Posted on 12/12/2004 6:15:21 AM PST by Ellesu
Sun 12 Dec 2004
Bad taste: Madame Tussauds was criticised for casting David Beckham and his wife Victoria in their nativity scene.
From Posh and Becks as Mary and Joseph to politically correct councils banning the word Christ, the traditional Christmas is under attack. But the first signs of a spiritual fightback are emerging.
JEREMY WATSON
IT WAS only an unscientific poll for a satellite TV channel looking for cheap publicity but it spoke volumes about what Scots were thinking. Not only were nine out ten adults convinced that Christmas carolling was disappearing as a tradition, but nine out of ten were also worried about it.
They had good reason. Last week’s poll also showed that Silent Night and Away in a Manger had made a top 10 of Christmas hits. But they were struggling to make the grade against a cacophony of modern yuletide "classics" including Bob the Builders’ ‘Can We Fix It?’ and Noel Edmonds’ ‘Mr Blobby’.
It is further proof, if any is needed, that the traditional meaning of a spiritual Christmas is being buried under the avalanche of modern commercialism. That was underlined just a day earlier when it emerged that Madame Tussauds, the world-famous waxworks museum, had cast footballer David Beckham as Joseph and his pop star wife Victoria as Mary in their "interpretation" of the hallowed Christmas nativity scene.
That Romeo had not been cast as the infant Jesus was perhaps the only blessing. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s spokesman summed up the tastelessness of the exercise with his bemused response: "Oh dearie, dearie me!"
They were the same sentiments that have greeted councils which have banned the words "Merry Christmas" from their festive cards for fear of offending the non-Christian sections of an increasingly multi-cultural Britain and the Scottish hospital which refused to distribute a free CD of Christmas songs because it mentioned baby Jesus.
But it may be that the Beckham incident and the celebrity worship it implied - dreamed up as a gimmick by the Madame Tussauds marketing department - will prove to be the turning point for reclaiming the lost meaning of Christianity’s greatest festival.
Cultural commentator Mike Russell, the former Scottish National Party MSP, is among those who believe it might. "This was so crassly stupid that it has made many people think what is the true meaning of Christmas. If this makes them turn away from the commercialism and embrace the spirituality then perhaps Madame Tussauds has done us all a favour."
The signs of a new awakening to the spiritual meaning of Christmas are emerging. Last week, The Sun, Britain’s most popular red-top newspaper, launched its own campaign to save Christmas. It didn’t have to look too hard for the forces of politically-correct, joy-killing darkness. It lambasted the Red Cross for not allowing staff to put up Advent calendars if they contained pictures of anything connected with Christmas. It scorned Whitehall officials who decreed there should be no decorations in "customer-facing" offices in job centres over concerns that non-Christians might be offended.
Particular contempt was reserved for the Carlton Lanes shopping centre in the West Yorkshire town of Castleford, which has told a 30-strong choir of carol singers that they cannot perform in their usual position. Seven years after they first gave their all for charity, they have been told they constitute a fire hazard as they have to stand in front of a fire exit.
The Rev Stan Bindoff, Castleford’s rector, had a particularly-jaundiced view. "I fear this is just down to jobsworths and political correctness. Carol singers standing in front of a fire exit is not the same as it being blocked by displays of furniture. The choir would surely be the first ones out if there was a fire."
Not that the spirit of bah-humbuggery is confined to Britain. The battle between secularists and the traditionalists is currently being waged in Australia, America, Germany and Austria among other western nations. In Australia, Sydney’s Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, is under fire for banning the words ‘Merry Christmas’ on civic greeting cards.
One Sydneysider, Peter Rush, has become something of a folk hero by defying civic wrath and writing the words in chalk on Sydney Town Hall. His one-man protest has now attracted the support of the Sydney Daily Telegraph which last week urged its readers to buy chalk and scrawl the message all over the city’s municipal buildings.
In Germany, a popular TV presenter is heading a campaign against the over-commercialisation of Christmas and the loss of the spiritual message. In Austria, some towns have banned commercial stands in favour of nativity scenes.
American ire has focused on the decision by the organisers of the annual Parade of Lights in Denver to exclude the float from the Faith Bible Chapel of Arvada as it had a "religious theme".
Middle America was astounded and bombarded the letters pages of local newspapers. Typical was one carried by the Rocky Mountain News. "Maybe it is time for Christians to come out of the closet to demand recognition and to refuse to deal with those who greet us at the door with ‘Happy Holiday’," one read. "They want to fill their coffers with your Christmas spending dollars, but at the same time refuse to acknowledge the tradition that 250m Americans are celebrating the birth of Christ and his message of love and peace to all people on Earth."
In Scotland, another turning point has been the growing tendency for councils, and even the Scottish Parliament, to replace the traditional "Merry Christmas" on thousands of festive cards with the less meaningful but politically-correct "Season’s Greetings".
Earlier this year, this brought out the big guns of the Catholic Church in Scotland, with which politicians of all parties tangle at their peril despite the overall decline in religious influence. Cardinal Keith O’Brien, in his first major broadside after his election to the college of cardinals by the Pope, criticised the rising "secularisation" of Christmas, claiming the festival’s true meaning was being buried under "rampant commercialism and political correctness".
He wrote to every council asking for them to place a traditional nativity scene at the centre of each town. "Without this, there is left a gaping hole at the heart of the season of goodwill," he said.
There are clear signs that the cardinal’s uncompromising call for action is paying dividends. Falkirk Council has now installed five nativity scenes in the centre of five major communities. In Glasgow, the traditional nativity scene has been moved to a much more prominent position in George Square.
