Shame that City of Glen Rose *Christmas Town* is only for Christians. Glen Rose (Texas) not tolerant or welcoming of those who celebrate Christmas for other reasons

Notice that this flyer is, right now, on the City of Glen Rose Government pages.

I don’t believe there is anyone that doesn’t know that a lot of people of various faiths or no faith at all celebrate Christmas. The origin of Christmas is a pagan holiday, Saturnalia. Pagan holidays were usurped and the some of the traditions of Saturnalia were absorbed into Christmas by the 4th century AD. Even then, in this country, the Puritans banned celebration of Christmas because 1, it wasn’t in the bible 2. God gave no command to celebrate Jesus birth, and 3. there was no season or day mentioned as the birth of Jesus (According to the bible, the shepherds were still in the fields at night, so it could not have been December 25, which *was* the date of pagan celebration Saturnalia)

Not until the fourth century A.D. did the church in Rome ordain the celebration of the Nativity on December 25, and that was done by co-opting existing pagan celebrations such as Saturnalia, an ancient Roman holiday of lights marked with drinking and feasting that coincided with the winter solstice. The noted Puritan minister Increase Mather wrote that Christmas occurred on December 25 not because “Christ was born in that month, but because the heathens’ Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those pagan holidays metamorphosed into Christian [ones].” According to Nissenbaum, “Puritans believed Christmas was basically just a pagan custom that the Catholics took over without any biblical basis for it. The holiday had everything to do with the time of year, the solstice and Saturnalia and nothing to do with Christianity.”

The pagan-like way in which Christmas was celebrated troubled the Puritans even more than the underlying theology. “Men dishonor Christ more in the 12 days of Christmas than in all the 12 months besides,” wrote 16th-century clergyman Hugh Latimer. Christmas in the 1600s was hardly a silent night, let alone a holy one. More befitting a rowdy spring break than a sacred occasion, Christmas revelers used the holiday as an excuse to feast, drink, gamble on dice and card games and engage in licentious behavior.

The reason I mention this is that the bigots at the City of Glen Rose want to try to foist a baloney “True Meaning of Christmas” on not only citizens here but visitors, including putting a christian nativity scene on government property without allowing others of different views to include other exhibits or signs. The First Methodist Church has had nativity scenes on church property, which is entirely appropriate and the church is extremely close to the square, so why did the City of Glen Rose not only violate the constitution but also apparently compete with the church, which is hosting its own nativity “Come to the Stable” by injecting religion onto the public, taxpayer funded square? Side note here that the Christmastown in Grapevine, which is known as the Christmas Capital of Texas, which Glen Rose seems to enviously be copying, had a Nativity Scene in 2023, NOT ON GOVT PROPERTY but at the First Grapevine Methodist Church, entirely appropriate. They are also planning to do a nativity this year as well. Not for the intrusive fanatics in government who want to shove partisan religion in the name of taxpayer funded government down everyone’s throats.

I miss the days before the bigots decided that wishing EVERYONE a happy holiday and having holiday parades that included everyone were done.

Do these bigots think that only christians celebrate christmas or that only their own meaning of a *true* christmas is the right one? or that there aren’t christians also who believe in separation of church and state and don’t like what the City is doing? No holiday celebration for Jews in Glen Rose, then, and even if there are Jews who celebrate christmas, there is no allowance for any exhibit or sign that would show that others celebrate this holiday season as a non-christian holiday. Plenty of atheists also celebrate christmas-after all, the government has a work holiday for it, and all the customs around it make it a great day to enjoy family and friends. If one truly thought christmas should only be religious based on the birth of Jesus, then why have Santa, sleighs, snow globes, wreaths, lighted christmas trees, etc? Those secular activities are also part of christmas, as well as deeply incorporated into pagan traditions in the past, and a lot of people celebrate that way, by having gifts on christmas morning brought by santa, for example. Hypocritical to pretend there’s only one meaning of christmas while ignoring the winter solstice, Saturnalia, and secular symbols. Maybe the bigots who are doing this feel a little guilty about enjoying the secular parts while trying to make christmas only for them. It’s really ridiculous and highly selfish for a government official to make a holiday for everyone be exclusive only to those who share your religion.

And what about all the shop owners who are participating? Should they maybe station somebody by the shop door to ask potential buyers of their merchandise if they are *true* christians?

Now one might say that a creche is included by the City of Glen Rose as a purely secular display and is not advancing religion. Then why does the City talk about the *true meaning of christmas* in connection with the nativity which is not treating the nativity scene as secular. What is the right thing to do when one sticks a religious symbol into a govt space?

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Religious Christmas displays are perfectly legal if a public space has been made available to everyone. For example, if a city or village decides to allow Christmas displays in the community park, Christian displays must be allowed, just as secular displays must be allowed. The government cannot include one group as it excludes another.

In the case Grace C. Osediacz v. City of Cranston (2005), the court ruled that the city of Cranston, Rhode Island, had not violated the First Amendment by allowing both secular and religious Christmas displays on government-owned land that had been opened as a public forum.

In Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board v. Pinette, 515 U.S. 753 (1995), the United States Supreme Court clearly ruled in favor of allowing religious displays in public forums.

The court held:

Respondents’ religious display in Capitol Square was private expression. Our precedent establishes that private religious speech, far from being a First Amendment orphan, is as fully protected under the Free Speech Clause as secular private expression. Indeed, in Anglo-American history, at least, government suppression of speech has so commonly been directed precisely at religious speech that a free-speech clause without religion would be Hamlet without the prince. (Id. At 760 [internal citations omitted]).

This case makes clear that private citizens, indeed, are allowed to erect religious displays on public property if

1. The property is a public forum where the government has permitted a wide variety of expressive conduct
2. And there is a disclaimer sign to inform the public that the display is sponsored by a private citizen and is not being endorsed by the government.

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You can also read about Greg Abbott being sued by FFRF over censorship of allowing an exhibit on government property at the Capitol of the Sate of Texas… and losing.

Adding that although the City of Glen Rose requires permits for others to participate in the Old Fashioned Christmas Market area, they did not themselves bother to get a required permit to put ANYTHING on the Somervell County courthouse lawn. Always a little humorous when you see someone in charge of the city violating not just the constitution but the whole spirit of an event presumably to bring the entire community together while blatantly excluding anyone but christians (and probably just their version of christianity) I notice that, although Boles claims to not be responsible for others participating, the City, through the CVG, invited Cottonwood Baptist Church attendees to come down and carol, thus again, showing bigotry and discrimination. So the City IS allowing some who they want to pick and choose to participate, while excluding others, as is Somervell County Judge Danny Chambers, who told me over a week ago to submit to him what I proposed to put on the public courthouse lawn.

Clearly neither Mayor of Glen Rose Joe Boles nor Somervell County Judge Danny Chambers care about the constitution and how unamerican what they are doing is. But more than that, what kind of town does Glen Rose want to represent to others that it is? An unwelcoming stewpot of bigotry or an embracing and warm American town? Maybe the Mayor needs to pull people aside and ask them if they are true christians and to prove it in order to attend or tell the visitors that they must only enjoy christmas in the way he wants. I always wonder what the heck is in people’s minds that they want to try so hard, in America to censor citizens or force viewpoints on them. However, I know that at least one of these people voted for Trump, so voting in a felon who was adjudicated of rape speaks for itself, and at least for me, taints what would otherwise be a welcoming diverse event for the City of Glen Rose.