THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA

An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 262, December 15, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
Home Page   Main Menu   Recent Articles   Site Map   Website Index   Issues & Controversies
  Cyberland University   Political Science, Philosophy, & History: Lectures   U.S. Constitution
  American Constitutional Law   American Constitutional System   American Political System
  Conservatism, Liberalism, & Radicalism   How America Goes to War
  World War IV: Islamist Terror War Against the U.S.A. & the West

KILLING CHRISTMAS:  THE ENDEAVOR TO AVOID ANYTHING
RELIGIOUS AS PART OF THE AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL PROCESS
By Alan Caruba

THE REAL OFFENSE TO AMERICANS:  THE DELIBERATE EFFORT TO KILL CHRISTMAS, TO DRIVE IMAGES OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OUT OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS, &, IN GENERAL, TO UNDERMINE ANY UNDERSTANDING OR PRACTICE OF RELIGIOUS FAITH OF ANY KIND
FULL STORY:   It’s a curious thing. Mel Gibson’s film, “The Passion of the Christ,” broke box office records this year, but as we move closer to Christmas, the date designated as the birth of Jesus, one can hardly look anywhere without reading or hearing about a politically correct retreat from the simple fact that it was, it is, and it will always be a religious holiday.

Indeed, the word “holiday” is a retraction of “holy day.”

For sixty-one years, I lived in a lovely northern New Jersey suburb that was so picture-perfect, a Meryl Streep movie was once filmed there. It is Maplewood and, earlier this year, I sold my home and moved to the Gaslight Commons, one town over in South Orange. Imagine my surprise to discover that the combined Maplewood and South Orange school system was suddenly making national news because its official policy was to ban Christmas carols; even songs about Santa Claus are subject to the ban.

It is useful to know that, while attending school in Maplewood in the late 1940s and early 1950s, we kids all sang Christmas carols and other holiday songs. A lot of us were Jewish. The Jewish kids loved the Christmas carols and, when references to Jesus or Christ came up, they would politely fudge a bit and keep on singing. I don’t recall any Hanukah songs, but I do recall visits to the homes of the Jewish kids where their parents would explain what the Festival of the Lights was about, along with its traditions. Suffice it to say, come Christmas morning, most of the Jewish kids were greeted with gifts by the fireplace. It never occurred to them not to expect them and it never occurred to them that this was some great act of assimilation. It was just Christmas!

Well, actually, it was the birth date of Mithras, an ancient Middle Eastern pagan god whose birthday continued to be celebrated during the early years of the Christian Church. Church fathers simply took over the date, proclaiming it the birth of Jesus and, voila, Christmas! Like the cliché says, “It’s the thought that counts.”

And my thought is that no Jewish kid I know ever converted to Christianity because of a couple of Christmas carols and no Christian kid ever converted to Judaism because he learned to sing, “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel.” Indeed, despite all the blandishments of Christmas holiday celebrations, the world is still home to millions of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and others for whom Christmas has no religious meaning whatever, unless you check out the shopping centers in Tokyo, Bombay, and, who knows where else.

So why did the Maplewood-South Orgage District Superintendent of Schools conclude that Christmas carols were inappropriate to the Christmas season? He told a local daily newspaper that they had been banned since the early 1990s. Because a few Grinches had complained this year, he felt obligated to comply. “Rather than try to respond to all the various religions and try to balance them, it’s best to stay away from that and simply have a nonreligious tone to them and have a more seasonal tone.”

How do you have a “seasonal” tone during Christmas without Christmas carols and Christmas songs? The answer is, you don’t! How the heck do you get to be Superintendent of Schools without understanding that? In fact, the New Jersey School Boards Association says its policy is that performance of songs from various ethnic or religious groups actually helps broaden student’s awareness, but that it allows districts to “impose tighter restrictions.”

The Maplewood-South Orange School District policy was spelled out in an October 29 memo by Nicholas Santoro, the Chairman of the District’s Fine Arts Department, who said that songs like “Winter Wonderland” or “Frosty the Snowman” are fine, but apparently those horrid songs about Jesus were not. Just in case no one got the message, he added that printed programs for “holiday concerts” (there’s that word again!) “must avoid graphics which refer to the holidays, such as Christmas trees and dreidels.”

So, in essence, the lesson the School District wants to convey to the children in its care is that Christmas is NOT about a religious event of great importance to Christianity and, please, let’s have no reference either to Hanukah, a holiday possibly celebrated by the Jewish Jesus and his Jewish apostles.

