Dec 12, 2011
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A group of Christmas carolers was thrown out of a U.S. Post Office in Silver Spring, MD, after the post office manager told them they were not allowed to sing Christmas carols on government property.
A spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service confirmed the incident occurred Saturday at a branch office in the Aspen Hill Shopping Center. A trio of carolers walked into the building dressed in attire reminiscent of Charles Dickens and began singing.
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“They were only a few notes into their carol when suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a scowling postal manager rushing to confront the carolers,” said JP Duffy, who was standing in a line with his wife and two-year-old daughter.
Duffy, who also happens to be a staff member of the Family Research Council, said he was stunned by what happened next.
“He told them that they had to leave immediately because they were violating the post office’s policy against solicitation,” Duffy said. “He told them they couldn’t do this on government property. He said: ‘You can’t go into Congress and sing and you can’t do it here either.’”
A spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service’s Capital Metro ARea said the carolers had “beautiful voices” but were told they could not perform in the lobby.
“Public assembly and public address, except when conducted or sponsored by the Postal Service, are prohibited in lobbies and other interior areas open to the public,” the spokesperson told Fox News & Commentary.
“We have rules and regulations governing conduct on postal property,” the spokesman said. “The only reason you should be inside is for postal business.”
The carolers explained that they had been performing at businesses in the shopping center for several years – including the post office – and they’ve never encountered any problems. But the post office employee refused to budge and ordered them to leave.
Duffy said that customers standing in line began to boo the postal worker.
“Over the last several years, we have watched militant secularists team up with federal bureaucrats in the effort to sterilize the public square of anything remotely connected to anything religious,” Duffy said. “This postal manager has clearly received the memo which has led him to stamp out Christmas caroling. But I have my own memo to all the Christmas carolers out there. Let’s not surrender to the secularist version of Christmas future.”
Duffy suggested that the U.S. Post Office follow the advice of its founder – Benjamin Franklin.
“So shalt thou always live jollily; for a good conscience is a continual Christmas,” Franklin once wrote.
“This is good advice that the U.S. Post Office and all of us would do well to heed,” Duffy said.
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When I was a kid the nuns took us around to Nursing homes where we caroled. They gave us candies and the oldsters were so happy to see and listen to us. Stay the h out of the library and the postoffice……there are plenty of old and sick people who would love a visit in nursing homes and hospitals. It's too bad that people would turn away carolers, but they will so don't take it to them.
Twas the month before Christmas.
When all through our land,
Not a Christian was praying.
Nor taking a stand.
See the PC Police had taken away.
The reason for Christmas – no one could say.
The children were told by their schools not to sing.
About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.
It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say.
December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.
Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit.
Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!
CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-Pod.
Something was changing, something quite odd!
Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa.
In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.
As Targets were hanging their trees upside down.
At Lowe's the word Christmas – was no where to be found.
At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears.
You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.
Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty.
Are words that were used to intimidate me.
Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen.
On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!
At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter.
To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.
And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith.
Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace.
The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded.
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.
So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'.
Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.
Choose your words carefully, choose what you say.
Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS ,
not Happy Holiday!
Please, all Christians join together and.
wish everyone you meet.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Christ is The Reason' for the Christ-mas Season!
If you agree please forward, if not, simply delete.
Are you still able to pray in church as well as your own home? Is your Christmas tree and other assorted decorations will up? Can you still wish someone a Merry Christmas as you pass them in the street?
Thank you Raymond, that was good. I hope Chris White reads it….God knows he needs a kick in the ass.
How can I get a copy of this???
"and the freedom of expression thereof" Liberals ( socialists) seem to leave this out-I'll pray for their soul-ask you to do the same-Merry Christmas.
Hey EVERYONE. To be politically incorrect I say…….MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE.
Nah, you're perfectly fine in saying it, and I'm perfectly fine in wishing you happy holidays.
thats the american way
Don't worry if he was in a strip mall PO he will soom be out of a job. lol
Where did your "I'll bet he was black, fat and overpaid." comment go to? Don't tell me you removed it.
I'll bet he was black, fat and overpaid.
Strange the Post Office bans carolers, but sells Christmas stamps and various Christmas cards with the Merry Christmas message to raise revenue.
So sad to see God who gave this country to us being kicked around. I'm looking for Cristians to pray for the 2012 Elections Join me to turn this country around. 100.000.000 Christians to pray for the 2012 Elections.
Um, hehe, those country was not given to you. It was rapidly invaded by people who were at first welcomed, but rapidly took more than they needed and did their best to oust and in cases exterminate the people who already lived there. I have no idea what your lineage is, it could be a mix of native and foreign, but fact is, people told you that your God was ok with these people dying and wanted them invaded by force. This country was never given to anyone, the land was always here, it could have been shared, easily, but it was never given to anyone specific.
