Opinion

Christmas is a time for Christophobia

Font Size:

So you plan to celebrate Christ’s birth? Just don’t share your happiness with a government bureaucrat or state-friendly company because the required politically-correct response is, “We only celebrate secularized holidays with multicultural themes.”

Tulsa

Take Tulsa’s Holiday Parade of Lights. U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe unapologetically states that he won’t participate in the antiseptic show until organizers put “Christ” back into the secularized event’s title. “Last year, the forces of political correctness removed the word ‘Christmas’ and replaced it with ‘Holiday’ instead,” the Oklahoma Republican explained. “I am deeply saddened and disappointed by this change.”

Apart from that, most militant secularists don’t hate Christians, they just hate Christianity. Only kidding! They often hate both. We’re also told, for instance, that the hate word “Christmas” must be sliced off City Hall bazaar signs in order to promote inclusiveness (a.k.a. excluding Christian families).

Philadelphia

Philadelphia’s hysterical managing director (and thought policeman) Richard Negrin feels that taking down the devil words “Christmas Village” from an arch sign is appropriate because there will be Jewish and Muslim vendors at the event, or at least that’s the official spin. But burkas won’t be banned, or pagan-inspired Mother Earth symbols, my guess.

Without a doubt, the forces of political correctness have become increasingly adept at offering incoherent arguments against Christmas trees, in order to censor Christian speech. I don’t believe minorities have the right to dictate to majorities, but in any case, one wonders whether Muslims and Jews have been polled. And, King Richard, are you hiding behind one group to censor another?

London (Canada)

In Canada, alert citizen James D. W. Lush of London writes, “I read The London Free Press online poll on whether we should call it Christmas or the holiday season. Overwhelmingly by 90% Christmas beat out the politically correct term holiday season. If that is the case, then why is there such a war against the word Christmas and who are the instigators of this politically correct nonsense? Is it the government, the retail stores, our education system? By the looks of the poll, it appears the babe lying in the manger is still the reason for the season.”

At least, it appears as though the anti-Christmas train is pushed by a shrill, mostly white minority atheist establishment culture. I wonder if, say, Christmas-friendly non-Christian groups are valued less because they haven’t reached the “correct” conclusions yet.

London (UK)

Censoring Christmas cards, idolizing “winter lights” and banning nativity scenes look more like symptoms, to be sure. In a Daily Mail article, former Archbishop Lord Carey views the anti-Christmas hysteria as part of a larger attack on religion. “The evidence has been mounting in recent years,” he says. “Teachers and council employees are suspended for offering to say a prayer. A devoted nurse is banned from wearing a cross, a British Airways worker told to remove hers. Roman Catholic adoption agencies are closed down under new laws. Christian marriage registrars who cannot, in good conscience, preside over civil partnership ceremonies are summarily dismissed.”

Bethlehem

Perhaps feminists are offended because Mary chose not to abort her baby in a manger, but such anti-manger hysteria looks more King Herod than Martin Luther King Junior, more Red Moscow than God-respecting Texas. Perhaps atheists feel threatened by the thought of a baby growing up to be a savior, to millions around the world, past, present, and future — a savior who warned about freezing winters, not global warming; a savior who didn’t believe in salvation through taxation. Besides, politically-devout Democrats hate Jesus stealing the limelight when we should be praising President Obama.

Toronto

What motivates a state-serving company to promote “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings,” over “Merry Christmas”? Fear? A little self-loathing perhaps?

Whistle-blowing for Canada’s Toronto Post, Lorne Gunter notes: “One Toronto-area school district even barred the distribution of candy canes. The cane is a representation of a shepherd’s crook and the shepherd implied is Jesus. So the candy versions were thought too religious for public school.”

Hmmm…and, what do culturally illiterate Canadian officials think of Johann Sebastian “The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul” Bach?

I think some people just love complaining. Certainly they appear spiritually invested in manufacturing victims to wrap in recycled Earth Mother papers for the elite media. For others, it is about control, and I hear that whining about Catholics can be very cathartic. Still, the proponents of political correctness are a loud minority — and it pays to keep that in mind.

One can only hope the anti-manger hysterics have a merry Christmas, with God’s blessing. Play a bit of Bach — and ask them how they feel about the aim and final end of all music? Refresh their souls.

Ben-Peter Terpstra is a freelance writer based in regional Victoria, Australia. He has lived and worked in the Northern Territory, Melbourne, Kyoto and London (England).