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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-04-05

Well, We'll Just See About That

The Denver Parade of Lights has taken a common-sense step, and opened up the Parade to religious-themed participants this year.

Christian themes, the Salvation Army and a flotilla of carolers will be part of the new look of next December's iconic holiday extravaganza, the Parade of Lights.

The new rules overturn a longstanding policy to bar religious themes from the Christmas season parade, which thrust the event into a national debate last year over whether religion was being chased out of American public life.

Under new rules, up to two of the current 40 parade floats will have themes that "acknowledge the season's religious significance," Basey said.

"up to two. . ." Whoo-HOO. Christians get to be a part of FIVE WHOLE PERCENT of an event which celebrates a Holiday that has indisputably Christian roots. But that's okay--that's still a far sight better than the old policy, and should save the city from the embarassment of last year.

But that's probably not the final word.

Basey was also firm about one group that would not be welcome - the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which represents atheists, agnostics and secular humanists who believe religion should be barred or sharply curtailed in public settings.

After the parade controversy erupted, spokesman Robert Tiernan said he would demand to be included in the parade, too.

"I'd like to put this question to bed," Basey said. "We're not including any organization choosing to use the parade as a place to argue about religion in the public square. We're within our rights to do that as a private parade."

Get ready, folks. How much you wanna bet the ACLU comes hopping into town some time in the very near future?
Posted by: Michael / 4/05/2005 07:38:00 AM

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