In order to not offend that one person out of four, this year has been full of lawsuits designed to take any mention of God out of the public eye, hiding it behind the closed doors of the church or your home. The attempt to remove the words "under God" from the pledge got so bad that the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill called the "Pledge Protection Act". The act would prevent the Supreme Court from hearing cases involving the pledge and its recitation and would prevent federal courts from striking the words "under God" from the pledge. Just last month a teacher in California filed a suit because his principal forbade him from handing out the Declaration of Independence to his students during a history lesson because it contained references to God and religion. In the last few years there have been more lawsuits filed on the behalf of the American public to "protect" us from Christianity than is believable. Maybe the one person out of four is cheering about it ... but what about the rest of us? How is it right to offend three out of four adults in order to keep one out of four happy?
With Christmas right around the corner, now it's on the chopping block. Of course, this isn't a new thing. In August of '99, the ACLU of Ohio filed suit seeking to end a suburban school district's practice of closing its schools for the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In its complaint, the ACLU sought a permanent court injunction to block any religious holidays from being observed as special off days. Christmas escaped because it traditionally has been incorporated into the winter vacation period at nearly all U.S. public schools. In December of 2003, the ACLU of Rhode Island filed a lawsuit challenging the life-sized nativity scene and menorah in front of Cranston City Hall.
ABC News recently reported that the Columbia High School brass ensemble in Maplewood, NJ were not allowed to play Christmas carols at their holiday concert this year — not even instrumental versions. Public schools in Chicago have removed the words "Merry Christmas" from a popular song and in the most ridiculous move of the year, one second grade classroom has replaced "Merry Christmas" with "Have a swinging holiday" (per ABC News). A church group was banned from participating in Denver's annual Parade of Lights and the Mayor of Denver decided that this year would be the last year that a "Merry Christmas" sign on the City and County Building, until public outrage (let's hear it for those 3 out of 4!) caused him to change his mind. (Source) The Target stores have kicked the Salvation Army to the curb, banning the bell ringers this year. The Target company line is that they don't allow solicitation, but there are others out there taking credit for the ban. Rick Garcia, political director for Chicago’s Equality Illinois, said that his homosexual advocacy group recently contacted Target, urging them to end their support for the Salvation Army. The Christian Law Association had a seasonal page of incidents of Christmas being attacked all over the U.S.
As the song says "Jesus is the reason for the season" but let's go a little deeper. The word Christmas comes from the Old English Cristes maesse, which means Christ's mass. (Source) Because of that particular fact, I won't be surprised if we start seeing lawsuits against companies that make calendars, citing that listing December 25th as Christmas violates somebody's rights! When I think of all of the years that Christmas has been celebrated as "Christmas" without horrific repercussions, I am amazed that it can cause such a controversy in this day and age. Way back in 137 AD the Bishop of Rome ordered the birthday of the Christ Child celebrated as a solemn feast. In 350 AD another Bishop of Rome, Julius I, choose December 25th as the observance of Christmas. (Source) Even though the earliest English reference to December 25th as Christmas Day did not come until 1043, that's almost a thousand years of the world not coming to an end because we call it Christmas!. (Source)
For me and my family, we're avoiding being politically correct again this year. We have a beautiful Christmas tree in our living room and a lovely Nativity scene on a table in the foyer that lives there year round. We send out cards that say "Merry Christmas" and we sing Christmas carols like "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman", "O Come all Ye Faithful" and "Silent Night". Most importantly, we believe in the Christmas story told in the Bible in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. If that offends someone, then we don't expect them to drop by for cocoa!
