By James L. Lambert
(AgapePress) – It appears there is no religious tolerance among many educators, bureaucrats, and city government leaders across America for the name of Christ during this Christmas holiday season. Recent cases point to the growing intolerance of religion in the public place — most noticeably against the Christian religion.
In most American cities and towns, manger scenes are banned on public property, ignoring more than 150 years of the American tradition of celebrating a holiday that gives homage to the birth of Jesus Christ.
There is growing trend in the public forum to replace the word “Christmas” with “Happy Holidays” or “Season's Greetings”. In a WorldNetDaily report, a first-grade teacher in Sacramento said her principal “prohibited instructors from uttering the word 'Christmas' in class or on written materials.”
Christmas symbols are now being banned in many public schools. In Yonkers, New York, school employees are eliminating holiday decorations that contain religious themes.
In Oceanside, California, the city council has banned public prayers that end or start with the phrase: “in the name of Christ.”
The United States Pledge of Allegiance has been legally challenged because of the phrase: “under God.”
This month, the famous Charles Dickens play, A Christmas Carol, was banned from a New Jersey public school because of its spiritual overtones and message of redemption.
A San Diego mother was barred from reading a Christmas story to a fourth-grade class in a public school.
Music and band teachers in Michigan, Maryland, and Virginia are not allowing students to play traditional Christmas carols like “Silent Night” and “The First Noel.”
Many people of faith have questioned how this intolerance of Christianity — especially evident during the Christmas season — has come about in America.
Pro-family advocates such as Lou Sheldon, founder and chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, thinks it has occurred incrementally. Sheldon stated recently that “the rage of political correctness is to remove the baby Jesus from the manger and to take the manger out of the scene.”
Sheldon believes that Christians themselves are to blame for much of this cultural demise of Christmas
“Not until Christians seek the wisdom of God on how to stop this onslaught” can they expect any positive change to occur, Sheldon says. He thinks Christian parents should not be afraid to challenge educators who continue to promote their form of what he calls “selective political correctness and religious McCarthyism. ”
Yet many pastors contend that advocates like Sheldon are misguided and should not try to influence the culture. Too often the clergy feels these matters are “worldly ones,” and that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood.” (Ephesians 6:12) Hence, Christians should not get involved, they say, and issues like these should be handled spiritually by prayer and faith — certainly not by confrontation and disagreement in the public forum.
Sheldon responds by saying that “while we philosophize about the separation of church and state, the enemy is constantly removing our religious liberties.”
The Christmas holiday is one of the oldest traditional holidays, dating back to the fourth century. In the United States, it was first officially recognized as a public holiday in New England in the middle of the 19th century. Although it is common knowledge that December 25 does not, most likely, coincide with the historical birth of Jesus, the actual date is still unknown. Regardless, December 25 is the recognized symbolic celebration of Christ's birth for most of the nation.
Many purists maintain Christmas is a “pagan holiday,” and that it has become too commercialized to celebrate.
What is ironic about this ongoing “cultural battle” is the presence of intolerance in the first place. I thought political correctness was supposed to embrace tolerance. While political correctness may include Hanukkah and even the pagan “Winter Solstice,” it seems hell-bent on eliminating “Christ” from Christmas.
And while political-correctness “gurus” will extol the virtues of the person of Jesus Christ, once He is placed in a religious setting, they will seek to eliminate His influence and that of the Christmas story in society altogether.
Tolerance advocates should not just preach tolerance of cultures, religions, and even political thought — they should show it as well. It is hypocritical that the left, in its attempt to right wrongs with political correctness, embraces “tolerance” while at the same time embracing intolerance of Christianity. In the case of the Christmas holiday, political correctness discounts the millions of Americans who cherish Jesus Christ and the holiday that celebrates His birth.
In a pluralistic society such as ours, Christians need not be afraid to object to this type of “Christmas censorship.” Certainly, the Christ of the Bible was not timid. He confronted the leaders of His day, pointing out truth, even when it offended them.
Surely we cannot expect to have it any easier in this day and age. And certainly in this time, we all need to hear the message of love, hope, and forgiveness that Christ's birth exemplifies to the world.
(This article courtesy of Agape Press.)
