The schools and the media have successfully drummed into people that the “Constitutional” principle of “Separation of Church and State” means if you hear or see anything, anything that can be construed or even misconstrued as religious expression, on or near a public space by anyone, then it amounts to religious oppression by the government tantamount to the institution of a State Church.

That’s why, for example, a functionary at the UNC-Chapel Hill libraries just banned their Christmas Trees (and bully for Chancellor Holden Thorp for making it clear that such a decision was the functionary’s and that the university “celebrates the Christmas season“), and it’s also why we read in WRAL today:


Wilmington, N.C. ? “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” caused a stir at a New Hanover County school. A parent complained about the song’s religious reference and got it pulled from her child’s kindergarten Christmas show at Murrayville Elementary School.

The song was pulled ?because it had the word Christmas in it,? said Rick Holliday, assistant school superintendent.

A Jewish mother, who didn’t want her name published, objected to what she called “religious overtones” in the song. So the principal agreed to pull it from the program.


The song was eventually restored when school administrators listened to the lyrics (which, of course, no one who grew up in this country can recite by heart) and decided that the song was secular. Whew.

There is no truth to the rumor that the school had another option, which would have consisted of utilizing the elementary school prankster’s tactic of treating the old standard as a call-and-response, to wit:

Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
Had a very shiny nose (like a menorah!)
And if you ever saw it
You would even say it glows (like a menorah!)