Dax exclaimed, "look Mommy, there's Jesus!" pointing to this picture
Then Calleigh began dancing to the blaring music over head singing "allahu akbar, allah is the only god, allah akbar, allah is the only god..." over and over again. I just kept listening trying to hear if I'd heard wrong.
Very concerned Mommy ran home and pulled out my CM newsletter to find we'd shown up on "Ramadan Lantern" day. I quickly look to find Christmas celebrations - three of them. But honestly, I'd be shocked to hear any mention of Jesus in a Christmas song let alone a song proclaiming Jesus is the only God. (As of course I do believe.) I will attend those weeks and listen carefully. But I fear the most I will hear are tales of Santa and reindeer and trees.
This is an excerpt from the www.cmhouston.org site describing the events.
Christmas Wonderweekend
"Merry Christmas from all of us at the Children's Museum of Houston! We’re celebrating this year with tons of fun activities sure to put the whole family in the holiday spirit! The Museum will be open all day on Monday, Dec. 21 and until 3 p.m. on Dec. 24. The Museum’s gift shop, Fiddle Sticks Gifts, will also be open for last minute shoppers until 3 p.m. on Dec. 24."
Ramadan Wonderweekend
"Ramadan is a major religious observance for all members of the Islamic faith. During this month-long celebration, Muslims practice a variety of activities aimed at increasing generosity and togetherness."
I am thankful to live in a country that doesn't directly prosecute prostelization. I am grateful that I can love the Lord and spread truth through my life and others can do as they believe as well. However, our children should not be bombarded by messages of faiths under the guise of "culture" in a seemingly secular(& partially tax funded)public arena by loud speakers. If a child or even adult had been singing - fine, if a person was sharing this - fine. If it had just been the display, I'd have been okay with it all. I am sad to realize that my children are growing up in a world that is intolerant to Christian statements of faith, yet loudly proclaims other faiths as culturally relevant and freedom of speech. I'll let you know if Jesus shows up on the Christmas play list alongside Rodolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
Update: Please see comment from CM Administrator. This is the house being refered to. I am glad to hear song was removed.
2 comments:
Ummmmmmm. Wow.
Dear Dax and Calleigh, thanks for coming to Children’s Museum of Houston last week. During the holiday season, we encourage families to celebrate their traditions with an exhibit called Share our Seasons which runs from November through early Janauray. We install 8 little houses in our central hall which are outfitted to reflect the way Houstonians observe Hanukkah, Los Posadas, Norwegian Christmas, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Ramadan, and Chinese New Year. We also display a beautiful collection of historical French Santon dolls including the Holy Family.
We focus on one holiday each week during this time to share foods, crafts, performances and music that are special to the families observing the particular holiday. You were visiting during our Ramadan week. Our staff always looks for holiday music that children can enjoy-even if the language is different from their own. We were unaware that our selections last week for Ramadan included a religious piece more appropriate for a place of worship. Fortunately a visitor let us know, and we immediately removed that piece from our musical line up.
Each little holiday house depicts customs celebrated by typical Houston families. In the house observing Ramadan which you included as photo, there is a depiction of the family’s elder on the wall. In the Norwegian Christmas house, we showed that family’s elders in a similar way, dressed in old-fashioned, traditional clothing. Here’s a link to the Norwegian Christmas house for your reference. http://www.cmhouston.org/en/photos/v/1298
We hope you will come back often to our Museum. We do have lots of fun activities planned for the upcoming weeks, and we change programming here on a weekly basis all year long, so there’s always something new to do! We appreciate your interest and support.
Post a Comment