Our parish priest includes inserts in our weekly bulletins,
usually something he finds on the Internet.
Last week, it was a slightly updated version of a poem titled, T’was the month before Christmas that
appeared several years ago on Facebook.
The author, at least to me, is unknown.
An adaptation of the well-known Christmas poem, the piece takes a poke
at the politically correct crowd that would have us eliminate any reference to
Christmas from our stores, schools, and government.
One of our parishioners was so moved as to have the poem
printed on a full-page ad in a local weekly publication. According to the owner of the paper who also
happens to be a friend and fellow parishioner, this caused an unprecedented
outpouring of responses, mostly positive, but also a couple of negatives. One caller in particular threatened to get a
lawyer and sue the paper, on what grounds I cannot imagine. After it was explained to him that the ad was
not an editorial, but a paid advertisement, and that he was free to pay the
nearly $400 cost of his own full-page rebuttal, the caller backed off.
For anyone interested in the content of the ad, I would
recommend following the link in the first paragraph above to read it for
yourself. I have chosen not to reprint
it here. Suffice to say, it is critical
of the politically motivated administrators, politicians and businesses who
replace the word Christmas with Holiday.
While I am in full agreement that we have become way too
worried about offending some non-Christian’s feelings, I am also uncomfortable
with such public postings that cast a pall over companies and individuals that
may or may not be warranted. The
Facebook poem is dated 2009. While some
companies did at one time discourage employees from wishing customers a Merry
Christmas, a backlash caused many of them to rethink the directive. Christians ought not act on an unhealthy
desire to constantly portray themselves as victims of a Godless society, even
when doing so may be justified. Personally,
I have no concern over a clerk saying “Happy Holidays” as the complimentary
close of a transaction. After all, the
holiday season consists of multiple celebrations making a more encompassing
wish sensible. It doesn’t necessarily
mean anyone is anti-Christian.
In a case where the government did try to suppress religious
freedom, an area public high school recently drew the attention of PC police by
including a live nativity scene in their annual Christmas concert. The school district was sued on behalf of a student
and his father by the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation. A federal court judge granted an injunction
forbidding the school from organizing, rehearsing, or presenting a live
Nativity as part of their program. The
school district complied with the order, sort of. The Nativity portion of the program went on
with mannequins in place of the students while the choir sang O Holy Night. I’m sure whoever did not wish to participate
had that option. Kudos to the school
district for allowing the program to go on.
The first amendment says, “Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
Government for a redress of grievances.”
When did freedom OF religion become freedom FROM
religion? Perhaps the answer is found in
a recent experiment performed on the Yale campus where a filmmaker asked
students to sign a petition revoking the first amendment. Within an hour, fifty students signed the
petition that would in effect take away their right to petition. Yale is where many of our judges and
politicians are educated. How many of
them with this mentality are already in power?
Makes me wonder.
