Christmas Wars
Is Christmas becoming a new battlefield for the culture wars? For the past few years, American right-wing talkshow hosts have argued that the insidious forces of secularisation have been targetting Christmas in an effort to remove religion, and Christianity particularly, from public life. The shockingly compelling evidence for this claim includes the increasing popularity of seasonal greeting cards bearing the slogan "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas". Other commentators write off the entire debate as a media-fabricated conspiracy theory. But watch Fox News for the next couple of weeks and you will encounter the now annual reports on the from across the United States.
Whether this war is real or imagined, it looks like the debate is about to cross the Atlantic. The Tory MP championed the cause of Christmas in a debate at Westminster today. He says that 80 per cent of schools will not be holding a nativity play this Christmas, because of fears that they could offend non-Christians. It all adds up to .
Is your experience? Is the traditional meaning of Christmas now under threat from the combined forces of political correctness and religious pluralism? Or is this nothing more than journalistic stuffing?
Comments
Well, while the Telegraph and others overreacted to leaks of the IPPR report on "diversity" at Christmas time, the report is an indication that some people want to control who celebrates what religious festivals. A school of thought exists which sees something inherently wrong with a majority getting into commercial Christmas with such gusto, and seeks to do something about it.
I talked about this after some IPPR damage control from Rick Muir in the Guardian, in which he reassures its readership that he doesn't plan to cancel Christmas. While most never alleged anything that extreme, it's clear that the article consisted of some quiet back-peddling.
I think the whole thing is a conspiracy. It gives people something to yell about at Christmas. Glad to hear that Will watches Fox News though!!
Let鈥檚 get this right, Christmas was a beautiful, uplifting Pagan celebration that Christianity purloined and perverted for its own dubious ends.
No-one put it better than Robert G Ingersoll, an American freethinker of earlier days, who expressed his fury over this shameless theft in his 鈥淐hristmas sermon鈥, printed in the Evening Telegram newspaper, New York City, on December 19, 1891.
The good part of Christmas is not always Christian, it is generally Pagan; that is to say, human and natural. Christianity did not come with tidings of great joy, but with a message of eternal grief. It came with the threat of everlasting torture on its lips. It meant war on earth and perdition thereafter 鈥 as a torch-bearer, as a bringer of joy, it has been a failure. It has given infinite consequences to the acts of finite beings, crushing the soul with a responsibility too great for mortals to bear. It has filled the future with fear and flame 鈥
Lets kill Christmas
Why should Christmas dominate our culture nowadays when we have muslim, hindu, jewish and other faiths here. Their traditions are just as important as christian traditions. My card this year says, Season's Greetings. I never pick a religious card. I leave that to others.
Mark Pritchard imagines a secularist conspiracy hell bent on forcing a politically correct festive season on us. But like most stories concerning political correctness the "facts" are either grossly exaggerated or entirely made up.
I dont care wether you call it christmas, yule, festivmas or "the holidays" but what I don't want is for Mark Pritchard to dictate how we celebrate it.
Is this MP for real? He is just trying to make a name for humself. It's wall to wall christmas out there!
Sam asks: "Why should Christmas dominate our culture nowadays when we have muslim, hindu, jewish and other faiths here. Their traditions are just as important as christian traditions."
The answer, Sam, is that the culture is dominated by people who celebrate Christmas. It's that simple. Nobody in a free society forces anybody else to celebrate anything, but the reason Christmas dominates the culture is because the culture is dominated by people who celebrate Christmas. There's nothing to correct. Nothing to protest, no injustice.