And if you do truly believe that God had given you this land, then you have taken your lord's name in vain by speaking for him.
Chris I will pray for you.
This is is the shortcut to Christians https://www.facebook.com/pages/100000000-Christians-to-pray-for-the-2012-Elections/283918794962123.
The Post Office is only "federal" when they think they need to be. Anyway, the U.S. Post Office may soon be a thing of the past, completely taken over by the private industry.
The Christmas Carolers should have continued anyway. What are they going to do…have them arrested? On what charge? Singing in the Post Office?
The Post Office personnel like to think of themselves as a "civilian" entity…almost like, a non-government entity. Thus, unlike 99.9 percent of federal agencies, their union has the strike option (most federal union members would be fired if they went on strike) and they have used it.
The mail is slow…and archaic. The PO will soon go the route of the dinosaurs.
Hope the House be aware of this event! Let them close the more postal facilities the best.
No caroling allowed – no postage stamps for Christmas cards. Merry Christmas to all my friends.
The PO in Silver Spring probably has panhandlers up the ying-yang…but no Carolers.
Simple. Just boycott the Aspen Hill post office and mail your letters at any other post office (unless they ban carolers) or mailbox. The Post Office is looking to cut costs and are removing certain mailboxes, so let them shut down the Aspen Hill post office.
I just e-mailed The U.S. Postal Service and wish them a Very Merry Christmas and requested that they order all their employees to wish all their customers a very Merry Christmas and I asked them to please reply to my request! Everyone do this if you are tired of the insanity taking over our country! FIGHT BACK PEOPLE!
what's wrong with Happy Holidays? There is more than one holiday this time of year.
Chris White …so whats wrong with saying Merry Christmas?…thats what it is called…why call it something else if its not?…ask the jews to call their holidays something different. see what answers you get. its Christmas for a reason…to celebrate the birth of Jesus, not some winter festival. if non-believers dont like it, create your own "holiday", but leave ours alone!!!!!
fine. don't send any Christmas cards via usps you think you're going broke now, usps?
What enjoy seeing here is the absolute GLEE people have talking about driving a major US company out of business. People here are overjoyed with the prospect of over 500,000 workers being unemployed. And the racism. My favorite was from Marshall Autry "I'll bet he was black, fat and overpaid." The utter lack of humanity that is conservatism at it's best. Thank you Todd Starnes for helping expose the frothing cesspool that the the Right-wing of America.
So people who are standing in lines at the post office and hate, could take their mind off of standing in line, listening to music. Music being sung by volunteers… not asking for anyone's money as a form of payment, simply doing so out of the kindness of their heart.
Does this really surprise anyone. Some schools are trying to block Christmas music, if it mentions Jesus.
oh wait… isn't CHRISTmas all about Jesus?
Hopefully CHRISTmas of 2013, things will be much different with a new President.
Boycott that POST OFFICE. Do not use that post office to but stamps or anything else. Do not go inside it.
Do everything you can to SHUT IT DOWN. Do not accept the behavior / actions of the mgr.
I ALSO FOUND OUT TODAY THAT THEY ARE HAVING BANKING PROBLEMS AND THE MONEY ORDERS ARE NO GOOD…
"I WANT THEIR JOBS DESTROYED BECAUSE ONE OF THEM THINKS DIFFERENT THAN ME!!!"
So are you going to donate to charity for those who lose their jobs because of the post office shutting down?
Chris White I already donate to charity. Thanks for asking Chris. The USPS is already closing down post offices and laying off some 31,000 to begin with. The USPS is already running billion dollar deficits. Yup….the clown that made this lame decision needs to make nice really quick. The folks at the USPS are over paid (incl. benefits) to begin with). I would love to see USPS rules that ban caroling…for ALL post offices. NO….. this manager clown over-reacted and just puffed up his chest to show them…"he was the boss".
Give the USPS a choice… a full apology to the carolers or boycott that P.O. as much as possible. Drive business & volume down, thus forcing it to close
This is kind og funny postal workers are not government employes.
Bahh Humbug! I want to send this 'postal worker' and the 'spokesperson' a copy of Dicken's A CHRISTMAS CAROL. (Don't worry, I'll use UPS to get it there.)
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech".
Is there something difficult to understand about this statement?
More proof the b00bs running the post office are well b00bs. And cowards!