This anti-religion craze has seized America's public schools from coast to coast and shows up in heated debates over whether to publicly display a crèche or a menorah during the holidays. It is so viscerally un-American that it is profoundly offensive to anyone with a shred of knowledge about our nation’s history.

The phrase, “America is a Christian nation,” may offend some people, but, historically and demographically, it is accurate. The nation was founded by people seeking to freely express their religious beliefs concerning the practice of Christianity. Religion and its free practice were so important that America became the first nation not to institute an official state religion. When the Bill of Rights was written, freedom of religion was deemed so important it was incorporated into the First Amendment.

Playing it safe by avoiding anything “religious” as part of the educational process is just part of the on-going dumbing down of the students who pass through it. All that talk about “diversity” is a sham. The population of the world is diverse. Any street in any town in America is diverse.

Will someone be offended by a Christmas carol? You can bet on that. Christmas is about sharing a hope for “peace on Earth,” and Hanukah celebrates the purification of a synagogue reclaimed from pagans. It doesn’t get more religious than that!

The effort to kill Christmas, to drive images of the Ten Commandments out of public buildings, and, in general, undermine any understanding or practice of religious faith of any kind is the real offense. Rise up, America! Sing those carols! Spin those dreidels! ‘Tis the season!


LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Religion, Secularism, & America



Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center (www.anxietycenter.com). A compilation of his past columns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Nations vs. the United States, both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 28 West Third Street, Apartment 1321, South Orange, New Jersey, 07079.

Copyright 2004 Alan Caruba


Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com



Return to Top of Page

Go to the WEBSITE INDEX

Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies


Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles


Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume VI, 2004


Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights


Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage

CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION




LINKS TO PARTICULAR ISSUES & SUBJECT MATTER CATEGORIES
TREATED IN THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, U.S.A.:

Africa: Black Africa * Africa: North Africa * American Government 1
American Government 2 * American Government 3 * American Government 4
American Government 5 * American Politics * Anglosphere * Arabs
Arms Control & WMD * Aztlan Separatists * Big Government
Black Africa * Bureaucracy * Canada * China * Civil Liberties * Communism
Congress, U.S. * Conservative Groups * Conservative vs. Liberal
Constitutional Law Counterterrorism * Criminal Justice * Disloyalty * Economy
Education * Elections, U.S. * Eminent Domain * Energy & Environment
English-Speaking World * Ethnicity & Race * Europe * Europe: Jews
Family Values * Far East * Fiscal Policy, U.S. * Foreign Aid, U.S. * France
Hispanic Separatism * Hispanic Treason * Human Health * Immigration
Infrastructure, U.S. * Intelligence, U.S. * Iran * Iraq * Islamic North Africa
Islamic Threat * Islamism * Israeli vs. Arabs * Jews & Anti-Semitism
Jihad & Jihadism * Jihad Manifesto I * Jihad Manifesto II * Judges, U.S. Federal
Judicial Appointments * Judiciary, American * Latin America * Latino Separatism
Latino Treason * Lebanon * Leftists/Liberals * Legal Issues
Local Government, U.S. * Marriage & Family * Media Political Bias
Middle East: Arabs * Middle East: Iran * Middle East: Iraq * Middle East: Israel
Middle East: Lebanon * Middle East: Syria * Middle East: Tunisia
Middle East: Turkey * Militant Islam * Military Defense * Military Justice
Military Weaponry * Modern Welfare State * Morality & Decency
National Identity * National Security * Natural Resources * News Media Bias
North Africa * Patriot Act, USA * Patriotism * Political Culture * Political Ideologies
Political Parties * Political Philosophy * Politics, American * Presidency, U.S.
Private Property * Property Rights * Public Assistance * Radical Islam
Religion & America * Rogue States & WMD * Russia * Science & Ethics
Sedition & Treason * Senate, U.S. * Social Welfare Policy * South Africa
State Government, U.S. * Subsaharan Africa * Subversion * Syria * Terrorism 1
Terrorism 2 * Treason & Sedition * Tunisia * Turkey * Ukraine
UnAmerican Activity * UN & Its Agencies * USA Patriot Act * U.S. Foreign Aid
U.S. Infrastructure * U.S. Intelligence * U.S. Senate * War & Peace
Welfare Policy * WMD & Arms Control


This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics, civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.



POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS

POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE

Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.

Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs, International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests, Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy

INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z




THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA

An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis

Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor

Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic, Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues