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JESUS
CHRIST –
STILL THE REASON FOR
THE SEASON?
Christmas time is a mixture
of everything from issues of deep faith, family unity, excitement and joy,
to crass commercialism, drunken immorality, painful loneliness, tension
and frustration, even religious and community anger and disharmony.
Some left-leaning proponents of multi-culturalism
have contributed to this tension and disharmony.
For example, in the Nature and
Character of Racism section of the Western Australian Government’s
August 2004 Racial and Religious Vilification
Consultation Paper (p.9f) ‘cultural
racism’ is described in ways which could lead many to believe that the
Government and the framers of the Consultation Paper were too dismissive
of Australian cultural traditions and values, and too ready to reject
these in favour of allowing other cultural values to be expressed.
The
effect of such thinking has become very evident, with school principals
banning traditional Easter, Christmas, and even ANZAC Day activities - in
case these activities were offensive to Muslims and other minority ethnic
and religious groups. This was the case in April 2003, when the Koondoola
Primary School principal, Rudy Rybarczyk, decided an Anzac Day remembrance
was inappropriate for his school because of the religious and racial
diversity of his students. His action, in sympathy and keeping with the
sentiments expressed in the WA Government’s Consultation Paper, raised
deep concerns around Australia, not just W.A., and provided more than
ample ammunition for critics of political correctness. In no way did his
actions advance improved understanding and relationships of religious and
racial differences.
Such ‘politically correct madness’ has
increasingly focused on Christmas, with businesses and councils going to
ridiculous extremes to ‘delete’ any religious significance, especially
things like nativity scenes, from Christmas community and store displays
in order to avoid offending non-Christians.
In
December 2002, Toronto city official’s decreed that a 15-metre-high pine
tree was NOT a Christmas tree. They decreed that the large decorated tree
in the city centre – erected for December celebrations – was a
non-religious ‘holiday tree’!!
The
Toronto city officials’ actions caused repercussions and ridicule that
went way beyond Toronto city limits.
One local shopper opposed the declaration,
and stated:
‘I am a Christian and it’s a Christmas holiday and it’s a Christmas tree.
The Christmas comes from Christ, so to call it a holiday tree doesn’t make
sense to me as a Christian.’
Christians
were not the only ones to object, however.
Orthodox
Jewish Rabbi and religious studies professor, Barry Levy, declared,
‘I believe that this
is an unnecessary attempt to secularise Christmas.’
He added:
‘That object is identified as a Christmas tree - it’s not a Hannukah bush,
it’s not a winter tree, it’s not a festival tree - it’s a Christmas tree -
we all know it for what it is. Quite frankly I’m offended on behalf of
Christians for whom it’s a symbol of some importance - that they should
have a religious symbol converted into a secular one just in order to
accommodate it into public display.’
In spite of such examples of actions
bringing ridicule, and being spread around the world through the media and
the Internet, many with ‘multi-cultural’ agendas (if not, outright
anti-Christian agendas) seem slow to learn, and the same errors of poor
judgement and lack of sensitivity to community values and standards,
continue to be perpetuated.
This December (2004) saw anger in the
Italian city of Como, after Primary school teacher, Antonio
Fogazzaro, became responsible for
‘a
serious
mistake, an offence to the entire Christian community,’
for substituting the word ‘virtue’ for ‘Jesus’ during
rehearsals of the school Christmas play, and for abolishing all Christmas
carols referring to Christianity (and Jesus) from the programme. The
Mayor of Como, with the city council, declared that,
‘as city
administration, we condemn this teacher’s behaviour, and we will decide on
what measure to take.’
Early this December Ms Clover Moore, Lord
Mayor of Sydney, caused an angry reaction over her efforts to ‘neutralise’
Christmas in Australia’s largest multicultural city. Citizens were
angered by her limiting the city’s main Christmas display to a single
decorated tree at the town hall.
News reports compared other cities with
their Christmas displays and the ‘barren’ Sydney scene, with
The Daily Telegraph asking in its large front-page banner:
‘As the great cities of
the world light up, Sydney asks... WHERE’S OUR CHRISTMAS?’
Other reports noted that radio talkback programmes had
‘been inundated for two
days with angry callers accusing left-leaning independent Lord Mayor
Clover Moore of pandering to political correctness with paltry festive
season decorations’ and stated:
‘2004 is the
year Sydney forgot Christmas and across the city, people are infuriated.’
Prime Minister, John Howard, publicly
weighed into the controversy and declared it a ridiculous effort at
politically correct blandness. New South Wales State Premier, Bob Carr,
publicly disagreed with the approach of Lord Mayor Clover Moore, and
called on her to be more inclusive, stating that no-one, including people
from non-Christian faith communities, would be offended with a better
Christmas display.
Moore claimed that the Council was trying
to have decorations that
‘embraces all cultural
and religious communities at Christmas time and tries to bring Christmas
magic alive.’ She, and the
city council, completely misread the Sydney community and caused a very
strong and angry reaction instead.
In contrast to Sydney, the Melbourne City
Council had spent double the Sydney budget on Christmas decorations. The
Lord Mayor of Melbourne, John So, declared:
‘When you live in a
multicultural society, you should be inclusive and add things to a
society, not take things away.’
Churches
in Denver, Colorado, USA, decided this month to protest over the city’s
annual Christmas parade’s ban of any religious theme participants.
Organisers of the Parade of Lights, which went through city streets on
Friday and Saturday 3rd and
4th December,
had refused to allow one of Denver’s Churches to enter a float in the
parade and the Christian community decided it had had enough. Concerns
were widely expressed about the anti-religious approach of the organisers.
As
one Christian declared:
‘Jesus is the reason
for the season. They are just being too politically correct, and it’s
pathetic. They don’t have any problems making us Christians feel bad.’
Around 1 000 people from various churches
in the city joined together, preceded the actual parade singing Christmas
hymns such as: ‘Joy to the World’ and ‘Silent Night’, with
some also handing out hot chocolate drinks and invitations to Christmas
church services. The joyful Christian ‘protest’ before the annual parade
itself got under way, did not cause any disruption and was reasonably well
received by the hundreds of thousands of onlookers.
One Christian, participating in the
‘protest’ and involved in handing out church Christmas pageant invitations
and free cups of hot chocolate to the sidewalk crowd, explained:
‘We just wanted to
come out and show them the love of God and what Christmas is all about.’
The chairman of the parade organisers
acknowledged the many complaints received, telling one newspaper:
‘Many of the
messages were the same – “We’re the majority, quit treating us like a
minority and stop your political correctness.”’
He said that the organisers would reconsider their policy for next year.
Most Australians are becoming, if they
haven’t already become, deeply troubled by the rejection of traditional
religious and cultural heritage activities and displays. It is incredible
that the majority of Australians, whether committed or nominally
Christian, or of no religious persuasion, should have to accept the
banning of nativity scenes at Christmas because it may offend some members
of ethnic or non-Christian minority communities.
Such actions and expressions of reverse
religious discrimination, and reverse cultural racism, are largely
tolerated, and generally remain unopposed, in order to accommodate the
views of minorities – often minorities within minorities.
This
situation is incongruous when research and discussion reveals that the
majority of minority faith group members, including Muslims, see no
problem in allowing the celebration of Christian festivals; in Katanning
the local Muslims are very involved in Christmas celebration activities
and have won competitions with some of their Christmas displays; in
Singapore, a very multi-religious and multi-cultural society, all major
religious faiths are encouraged to have displays and other activities to
celebrate their festivals – which has led to major, larger-than-life
nativity scenes in very public places at Christmas time. Part of the
Singapore Christmas approach now also includes Christian groups publicly
singing Christmas hymns and songs.
Why not have family (or Sunday School –
youth group – home/cell/care group) discussions of implementing activities
to help put Christ back into Christmas, as the reason for the season? In
spite of everything, HE still is the fundamental reason for the
season.
Here are some ‘starting suggestions’ for
‘Christianising’ your Christmas – having a more Christ-centred Christmas:
Send
Christmas cards with a ‘Christ’ theme;
Cancel at
least one shopping day - relax for the day with a loved one – child,
spouse, friend;
Make
worship at church the main focus of your Christmas Day celebrations;
Visit sick
or lonely friends or acquaintances;
Relax with
a good Christian book – devotional or a novel;
Invite a
visitor or stranger home for Christmas dinner;
Pray for
world peace;
Pool some
of your collective resources to help someone in need;
Buy some
Christmas gifts for others through a missionary or welfare agency;
Smile,
greet, wish a Happy Christmas to weary shop assistants and
fellow-shoppers;
Take time to
read a Gospel account of the birth of Christ;
Tell the story
of the First Christmas (Jesus’ birth on earth) to a child.
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