The Judge Who Stole Christmas

Remember that trailer for “Christmas with a Capital C,” the straight-to-DVD movie about the battle over a Nativity scene on public property?

Awesome, right?

It turns out there’s a book called The Judge Who Stole Christmas by Randy Singer, unrelated to the movie, that focuses on virtually the same thing:

This holiday novella’s premise is a Christmas-time court battle over a live crèche scene set up in the town square of Possum, Va. Thomas Hammond loves playing Joseph in this crèche, and he is determined to keep turning out for his role regardless of what the ACLU or a decidedly Grinch-like judge has to say about it. His resolve earns him the respect of some of his fellow church-goers, but it also lands him in jail. He is defended by Jasmine Woodfaulk, a third-year law student who sticks with the case even though its notoriety costs her a plum job at a top law firm in New York.

I know. You can’t wait to read it to find out how the evil, Grinch-like, judicial-activisty judge is portrayed. (Fairly, I’m sure.)

Why would you want this book? Because if you get the Kindle edition right now, it’s free. I don’t know how long that’ll last. But this could be too entertaining to pass up.

Get it. Treat yourself to some of the awesome fictional characters:

… the one judge obviously on her side is an African-American Bush appointee conveniently named Judge Clarence.

This is *so* the next book on my list…

(Thanks to jonezart for the link!)

"Says he isn't pushing anything...pushes evangelical Christianity.Hint hint...that's pushing something."

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The Godless Monster

I just got it and read the first two chapters.
An American Taliban/Republican Tea Party version of Der Stürmer in book form. Simply replace “Jew” with “ACLU” or “atheist”.
The Godless Monster

Here’s another link to the movie trailer.
hoverfrog

Wait, the premise is that someone breaks the law repeatedly and flaunts the fact until he is arrested. Good for him even if he is fictional. People should break laws that they find unjust. Sure they’ll be punished for it but civil disobedience has overturned unjust laws before.

Of course if the law is actually just then you just get to spend time in a cell. That and I’m not sure you could be arrested for this unless you were causing a disturbance as a result or something.
muggle

No thanks. I’ve couple of dozen free classics on Kindle. I think I prefer to read those. This will only raise my blood pressure.

And, yeah, isn’t it more a civil matter? Plus, when will they get it through their thick heads that they can put up all the damned nativity scenes they want — on private property. Hell, what’s the matter with their church lawn?
cypressgreen

@Muggle, yeah, there are SO many christian “classics” I haven’t read because I get so upset, too! LOL Bad enough I had to read both O’Riley books for kids since I had to see what my ex was reading him. 😛
The Godless Monster

@hoverfrog,

“…civil disobedience has overturned unjust laws before.”

How true, but of course, only in just and democratic societies. Sometimes I wonder if the United States will be such a society in 50 years.
Jeff

Hoverfrog, don’t you get it? Christians are obsessed with reward & punishment only when it pertains to non-Christians.
RG

Can we all agree to make “Merry War on Christmas” the official atheist holiday greeting?
Claudia

The whole nativity scene issue has always failed to capture my attention. Don’t get me wrong, I support all efforts in defense of the 1st Ammendment, and these things are obviously violations of it, but I just can’t bring myself to be really angry about it. If it were a matter of official endorsements of Christianity in public schools I could probably get more worked up.

Of course, my opinion is probably colored by living in a country where Nativity scenes are more common than Christmas trees, and the nicest ones are often the official ones. We don’t have a 1st ammendment equivalent, so this is legal, yet the country itself is a whole lot more secular than the US.
Ubi Dubium

Can we all agree to make “Merry War on Christmas” the official atheist holiday greeting?

Nah. I’d rather treat christmas as irrelevant. I’ll stick with “Happy Monkey!”

Oh, and for you Pastafarians out there, it’s now Holiday, and will continue to be Holiday until mid-January-ish sometime. So Happy Holiday!
Victor

So, it this book, there isn’t a church anywhere in the area that is willing to put on a nativity play? Sounds about right.