For everyone who says they're boycotting the PO I have an experiment for you. Go into the FedEx office and start singing Christmas carols completely uninvited. Let me know what they do. If they ask you to leave will you boycott them? A matter of fact if you're not a bunch of hypocrites you should do it to EVERY business place you enter. You should hold them ALL to the same "Carol Test". Time to put up or shut up Christians.
I am very happy to have come upon this article prior to sending out my Christmas cards. I will now refrain from mailing conventional cards and gifts by means of the Post Office, and will instead send e-cards and ship the hard, parcels and boxed gifts via UPS. If the Post Office insists on continuing down this ridiculous, politically correct nonsensical path, it deserves to be put out of business.
And that's perfectly fine. If a business does something you dislike, feel perfectly fine to take your business elsewhere, and Ecards do cut down on paper use a bit.
It's government property. So they have no right to sing religious songs there. Who cares if they have "beautiful" voices? Not everybody wants to hear that crap, especially when you can turn any number of radio stations that choose to spout it beginning in November, before we even get past Thanksgiving. I've always hated "Christmas" music, even when I was a Christian, so at least now there is one less place that I have to hear it. If you want to listen to this kind of unimaginative junk, do it by yourself, without bothering other people.
Plus, well, I can imagine trying to process someone's package and not being able to hear them.
As to the music, well, try in October. It wasn't even Halloween yes and stores were putting out Christmas items. I love the holiday as much as anyone and wish fewer were so bitter about it, plus am miffed at the consumerism as well, but, as Lewis Black said, it is a beast that can no longer be fed.
I did not know the goverment has a law against religious music and words. Would you tell me where this law can be found? You were NEVER a Christian.
It's so sad. I am Jewish and I like all the Christmas celebration. I don't think it needs to be secularized. I mean, obviously it shouldn't be taught in public schools but I don't think there's anything wrong with holiday spirit. I like all the lights and the music and the decorations and the traditions. Keep Christmas! The complainers can just stay inside until January. >:D
Being a Christian isn't cool in the country anymore…. and celebrating Christmas isn't cool either. I'm sick and tired of it. Yesterday I heard on the news that the atheists or whatever wanted a sign removed… and guess what? They were going to put up their OWN SIGN that said there is no religion, no angels, no God, no heaven, no hell and that basically believing in any religion is a waste of time because there is only the natural world. Ok so we have to put our beliefs to the side to cater to theirs? Why? Ugh. Never in my life has it been so frustrating to be a Catholic. I'll admit, I don't practice everything to the T, but I believe in God, and I would appreciate it if others would respect that and stop trying to tell me I'm crazy and that God ruins everything. You respect me and for that I <3 you.
It's like a religious war is coming soon…..
*I apologize in advance if the above comment pisses anyone off. I'm just tired of people trying to make everything "plain."*
I always wondered how the German people would sit by and watched the destruction of the jews. It is slowly happening here as christians are being attacked on almost everything they do. It starts out slow and people stand by and do nothing and then it escalates. For the people who don't care one way or another and don't want to get involved, some day the government will take away one of your rights and then who are you going to go to defend your right.
I want to add one more thing. The Jewish people that came to America respected our beliefs and we respected theirs. Why are we letting some fanatics getting by with so much nowadays.
I worked in that shopping center.. those carolers are waaaay to loud and don't do a short set and leave quietly. They make a big commotion and keep singing and singing. It is impossible to conduct 'BUSINESS' with them in the store. If you had to deal with them year after year you would know what I mean. If they stayed outside the door for the customers to hear as they came in – fine. If a bunch of teenagers came in your store and started rapping I bet you would be singing a different tune. What if it was a marching band? It's a business and at this time of year the Post Office is really really busy. No one is 'suppressing your freedom of speech on federal property'.. they are conducting Business! Do you go into a library and start shouting because 'it's your right' to do so. No, you let people conduct their business politely, don't you? "flood your congressman with letters" please is this really this country's biggest problem right now! Grow up people.
Holy cow ! Why don't you atheist get out of Christian America and move to Russia, or Africa or China. I bet Chavez or Castro would love you and we would like to see you happy.
Every Christian should be yelling to your congress person cause atheist are our biggest problem. George Washington said " It is impossible to rightly govern a country without GOD and the BIBLE"! So be loud in your protest Christians, and Amie if you are so unhappy in your job you need to quit or they need to let you go. MERRY CHRISTMAS
Only problem is: what God are you praying too?
Did any of you read the reason why? Noo you all just get butthurt because christians just love to feel persecuted. If I wandered into a Post Office and started jamming some U2 songs would that be ok? No it is a disruption and frankly annoying. So on Ramadan muslums can go into a Post Office and pass out literature and that is ok too right. How about not acting like victims every time someone asks you to only cover 99% of the country with your mythological holiday.
