inside Edition..

or A Current Affair, or whatever that tabloid show was

goes to show you, though, how isolated it is out there in Fox-viewer land

[MrBenchley]

43. Jeeze Louise--glad O'Reilly wasn't near my elementary school in the 1950s

Where we sang

We three kings of Orient are
Tried to smoke a rubber cigar....

and

Good King Sauerkraut looked down
On his feets uneven....

[silverweb]

44. LOL

I remember those, too! We used to fall all over ourselves laughing, and the adults would just exchange looks and roll their eyes at us. :D

[MrBenchley]

45. Did you guys have this one?

Away in a manger
All wrapped up in clothes
The little Lord Jesus
put beans up his nose...

[silverweb]

46. Hahaha!

No, I don't know that one, but I love it!

:rofl:

[Nobody]

57. To the tune of O Tannenbaum

Atomic bomb
Atomic bomb
(forgotten lyrics go here)

(this was in the 70s)

[MrBenchley]

58. Jingle Bells, Batman smells...

The Maryland state song is sung to the tune of O Tannenbaum...hilariously, it's an ode to how fiercely Marylanders would have fought against Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War if only they had actually done so (they didn't). It might be the most peculiar state song of the 50....

Thou shalt not cower in the dust
Maryland, my Maryland
Thy gleaming sword shall never rust
Maryland, my Maryland
Avenge the patriotic gore
That flecked the streets of Baltimore
And be the battle queen of yore
Maryland, my Maryland

[Don_1967]

49. Here is the real story

http://headlines.agapepress.org/users/praize/praize1.asp

[jmowreader]

54. I'm scratching my head VERY hard

This asshat Staver from a Florida-based fundie group said he was going to file suit against a Wisconsin school because they wouldn't sing Silent Night. The only problem with this kind of a lawsuit (which is, for the fundies, unwinnable if the defendant wants to take it to court) is that they always target people who can't afford to fight back, so the defendant knuckles under and the fundies get what they want.

(Incidentally, I just figured out a good use for a spare $100 million...)

The head scratcher is lower in the piece. "We don't change the names of any other federal holiday, nor do we change the words to songs commemorating these holidays." Here's the question I have for you. These are the federal holidays:

New Year's Day
Martin Luther King Day
Presidents Day
Easter
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas

Drop Christmas out of the list because there are about five thousand Christmas songs. Now name some songs that commemorate those holidays. On Independence Day you might sing patriotic songs like "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "She's a Grand Old Flag"--but you don't play George M. Cohan CDs for a month prior to the holiday. On Easter you might sing "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" and maybe there are a couple of songs to Jesus, but I don't know them. On Presidents Day you sing "The Idiot Son of an Asshole." And that's about all I can think of. Essentially, there ARE no songs specifically written for federal holidays except for this one, specific, holiday. (Flanders Fields doesn't count, folks. It's recited, not sung.)

[Tiggeroshii]

51. HAHA! I can't believe repukes actually go to O'Lielly for news!

What a bucket of donkey turds FOX news is!

[kevinbgoode]

52. At some point, one would think that people in these towns

would begin petitioning that their cable companies drop Fox News from their packages. In lieu of that, I would think these towns should consider boycotting all products advertised on his program - believe me, an organized effort like that would spread very quickly.

[Dudley_DUright]

53. This guy is really starting to piss me off

First he insults my father who lives in Madison and accuses him of "communing with Satan."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200512140012

Then he insults my mother who was born in Dodgeville by making false claims against that community. I am starting to wonder if he has it in for my family or if it is just that he hates everybody (I am guessing the later).

[Crunchy Frog]

55. Is somebody going to sue that little rat bastard

for slander and libel?

[PATRICK]

56. Another little theological point

Christ-mas is particularly a season on the theme of the coming of a messiah, a perfect end times/winter solstice combo for all religions. The "Christ" or messiahs or anointed one theme appears in many religions(the Mahdi of the Muslims, the reincarnation of Buddha) depending on the branch most enamored of the generic theme. As a generic theme it curiously is not seen as the most vital doctrinal component by ANY of the core religions. When adopted by the mainstream it serves and is, one might say, tempered? into the general natural celebrations of the "season".

