Some public officials appear to be trying to upstage the Christmas grinch. Parents who put up holiday lights at Mariners Elementary School in Newport Beach, Calif., had to take them down after a warning from the school board president, the Los Angeles Times reported. The parents had spent hours last Saturday cleaning the grounds and stringing lights around the buildings and in olive trees, but were told the lights made non-Christians feel left out.
..."It's frustrating," Graham Tingler, who helped string the lights, told the Times. "There are so few opportunities today for schools to show spirit and pride. We're not advocating prayer in the schools. There's a big difference between prayer in the schools and holiday lights."
...Christmas trees are banned in most city work places in Eugene, Ore. Many city workers and residents have complained about City Manager Jim Johnson's decision that the trees symbolize the religious holiday and should not be displayed in public lobbies, break rooms, and community centers, according to The Register-Guard.

Reprinted with permission from Religion Today, http://www.ReligionToday.com."

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