Ya' know…I was thinking this has Got to Be a Very Stressful Time of year for these poor lonely atheists. I mean – imagine being forced on your 'great paying job', to work all day-not to mention several weeks – handling all those Disgusting, Cheery, Love filled Christmas packages and cards about Hope and Peace. I'm sure that Joyful, Heavenly music understandably caused Scrooge, – I mean the postal worker – to reach his miserable limits.
I'll bet if someone took him a Christmas gift – he wouldn't refuse it.
Ben Franklin's mother, Abiah Folger, was born into a Puritan family among those that fled to Massachusetts to establish a purified Congregationalist Christianity in New England, when King Charles I of England began persecuting Puritans.
Benjamin Franklin, the delegate to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention. He has frequently been used as a source for positive "God" talk. It is often noted that Franklin made a motion at the Constitutional convention that they should bring in a clergyman to pray for their deliberations:
In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when present to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. (Catherine Drinker Bowen. Miracle at Phaladelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787. New York: Book-of-the-Month Club, 1966, pp. 125-126)
Read the Mayflower compact….it oozes a belief in GOD and the Christian faith…my 9th Greatgrandfather was one of the signers. Edward Fuller and his brother Dr. Samuel Fuller. so our Nation at it's earliest conception was in fact a "Christian" nation.
When an Athiest is facing death… they start praying in desperation…there are no athiests in a foxhole…I saw that firsthand in the Gulf War.
When an Athiest is facing death… they start praying in desperation…there are no athiests in a foxhole…I saw that firsthand in the Gulf War.
Earl Fuller. You appear to have blocked me. All I did was ask questions while you called me an 'ignorant ass' for questioning Ben Franklin's Christianity. Do questions make your head hurt?
Have you seen this section from Franklin's last known writing?
"Here is my Creed: I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable Service we can render to him, is doing Good to his other Children…. I think the System of Morals [devised by Jesus] and his Religion as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw, or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his Divinity."
You've probably read the first part. Many revisionists truncate it. So… by your own definition Franklin was NOT a Christian even though you insist that he was. Looks like we found an ignorant ass after all.
Earl Fuller. You appear to have blocked me. All I did was ask questions while you called me an 'ignorant ass' for questioning Ben Franklin's Christianity. Do questions make your head hurt?
Have you seen this section from Franklin's last known writing?
"Here is my Creed: I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable Service we can render to him, is doing Good to his other Children…. I think the System of Morals [devised by Jesus] and his Religion as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw, or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his Divinity."
You've probably read the first part. Many revisionists truncate it. So… by your own definition Franklin was NOT a Christian even though you insist that he was. Looks like we found an ignorant ass after all.
Liberals need to live on their own island where there is no joy, no laughing, no faith and to help them stave off "Global Warming" I think they should quit breathing. They are obviously not happy when other people are happy so I think they should take their misery some place else.
Thank God, my post office is jam packed right now. I had to wait in line for over 20 minutes just to mail a package! The absolute last thing I need in my small post office (jam packed with people) is 3 people singing. That would annoy me very very much.
Seriously… are you people stupid , the rules said no soliciting on the post office property , Carroling is a form of soliciting, the manager was trying to follow the rules and asked them to leave. They should have said ok, and went to carol somewhere else instead of in the post office. Why is it that hard for you people to swallow?
Its also kitchy and annoying to say the least.
sry to disagree but carolling is not a form of soliciting
Daphne Shorlo It may not be money or services related , but it is little different than if they let Mormons set up a stand and bug people while standing in line.
If they're in the office its not even a religious thing that shits plain annoying
when did all these things related to christmas become an issue? the mention of this story is really just a catalyst because i can understand if a group of people were asked to leave an area and they didn't comply but the concept is similar. every atheist and their momma are getting so butthurt over people who have their christmas cheer that in many places it's even an issue if people put christmas decorations on the front of their own damn house saying it's shoving religion down others throat…. that's not even fuckin fair that people can't decorate their own house without finding some way to be put on blast. this world is slowly getting more and more fucked where the people preaching tolerance to those that are supposedly intolerant are becoming more and more intolerant. merry christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!1!1!!
Perhaps this is a tad elementary, but couldn't the carolers have laughed, stepped into line to continue singing, bought a stamp, smiled, and then left, while people politely cheered, instead of jeered? There is more than one way to skin a cat! Unless they are to post "NO TALKING, SINGING, HUMMING, OR EXPRESSING ONESELF" signs, I think the carolers would be OK