Glenn Shepard’s Personal Blog

Rebecca – Please update my 2007 resolution information.  If I had not committed to this by announcement on your website, I feel certain I would  not have accomplished this.  Thank you for making this available.

My update:  After many false starts I penned a children’s book which I entitled “I’d rather be me” and a woman’s prayer book which I entitled “Untailored Prayers”, which contains many laughable prayers.  Both are unpublished so…. my next year’s resolution is to find a publisher!

Chris McMahon
Tinley Park, IL
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Congratulation Chris! We’re honored to have played a small part in your success. It really is amazing how powerful public accountability can be.

—Glenn

For those readers who haven’t seen the page Chris is referring to, click here: http://www.glennshepard.com/2007resolutions.htm

This is part of a card I received from the beautiful Mrs. Glenn Shepard to be (the really juicy parts have been omitted):

“…I promise to cherish, honor, and respect you,  and promise that I will always be there for you.

…I look forward to making you the happiest man on earth and that happiness will last a lifetime.

I am so looking forward to taking your name and starting new traditions for the newest Shepard family in Nashville, Tennessee…”

I would sing for you and post it on this blog, but let’s just say that’s not an area where I was not blessed with talent. But my friend Mike Stewart was, and his wife Susan gave him a new grand piano for Christmas. Click on the link belowfor his annual Christmas special, and then click on the video player. Be sure to turn your speakers on. This one will send shivers up your spine.

Click here: http://fromthedeskofmikestewart.com/blog/2007/12/24/peace-on-earth-2007-may-i-play-piano-for-you/

P.S. If you like his video, do me a favor and post a comment on his blog.  The only thing Mike enjoys more than making music is knowing how much others enjoy his music. This will be our Christmas present to him.  Oh, and let him know Glenn Shepard sent you.

Several people have sent time the following press release. As a Christian, I obviously find it outrageous. But even if I were an atheist, I’d have to ask the following common-sense question… “If people who are so ‘offended’ by Christmas, do they still take the day off and accept the holiday pay?” You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If Christmas “offends” you so much, then you should protest by insisting on working on December 25.

 Here’s the press release:

“A Midwestern university has mandated “Merry —–mas” as a holiday greeting, banning “Christ” in apparent violation of the U.S. Constitution, according to Liberty Counsel, which works to advance religious freedom and the traditional family.

The events have developed at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, Okla.

“The controversy began when the university’s director of human resources recently visited various departments and said that decorations featuring the word ‘Christmas’ in any areas of the university must be immediately removed,” the organization said. “He also instructed the employees not to say ‘Christmas’ while on the job. As a result the employees cannot respond ‘Merry Christmas’ to other employees or visitors to the University.”

University President John M. Hays denied the school “has a policy” that employees cannot say “Merry Christmas,” but admitted that a “supervisor” may have given instructions regarding holiday wording.

He blamed it on “an attempt to be respectful of the diverse religious population at Southwestern Oklahoma State University.”

That effort, he said, “has been misinterpreted as an attempt to ban Christmas on the Weatherford campus. … The university attempted to prevent the appearance as a state agency of endorsing any particular religion.”

He said employees may be “asked in some offices to be careful about what they put up.” And he suggested that a supervisor, for example, may tell employees they could not put a “pornographic material,” or erect a monument to “Wicca.”

But Mathew D. Staver, founder and chief of Liberty Counsel, said the circumstances were documented before the organization raised the issue, sending the school a letter suggesting an immediate abandonment of such a policy.

He also said Liberty Counsel had been told the university issued the policy on the legal advice from Oklahoma Attorney General W.A. Drew Edmonson.

The complaint came through several channels to Liberty Counsel, including from a city commissioner whose daughter works at the school and was given the instructions directly.

“Also other employees, in an employee-wide meeting … were told that,” Staver said.

One college official visited a university office used for registering students, and told workers that “Christ” in the word “Christmas” had to be covered up, he said.

“This censorship specifically includes exchanging greetings of ‘Merry Christmas’ among employees or with non-employees, whether initiated by a university employee or not,” Liberty Counsel said. “Christmas remains a legal holiday for state employees, including those at SWOSU. The directive does not include any other legal holidays such as Thanksgiving or New Year’s.”

Such demands “are in direct violation of the United States Constitution and other federal law. The First Amendment prohibits government from being hostile to religion. Selecting one legal holiday for negative treatment and special restrictions solely because it has religious aspects clearly demonstrates hostility toward religion,” Liberty Counsel said.

“Moreover, the free speech rights of employees at the university are infringed when their speech is censored solely because of a religious viewpoint or perceived religious viewpoint.”