Thanks to Mild Mannered Reporter of the Rosemead Times for the inspiration on this post.
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A young lad crept up to his community's nativity scene and plucked the Baby Jesus from the manger. He ran home and hid the ceramic piece in his closet. Then going to his desk he started a letter.
"Dear Virgin Mary, If you want to see your Son again bring me a bike for Christmas."
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OK, I know it is a an old joke. How about this one?
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What kind of jerkwater town hires the village idiots to run it's libraries?
Memphis, Tennessee...
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What? You don't think that is funny? Well every good joke has to have a bit of truth in it. The first joke is what the library officials in Memphis did. They plucked the Little Baby Jesus from his bed of straw. Woke Him out of a sound sleep too!
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World Net Daily has the story which I will summarize in the following few lines
Saying it would be "inappropriate" to include them, Memphis, Tenn., library officials have banned Mary, Joseph, Jesus and the wise men from a promotional nativity scene leaving only the stable animals and a shepherd boy.
According to a statement from Alliance Defense Fund, the controversy arose when Brandi Chambless, a member of the music ministry at Broadmoor Memphis Church, submitted an announcement for display on the library's community shelves regarding the church's upcoming Christmas show. Library officials accepted the announcement but told Chambless that she would have to remove the "inappropriate" figures of the baby Jesus, Joseph, Mary, and the wise men from an accompanying nativity scene and limit it to farm animals alone.
Now I don't know about you but I have to wonder about the IQ of these people and if it reaches the level of a cabbage? Well I guess it does come close to cabbage level because the so called 'library officials' have backed off after the news went out and the Alliance Defense Fund informed them that stupid is not the way 'librarian officials' should act.
In all fairness it was the Memphis Library Branch in the backwater town of Bartlett,Tennesseee where all this brouhaha took place not at the Memphis City Proper.
BUT WAIT!!!
The story is not over yet!!! Is this a great country or what? There is always more fun to be had!WMCTV.com has a blurb on the story which gives credit to the Mayor of Bartlett for the resolution and does not mention the letter the ADF sent informing the parties about the Constitution of the United States. - Hmmm??? Would the station be ignorant of the ADF and their part in this? Does the Bartlett Branch of Memphis Library System have a copy of the Constitution on their shelves?
- quote from WMCTV.com - Brandi Chambless is one happy woman after hearing her nativity scene will be now allowed in the Bartlett Library. It took an order from Bartlett's mayor to put Christ back into this Christmas display. Chambless is thrilled, "It means so much and we're very thankful to the mayor for doing that." Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald heard the library had banned the religious figurines from a nativity display and would only allow barnyard animals to be shown. That's when he picked up the phone and called Betty Anne Wilson at the Central Library, "Mayor McDonald has requested the library put back the nativity scene at the Bartlett Branch library and the library is going to honor his request." That's great news to the folks at Broadmoor Baptist but Chambless says this crusade may not be over yet, "We don't believe it would be fair to have the citizens of Bartlett have one set of rules and have the citizens of Memphis have another set so we're gonna look at it a little closer." The concern is the Memphis library system still has a policy banning overt religious items from public display. Could that change? Wilson says the matter could be reviewed, "If someone asks us to review our policy we normally do but will we change our mind? That's hard to tell. It depends on a whole lot of circumstances both in the library and the city of Memphis." Right now, Brandi Chambless' priority is to put this figurine where she says it belongs, "We're going to go in and place this figurine in the window and I think that's a great step for us." But it may not be the last in this Christmas controversy. - end quote -
prying1 sez:
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