There are two classes of critics who decry the accommodation- by the religions themselves- of this marriage of apocalyptic to a winter solstice response. The apocalyptics- naturally- for whom the Christ child is nothing compared to the celebration of death, revenge and the ascendance of the faithful punishers. The other is a combination of anti-materialists- MANY part of the major religions themselves- who don't want capitalist mammon blowing this accommodation to such corrupting proportions that the winter solstice becomes indeed a pagan victory over Jesus or whatever.

This what you get when holidays are created by religions in the first place to rival pagans who came first to fill a natural gap, when the need to defend the humanity of the messiah truly does bring him down to our level, and when fighting one's enemy makes one THE enemy one supposedly fears. Thanks FOX for spreading Scrooge-like spleen and misery and a great darkness over the land.

Behind the war on Christmas then- as wonderfully obscure and off the point a distraction it is- is an attack on ethical Christians and atheists by the nutty end days crowd in such a way as to divide the majority as many ways possible and corrupt them in as many ways as there are negatives on any side.
That this type of work resembles demonic activity in which the apocalyptic people have so much unhealthy interest is more worth noting than the fraudulent and specious arguments hyping this faddish puffery of Faux controversy. In this ploy the end days crowd ally themselves tooth and claw with the Mammonite business celebration, the one crowd deliberately left untouched in this one-sided wrangling, the most heralded crusade since Edgar Allan Poe waged war with Longfellow in a series of attacks and rebuttals written by himself to himself as a Longfellow defender under a pseudonym. With many of the same humiliating results.

[erpowers]

59. The War on Christmas

It was reported a few days ago that there are more radio stations playing Christmas songs 24 hours a day. Why do you horrible liberals hate Christmas. :sarcasm:

On another point, yesterday I was unfortunate to have to listen to the last bit of the Sean Hannity Show. At the end of the show there was a commercial that Sean Hannity did for Sharper Image. In this commercial Hannity used the words "Holiday Season" and "Holiday Gifts". As we all know Hannity is not the only person from Fox News that used "Holiday Season" and "Holiday Gifts". At one point even O'Reilly used "Holiday Season" and "Holiday Gifts". That made me think of asking Bill O' Reilly how he felt about fighting the war on Christmas when his own company(Fox News) is leading the war on Christmas.

[kevinbgoode]

60. The Liberty Counsel threatened to sue the school and district

if they didn't change the lyrics back to "Silent Night." The district folded after our good friends, the guardians of everything religiously correct - the American "Family" Association, marshaled about (they claim) 150,000 emails in outrage as this assault on "Christmas."

This part is the outrage to me. Who the hell is this Falwell legal organization to intimidate school districts over performing this production?

[AnneD]

61. Plano is a conservative city in Texas...

as is most of the Dallas-Ft Worth metroplex. This would be his audience base market. They are NOT amused. Maybe this is why he is losing market shares. It takes a lot to piss these folks off-but this type of thing would do it. It goes beyond not getting your facts straight. Look for O'Lielly to make more outrageous claims in order to boost ratings (same with gender challenged Anne Coulter and the rest of that ilk). I think people ARE starting to get tired of them and are beginning to figure it out. Just give them enough rope and step out of their way.

[Serial Mom]

66. They make things up, then actually BELIEVE them!

I think that is called "pathological liar"!

[seabeyond]

68. i LOVE i had this information. knocked rw brother on ass with his

hero oreilly. was tlaking about war on christmas, surprise, he believes this too. i gave these two examples, and he was really bothered. then told about oreilly's web page, holiday ornaments, now isnt that a hypocrit i ask. he is still thinking about this shit today, lol

i know he had heard the plano thing. he kept bringing it up, oreilly ought to be told. he was just sure oreilly would correct it on his show

[Joey Liberal]

70. It's O'Reilly's war on humanity

There is no war against Christmas. Just a war against Democrats.

[Mr_Spock]

71. That son-of-a-bitch CAN'T STOP LYING!!!

What the heck is wrong with O'Liely anyway? He needs medical treatment...

[yorkiemommie1]

72. BO is a troublemaker

a hornets' nest stirring troublemaker.

[Warren DeMontague]

73. And still, the hate-filled river of bullshit bile rolls on

all these right-wing 'culture war' shitheads must be very, very proud.