Last week, the Christmas shoppers bustling along Princes Street in the centre of Edinburgh could not fail to notice the huge nativity scene sculpture dominating a corner of the world-famous gardens.
Sculpted by local artist Tim Chalk, it displays seven figures, including Mary holding baby Jesus, Joseph, a dove and three shepherds carrying lambs. It was commissioned by wealthy Kwik-Fit entrepreneur Sir Tom Farmer, a practising catholic who is determined that the Christmas message should not be any further obscured.
"In my view religious belief is one of the most important parts of our society and the principals of the many religions present here are the elements on which good society is built," Farmer explained. "But there has been a tendency towards almost removing the meaning of Christmas out of this period. Some of our councils, for instance, don’t want to use the word Christ and to me that is not correct."
Farmer said he was delighted when Edinburgh Council agreed to accept the nativity scene sculpture and to display it in such a prominent position. "It’s very important that we remember what Christmas is all about. We need to remind people how fortunate we are and that’s what the nativity scene does. In effect, it’s the story of a homeless family who have been through a tough time. We have tried to get back to what the scene was like. It’s a basic brown colour with no flashy reds and golds and the first visitors are the shepherd boys, as it really was."
Farmer is among those convinced that the ritual undermining of traditional Christmas symbols and phrases has gone too far.
"We still live in a country where the basis is Christianity," he said. "I don’t go along with those who say there is a drop in the number of Christians. There may be a fall in the numbers who go to church on Sundays but I don’t think the principles of Christianity are weakening. People give more now. That may be because they have more, but it still shows that the underlying principles are strong."
Even church attendance figures, which for almost a generation have been a despairing barometer of downward pressure for the established faiths, show that Christmas retains a special grip over the increasingly-secular masses.
A recent poll of more than 1,000 adults by Opinion Research Business found that church attendance rates at Christmas almost quadrupled. Scotland led the way with 48% of those surveyed saying they went to church over the festive period.
To academics, there are clear signals that the public is finding the moral codes of religious faiths increasingly attractive. David Ferguson, a professor of divinity at the University of Edinburgh, said: "My impression that we may not be as far down the road of post-Christianity as is sometimes assumed.
"Christianity has not been replaced by any obvious alternative faith or moral code in our society so when people seek moral bearings they continue to draw upon an older Christian tradition. There are perhaps many more thinking this code is valuable and we shouldn’t easily let it go."
Observers such as Mike Russell argue that the excesses of the commercialised Christmas might eventually speed up the process of a return to a more spiritual festival.
"People appear to be keener now to understand the spiritual origins of Christmas and perhaps we should thank naked commercialism for driving them to it."
THE GLOBAL FIGHT FOR FESTIVE RECOGNITION
AUSTRALIAN Peter Rush, right, has captured the imagination of the nation after taking on Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore, who banned the words "Merry Christmas" from greetings cards. Rush began a chalk campaign that has been taken up by other enthusiastic Sydneysiders.
One copycat protester who rallied to the cause was Garo Gabrielian, a 48-year-old Egyptian Muslim immigrant. "I thought I better go buy some chalk because if Clover Moore is not going to promote Christmas then it is up to the people to do it," Gabrielian said.
"In Australia we are a fun-loving country and we celebrate everything. Christmas is for everybody and none of my Muslim friends mind it at all. It’s the lord mayor’s behaviour that is dividing people."
• German television celebrity Peter Hahne wants Santa Claus to be ditched but only in favour of the more traditional St Nicholas. Hahne believes American-style Santas are simply a symbol of consumption and to many Germans, his spread is an unwelcome reminder of the encroachment of US commercialism into Europe.
"People are starting to become critical of commercialism in every respect," says Hermann Bausinger, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Tuebingen.
"Christmas has switched from being only a celebration within the family and the church to being a public event starting late in November and going on through January," he added.
• A leading Italian cardinal last week denounced decisions in schools in the staunchly-Catholic country to change Christmas traditions like Nativity pageants in deference to Muslim immigrants as badly mistaken.
"These things in themselves can appear small, but the spirit that is behind them is radically mistaken," Cardinal Ruini said.
Also in Australia, a fast-food chain has admitted being overzealous in its pursuit of political correctness when it banned one of its Sydney stores from displaying a traditional Christmas nativity scene in case it offended non-Christian visitors.
Somehow, if a significant Christian minority wound up in Saudi Arabia, I don't think they'd even consider for one second changing their phone greetings from "Happy Eid-al-Fitr, kill the infidels!" to something like "Season's Greetings!"
The next time somebody gives you a "Happy Holidays," give 'em a "Merry Christmas" back. If they squirm, do it again. :)
}:-)4
I went to 3 different stores in search of a religious Christmas card...finally found 1 box. The only religious card I received was from my son, in Iraq.
"But the first signs of a spiritual fightback are emerging."
Even the Scots are fighting back, and we need to fight back both spiritually and physically. It is a Spiritual battle.
"For we fight not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers".
BTW I think you would probably be able to get Christian Christmas cards online at some of the Christian sites.We even offer Christian planners and calendars on our site.
Merry CHRISTmas! Happy and Blessed New Year!
God Bless him:) My son was in Mosul this time last year..I know what Christmas with a soldier in the war means for a mom...sending you both my prayers and thanks.
I guess I'm out of the world loop- I'd no idea Christmas is under assault this way everywhere- thought it was mostly here.
For what ever this is worth, I told many people at the beauty shop yesterday "Merry Christmas"; and not one person(American or not) was offended. In fact, they all responded with a "Merry Christmas"
http://www.wfmy.com/news/local_state/local_article.aspx?storyid=34032
Pastor's ad in newspaper.
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