PING!
Posted on 12/18/2006 5:50:44 PM PST by GMMAC
Those darned Christians
From the way they're treated, you'd think they were a threat to the nation
By Licia Corbella
Calgary Sun
December 17, 2006
This country is in danger.
Most recently, that danger -- rooted at best in misplaced good intentions and at worst in either ignorance, hatred or intolerance -- was made evident by an Ontario judge.
Last Thursday Ontario Court Justice Marion Cohen ordered a Christmas tree to be moved out of the lobby of the Ontario Court of Justice on Jarvis St. to an infrequently travelled corridor because it's a Christian symbol and might offend people.
Thankfully, there was a backlash to her intolerance of the majority and founding culture and ethic of this country and the tree was replaced in its traditional spot.
"This is stupidity and takes political correctness to new heights," said Farzana Hassan, president of the Muslim Canadian Congress.
"We should ban political correctness, not the Christmas tree."
Well said. But can we?
Have we already gone too far down the anti-Christian political correctness road and if so what does it mean for this great country and, indeed, all the free world, where similar nonsense takes place frequently?
Last week's Christmas tree debacle is nothing new.
Many businesses, including Wal-Mart, The GAP and a host of others, have forbidden their employees from wishing Christmas shoppers a "Merry Christmas," even if fully 20% of their profits will be raked in during this short but busy season. They'll take our Christmas money but eschew the reason why we're digging a little deeper into our bank accounts.
In Canadian public schools, children who learn about Ramadan and Diwali and other minority religious holidays will be let out of school for the "winter break." No longer can they celebrate a Christmas concert, instead they will rehearse for a "Winter Festival" or "Winter Celebration."
The religious carols that make the generation gaps disappear are replaced by Frosty the Snowman and Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
According to the 2001 census figures on religion, fully 76.6% of all Canadians describe themselves as Christian, with the largest denomination being Catholic at 43.2%. Think about that. More than three-quarters of this country is Christian.
Yes, that's a decline from almost 100% a century ago, but it's still an overwhelming majority and one I don't think we have to apologize for or try to deny as a reality.
The next biggest ranking, with 16% goes to "no religion." The drop after that is immense, since Muslims are the next largest group, and yet they make up just 2% of the population. About 1.1% of the population adhere to the Jewish faith and it goes down from there.
Last year, during the Christmas election campaign then-prime minister Paul Martin bought a wreath.
Asked by a reporter if he was buying a holiday wreath or a Christmas wreath, Martin laughed and said: "It's a $240 wreath."
What a spineless coward. So desperate was Mr. Dithers for every vote he thought saying the word "Christmas" might alienate someone out there so he would deny the reason for the season, his own professed faith and a national statutory holiday, all for a few votes. Talk about a cheap date!
His predecessor was worse, of course.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien's office banned a United Church minister from Nova Scotia from reading from the New Testament or mentioning Jesus Christ during a service to commemorate the 229 people killed in the Swissair Flight 111 off Peggy's Cove way back in 1998.
The prime minister's protocol office however, did not impose a similar ban on a Rabbi, who read from the Hebrew Scriptures or on the Muslim representative, who read from the Qur'an or to a Native Canadian who spoke of her people's beliefs.
The Liberals also threw away hundreds of years of military tradition when it removed the Maltese Cross from the caps of chaplains so as not to offend a newly hired Muslim chaplain.
What they should have done was create a new cap badge with a Muslim symbol for the Muslim chaplain and start a new tradition instead of destroying long-held Canadian, Christian ones.
The great irony in all of these examples is the very reason we are such a tolerant and free society is because our society is based on the Judeo-Christian ethic.
It's why people of all faiths and races risk and sacrifice so much to move here. Christianity and the tolerance it produces is what has allowed this kind of double standard against itself to exist.
We must stop this deterioration or the intolerance to the tolerant culture will disappear. Tolerance should be a two-way street. In Canada, sadly, it goes just one way.
The danger of this should be obvious.
With the exception of Japan and Israel, the only free countries in the world are all founded on Christianity.
Chip away at that foundation and what are you left with? Who knows, maybe a cold Saudi Arabia, or Indonesia or Iran.
On that note, Merry Christmas!
PING!
This is hardly a surprise. Isn't it illegal in Canada for someone to criticize homosexuality? Even to quote God's word on the subject.
Is it too late? Sometimes I wonder if it's worth the effort to try.
Er, India?
Two or 3 years ago I mentioned to a poster here
that I had seen a life-size nativity scene in the terminal at Pearson.
I wonder if it is there still this year.
This is a great article. And I'm glad to see that SOMEbody else has remembered the Little Dictator's (Jean Chretien) banning of the Name of Jesus Christ at that Swissair 111 memorial service.
The Little Dictator will answer for that before the Lord one Day, you can bet the rent on that (of course he may get off on a technicality since even Almighty God may have trouble understanding what Chretien says, if Chretien chooses to speak his mangled English in self-defense ;)
But the fact is Christmas, whether or not it is historically accurate as the Earthly birthdate of Jesus Christ, is a traditional Christian holiday and the reason it is under attack is because ANY commemoration or honoring of Jesus Christ poses a direct threat to any other religious faith which does not believe in the Divinity of Christ, i.e., Mohammed is still dead and in the ground (and I daresay, burning in Hell even now), all of the other figures upon which non-Christ centered faiths are based on are likewise dead, but the Good News is that Jesus Christ is alive and well, and is even now sitting at the Right Hand Side of God the Father, exactly as He said He would, and I firmly believe that I will live long enough to see Him return as He promised.
The Truth of Jesus Christ is the dagger that is pressing directly against whatever organ would represent the heart in the Devil himself.
And that my FRiends, is why you see Jesus Christ and Christmas under such increasing attack.
For those who deny Christ, their slogan every year is:
"Keep X in Xmas"
Merry Christmas, Everyone!
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No.
Thank you for pointing that out.
The "Xmas takes Christ out of Christmas" argument is so misguided.
Re: 'Xmas'
I stand corrected Mac, and my comment on the whole 'Xmas' issue was certainly not intended as any slam at Eastern Rite Catholics, Northern, Southern, Western, or any of those guys. ;)
Having said that, my criticism of the usage of 'Xmas' is that it opened the door (for many who 'deny Christ' as I mentioned in my earlier post) for the de-emphasizing of Jesus Christ, the true 'Reason for the Season' (which is on my front door as a matter of fact), and naturally any opening like that is going to be seized upon by the ACLU-types and others who want Christmas to be reduced to a generic and commerically-oriented 'Happy Holidays'.
I have heard many ministers (and lay persons) point out that nowhere in Scripture are we as Christians commanded or expected to commemorate the Birth of Jesus Christ, it has simply become a Christian tradition honoring the arrival of the Christ child to this world. The Day we should (and I know we do) keep in mind is *Easter*, because that is the time which marks the completion of the Work of Christ, and His arising from the dead and ascending unto the Father, having taken on the penalty of sin for all of humanity, the penalty that by all rights should be yours, mine and everyone else on Earth.
Mohammed isn't going to get us to Heaven, neither is Buddha, Hindu, Ying or Yang, or any of those wannabes, only King Jesus has made it possible for us NOT to be eternally seperated from God.
Merry Christmas to you all! :)
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