Wednesday, December 22, 2004
THE CONTINUING WAR ON CHRISTMAS
From Agape Press...
After describing a Florida school Christmas program from which several Christmas songs were replaced by Hanukkah songs:
Christmas Wars: the Push to Secularize America
The incident in Jupiter appears to many Christians to be part of an alarming trend. They see public schools, municipalities, and other government-funded entities across the nation apparently complying with efforts to secularize Christmas, or at least to censor all religious references to the real reason for the season. In some cases, the administrators are responding to actual complaints. In other scenarios, it is only the fear of giving offense or inviting litigation -- or the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) -- that has prompted officials to adopt such secularizing policies.
In New Jersey, for example, the South Orange/Maplewood School District recently banned instrumental Christmas carols for fear of giving offense. Then, in Mustang, Oklahoma, a school district recently decided to cut the Nativity scene from a school play while holiday symbols associated with Hanukkah and Kwanzaa were allowed to remain in the program. And in Washington State, a couple of plaintiffs have raised objections to a Christmas tree being placed at City Hall in Bellevue, saying the tree is a Christian symbol and inappropriate for display in a public area.
In other parts of the U.S., schools have forbidden Christmas music on buses, banned the exchange of candy canes with messages attached explaining their religious symbolism, and even excluded the colors red and green at school Christmas parties. Meanwhile, some schools and companies are urging their students and staff to avoid accustomed greetings and references to Christmas, and instead use seasonal or generic terms, such as "Winter Solstice" celebrations and "seasonal holiday" parties.
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In a piece from the Washington Times, Germany is described as a country that has forgotten the meaning of Christmas, but is showing hints of a desire to recapture the lost faith. Perhaps we will have to travel all the way down this road as well.
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In California Christmas has been traded in for a Winter Solstice ceremony at the public library, a holdover from Mithraism:
SAN MATEO -- While some people may have been hitting the malls Tuesday and counting down the three days left until Christmas, a festive group of around 200 spent the evening celebrating an older and mellower Persian holiday.
The City of San Mateo's temporary Main Library hosted Yalda, a 3,000-year-old winter solstice celebration that has its roots in the ancient religion of Mithraism, according to librarian Mina Abdollahian. Solstice is the day of the year with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night.
Would a Catholic celebration from the local Catholic church also be welcome at the library? Not likely, I'd imagine. It's not freedom from religion that the government pursued. It's not separation of church and state. It's separation of Christianity and state...freedom from Christianity that is being pursued. All other religions are welcome, so long as Jesus is not the object of worship.
