Fury as Red Cross bans nativity scene

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By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent (Filed: 24/12/2002)

The British Red Cross is facing a sharp drop in donations from an angry public after it banned nativity scenes from its shop windows.

The charity has been inundated with complaints over its decision to bar religious displays from its 430 high street shops over Christmas because they might undermine its traditional neutrality.

Many protesters have said they will no longer make donations to the organisation and some have threatened to cut it out of their wills.

The ban, which the charity says is a long-standing one, came to light after staff in New Romney, Kent, were ordered to remove a Christmas tree [which has absolutely no religious significance in the minds of Brits--it was introduced during Victorian times, having been copied from Germany] and nativity scene from their front window.

They were told by officials that the display was unsuitable, even though it had not attracted a single complaint.

The decision was criticised at the weekend by Christian and Muslim leaders as well as former members of the Red Cross as "political correctness gone mad".

A Church of England spokesman described it as "a sad development" and urged the charity to rethink. "It is difficult to see how the nativity scene in a British high street shop could cause difficulty."

The Red Cross, which raised nearly £30 million from the public last year, tried to play down the controversy as a "storm in a tea cup".

Sir Nicholas Young, its chief executive, denied that the ban had been instituted to avoid offending non-Christians.

However, The Telegraph received dozens of complaints. One said: "England is a predominantly Christian country. I would hazard a guess that most of the money donated by Christians to the Red Cross is given to non-Christian countries."

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2002

Answers

goo dto see the public getting angry over this political correctness crap!

I particularly enjoyed the part about cutting them out of the wills.

storm in a teacup. LOL bull in a china shop is more like it.

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2002


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