Last year, after all the demands to put up nativities on public land, the wife and I drove around to all the churches in our town to see how many churches put up nativities on their own land. There was only one.
Slugsie

Seems like the ‘free’ version has been pulled now. Ah well, I would have got it just so that I could pointedly *not* read it.
Parse

I’m almost tempted to write a straight-faced parody of this. Same premise, same generic characters, but in the last two chapters the protagonist realizes what an antagonistic jerk he’s been, how he doesn’t need to have his faith acknowledged by the government to make it legitimate, and that by fighting ‘The War On Christmas’ he goes against the spirit of friendship and fellowship of the whole holiday season. Release it for free on Kindle / et al and watch the negative reviews come pouring in!
WMDKitty

Eh, nativity scenes are just tacky, anyway.
Nadine

@Slugsie – I just downloaded it for free.
Something to keep me busy on the bus ride home…for a few minutes, at least.
Rieux

the one judge obviously on her side is an African-American Bush appointee conveniently named Judge Clarence.

I think that’s a double reference. Not only is Clarence Thomas a right-wing African-American justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, there’s also Clarence Odbody, the lovable guardian angel (Second Class) in the old Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life.
Claudia

Eh, nativity scenes are just tacky, anyway.

Not neccesarily.
jonezart

I got it so I could read it (it’s not very long) and add my review, hopefully pointing the factually challenged material (should there be any).

There are quite a few books being given away regularly by Christian publishers, and there is no way I would want to read most of them, but some just seem too amusing to pass up.
chicago dyke

you know what pisses me off the most? that amazon offered it for free. most of the time that’s the only way these sorts of books become “popular bestsellers;” bulk buying and various other methods to fudge the numbers to show “a great deal of interest.” why in the hell is amazon pushing crap like this? if the fundies had their way, companies like amazon would be forced out of business, because they wouldn’t be allowed to sell all that “demonic” material in the books and music sections. i am so sick and tired of corporate support of fundamentalist nonsense. it’s like in germany, when the big corporate bosses thought they could “control” the populist brownshirts. we all know how well that turned out.
The Godless Monster

@chicago dyke,

“i am so sick and tired of corporate support of fundamentalist nonsense. it’s like in germany, when the big corporate bosses thought they could “control” the populist brownshirts. we all know how well that turned out.”

Agreed.
You know what they say about those who refuse to heed the lessons of history…
JD

The main problem I have is that people feel like they have to do this on public property, and not having it on public property is somehow taking their rights away. If they can’t find private property that will host it, then tough luck, that’s their problem, not anyone else. I think using government land to push a sectarian agenda is shady.
jonezart

@ chicagodyke

that amazon offered it for free. most of the time that’s the only way these sorts of books become “popular bestsellers;” bulk buying and various other methods to fudge the numbers to show “a great deal of interest.” why in the hell is amazon pushing crap like this?

While I agree that this is a lousy trick publishers use to make a “bestseller”, Amazon has nothing to do with the free offerings. The publishers decide what goes out for free promotions. The publishers set the pricing.

Additionally, other types of publishers have free ebook offerings through Amazon (and other providers) all the time, and I’m glad for that. I have gotten some good reads that way. But who should decide what Amazon should and shouldn’t offer?

People will get the books, some will read them and love the glurge and believe the BS. Others may not. IMO, the thing to do is read a book or 2 and then offer your opinion (and possible corrections) in the form of a review.
muggle

Eh, cypressgreen, sympathies. But, yeah, you’ve got to counter the b.s.

Most of the classics I got free are regular classics. Most I’ve read before but finally read “Phantom of the Opera” and was not impressed. Thought it pretty stupid. I do admit to liking Dickens and Christian me may be but my favorite author too. C’mon, he was the first to combine Christmas and Halloween — okay, Christmas and ghosts. How cool is that?

The Kindle’s price is worth it just for the free books you can get. And others way low in price. Even current bestsellers are usually under $10. I’m glad I bought it before I retired. It’ll keep me in reading matter even when I’m broke from living on a fixed income and I can up the print size as my eyes grow dim with age. Hell, it’ll even read to me if I lose it all together.

I did notice the Xian publishers are pushing a lot of theirs free but, hell, we don’t have to pick those ones.
Anam

So I downloaded it & read it.
It’s short & not a total polemic. It does however pile on the religious right view that the ACLU are evil and Church & State separation is making the US pagan. Thomas Hammond the main protagonist is deeply unlike-able. I’ve read worse and it nails it’s colours firmly to the mast. I wouldn’t pay for it though and reading it on the back of the atheist’s guide to Christmas showed an interesting contrast 🙂
Waltz707

Thank you !
He boiled for our sins-R’amen