Taking Christ Out of Christmas
By Maurine Proctor
No Room at the Inn
Again
We're not even into a Christmas
countdown, and already the idea of the birth of Christ is
offending some people. The Nativity Story, a film by Hollywood's
New Line Cinema will be hitting the theaters this week, but
don't look for the film to be a sponsor of the traditional
German Christkindlmarket in the
heart of downtown Chicago.
City officials have said that again there is no room at the
inn for a story about Christ.
New Line Cinema was set to be
a sponsor of the event, where they planned to show clips from
the movie, but the city asked the German American Chamber
of Commerce to reconsider letting the studio be a sponsor.
They first said that they worried The Nativity Story would
offend non-Christians, and then, facing an uproar, they changed
their tune saying it would violate some guidelines against
any "blatant commercial message."
Now, that's convincing, given
that the event is also sponsored by Hard Rock Hotel, Mercedes-Benz
and Lufthansa.
If there can be no Christ in
Christkindlmarket, they better drop
the first syllable. Perhaps we could just call it Happy Shopping
Season. Now that's warming.
Bottom line is that Christ is
being driven out of the holiday that has for centuries been
the celebration of his birth-and it is in the name of being
"sensitive" to those who might take "offense."
Let's analyze that skewed reasoning. Are people really so
sensitive that they cannot appreciate and respect the deeply-held
beliefs of others? Should Christians cringe at the sight
of a menorah or the heartfelt wish of Happy Hanukkah? Or
should they tremble because their neighbor celebrates Ramadan?
A pluralistic society is not
one that aggressively drives every religious expression from
the public square, as if it were contaminated. A deep message
of hostility is sent by trampling religious expression in
that way. It says that religion is somehow not acceptable,
that it deserves to be marginalized, that even in the holiday
inspired by the birth of Christ,
we must only mention His name in a whisper.
Instead, a healthy pluralistic
society embraces and respects the deeply-held belief of its
members. People acknowledge that others may hold some things
as sacred that they do not themselves. That is not a source
of offense or a reason to bristle and huff away. It adds
to the richness of the world.
But what is truly offensive is
in the name of "sensitivity" to the feelings of
some people, to trample something sacred to the majority.
That's insensitive and it's offensive.
We cannot let city councils or
anybody else make Christ off limits at Christmas.
Don't imagine that this drive
to marginalize Christ is accidental. Many of the "intellectual
elite" feel just like Stephen Weinberg, University
of Texas physicist and Nobel laureate
physicist who was quoted in The New York Times as saying,
"Anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold
of religion should be done and may in the end be our greatest
contribution to civilization."
Happy Non-Denominational Holiday
Best Buy has opted to make no
mention of Christmas in their advertising this season, but
some stores are "coming home" for Christmas. For
example, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Wal-Mart,
where after several years of downplaying the idea, they are
bringing the word "Christmas" back into their marketing.
Kohls and Macys are saying "Merry
Christmas" too.
The moves are a response to complaints
from religious groups about the elimination or de-emphasis
of "Christmas" in their advertising. "We learned
a lesson from that. Merry Christmas is now part of the vocabulary
here at Wal-Mart," said Linda Blakley, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.
Still, many retailers have decided
not to mention Christmas in their stores or ads this year,
including prohibiting workers from saying "Merry Christmas."
Some of these retailers are Lowe's, Toys R Us, Bed Bath &
Beyond, Banana Republic, Barnes &
Noble, Best Buy, Eddie Bauer, Gap, Home Depot and K-Mart.
At these stores, "Happy Holidays" is in, and "Merry
Christmas" is out.
Alliance
Defense Fund: 930 Attorneys Ready to Combat Attempts to Censor
Christmas
The Arizona-based Alliance Defense
Fund announced that it has more than 930 allied attorneys
available nationwide to combat any improper attempts to censor
the celebration of Christmas in schools and on public property.
"Frankly, it's ridiculous
that Americans have to think twice about whether it's okay
to say Merry Christmas," said ADF President Alan Sears.
"Thanks to the ACLU and its allies, Christmas isn't what
it used to be. It's time to repair the damage that such organizations
have done to America's favorite holiday.
An overwhelming majority of Americans oppose censoring Christmas."
The ADF reported that according
to recent polls,
- 95 percent of Americans celebrate
Christmas (Fox News/Opinion Dynamics, 2005).
- 90 percent of Americans recognize
Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ (Gallup, 2000).
- 88 percent of Americans say
it is okay for people to wish others "Merry Christmas"
and the majority of Americans are more likely to wish someone
they just met "Merry Christmas"
rather than "Happy Holidays" (CNN/USA Today/Gallup,
2004).
- 87 percent of Americans believe
nativity scenes should be allowed on public property (Fox
News/Opinion Dynamics, 2003).
"ADF's goal once again this season is to inform, educate, and
help protect the rights of the 95% of Americans who celebrate
Christmas," Sears explained. "It's a sad day in
America
when you have to retain an attorney to wish someone a Merry
Christmas. The fear, intimidation, and disinformation spread
by the ACLU and its allies over the years will not be changed
overnight. That's why ADF wants to dispel the myths about
religious expression at Christmastime that have prompted wrongful
acts of government censorship of religious speech."
The purpose of ADF's Christmas Project is to clear up misconceptions about
seasonal religious expression on public property:
