'Nativity' ad restored to Christmas festival

[Soldier4Christ]

'Nativity' ad restored to Christmas festival 
Trailer for movie had been banned from Chicago's 'Christkindlmarket'

A trailer promoting the Christmas movie "The Nativity Story" by New Line Cinema has been restored to a festival at Chicago's Daly Plaza, even though it's not within the perimeter of the German-American Chamber of Commerce's "Christkindlmarket," officials have confirmed to WND.

As WND reported earlier, the issue erupted when word came that a request to show promotions of the Christmas movie at the Christmas holiday event had been denied. Bennie Currie, a spokesman for the Chicago Building Commission which controls the downtown Chicago facility said that original decision was made by officials for the Christkindlmarket, and market spokesman Ray Lotter declined to comment to WND on the issue.

The result, however, was that the promotion of a movie about the original Christmas story was not being allowed at a market named after the "Christ child."

Then Chicago's Nativity Scene Committee, which organizes and assembles the annual display of a nativity scene on Daly Plaza, amended its permit to include permission to show the video, and that permission was granted by the city when Thomas Brejcha, chief counsel of the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, threatened to sue for discrimination.

"It's about time that Chicago officials realized that their 'Christkindlmarket' needs to live up to its name. How can you have a commercial event during the Christmas season that literally means 'Christ child market,' and reject clips from The Nativity Story as too commercial? What we need is a tutorial for some public officials who don't know the First Amendment from a Frisbee," said Jan LaRue, chief counsel for Concerned Women for America.

"Much to the chagrin of the mainstream media who pretend there is no war on Christmas, we are seeing significant victories. Christmas should not be diminished to a season with only eggnog, snowmen and Santa Claus. Americans are not succumbing to the 'happy holidays' 'season's greetings' that excludes any mention of the birth of Christ," she said.

"It is a sad day in America when we deem the permitted sponsorship of the Nativity Story at a festival named after the Christ child a miracle," said Lanier Swann, CWA's director of government relations. "What it should have been from the very start was a no-brainer! Nonetheless, this remarkable turn of events serves to remind all Americans of the effectiveness of grassroots activism. Chicagoans and concerned citizens across the country united in their vocalized distress and affected change. Now that is something to celebrate."

There was a finger-pointing game going on regarding the original decision not to allow the movie clips. Officials for the German-American Chamber of Commerce, which obtained a permit from the Chicago Building Commission to stage the festival, refused to comment. Building Commission spokesman Bennie Currie told WND that it was their decision to reject a request from New Line Cinema to have the clip showing.

Either way, the alternative showing was accomplished by the Nativity Scene Committee, an independent group that already puts up a crèche each Christmas season on Daly Plaza, where the market also is going on.

Committee officials, led by Jim Finnegan, contacted Brejcha and attorney John Mauck to help, and their contacts with the city led officials to back down from any arbitrary discrimination against religious speech and expression.

The result was that a new booth was assembled specifically to show the movie promotion, officials said.

"We are pleased the city has backed off its initial, unconstitutional attempt to stifle this religious expression," said Brejcha.

Currie explained to WND that there were two separate requests to show the trailer, the first from New Line Cinema, which he said was rejected by the chamber organization, and the second from the crèche committee, which was approved by the city.

The first request came to the city through the chamber, and the city advised "it's an advertisement, and too commercial," Currie said. Once that request failed, there was the second request to place a new booth for the film near the facility's holiday season displays, which include the nativity, a menorah and a crescent, he said.

That was approved and it now is there, near the "Christkindlmarket" location, he said.

The Thomas More Society said the original rejection had come from Jim Law, Chicago's executive director of special events, who said the trailer would be "insensitive to the many people of different faiths."

"While the city of Chicago might feel it has to avoid endorsing religious speech, the Constitution and a number of Supreme Court decisions make clear that citizens and private organizations have a right to religious expression in the public square," said Mauch, whose firm also represents Finnegan.

The market is Chicago's largest open-air Christmas festival and first was held in 1996. It was inspired by the famous German Christmas Market in Nuremberg, which dates back another 400 years.

CWA officials said that the original rejection was a concerted effort by the city, which reportedly threatened to drop its support for the festival, if the movie trailer was allowed.

"This kind of PC nonsense is so over the top, you want to make sure it's not an urban legend before you take it seriously," LaRue said.

Christina Kounelias, an executive vice president with New Line Cinema, said the studio's plan to spend $12,000 in Chicago was part of an advertising campaign going on around the country. She said she believes Chicago was the only location where the advertising was rejected.

Many considered the dispute just another battle in the war on Christmas.

"This is one of the most blatant forms of religious discrimination imaginable," said Jay Sekulow, a Christian who is chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice. "To suggest that a movie about the birth of Jesus Christ should not be included in a Christmas festival is absurd. This transcends political correctness and centers squarely on religious bigotry."

Dr. Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission and known for his MovieGuide recommendations, told WND the city's ban on the ads is "abhorrent."

"I'm absolutely shocked that at a Christmas festival, they would not allow commercials they could see tonight on TV," he said. "It is just more political correctness where everything is OK – except Christianity."