An Urgent Message from Fr. Owen Kearns LC, Publisher

It’s Beginning to Look a Little More Like Christmas

BY GAIL BESSE

Register Correspondent

December 7-13, 2008 Issue | Posted 12/2/08 at 8:03 AM

PATCHOGUE, N.Y. — Snowflake parties have been multiplying, winter light festivals have been abounding, and holiday concerts have filled school halls with joyous tones.

But Christians are saying, “Enough with the political correctness run amok. We want our Christmas back!”

Consider: When Patchogue Village on Long Island, N.Y., renamed its Christmas boat parade a “holiday” event, Fireworks by Grucci dropped its $5,000 donation. Three thousand supportive calls, e-mails and letters poured into the company. Philip Butler, the company’s vice president, even received e-mail thanks from a U.S. Army colonel in Iraq.

When the American Humanist Association, a Washington, D.C.-based atheist group, launched a provocative “godless holiday” transit advertising campaign, some area Catholics raised money for counter ads.

And retailers who had excised the word “Christmas” from their promotions have changed their tune because of consumer pressure.

“I’ve been encouraged over the past few years because the public, both Catholics and Protestants, have taken it upon themselves to be more active. Legal groups, too, have dug in their heels,” said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. “Of course, the ACLU is busy, and we still have a long way to go, but we’re moving in the right direction.”

The league’s annual “Christmas Wars Report” tracks problems with public observance of the country’s only religious holiday. It details bias in government, business, education, arts and media; it records vandalism on private property and attacks on individuals.

Courts are a “crazy quilt” of rulings, Donohue said. Celebrations and religious displays are not unconstitutional in public schools, but officials often censor them, he said.

On public property, rules vary. A crèche outside a city hall could be construed as government sanctioning of religion, he said. But in parks, where varied activities like concerts occur, a Nativity scene should be allowed because the place is considered a public forum, according to Donohue.

“Then there are the ‘reindeer decisions,’” he said. “If you display a sacred symbol in a public place, you need a secular symbol, too. So if you have Santa and reindeer next to Jesus and Mary, you’re okay.”

“Secular symbols, such as Christmas trees, Santa Claus, reindeer and candy canes, if placed prominently around a Nativity scene, can downplay what a reasonable observer would otherwise see as a government endorsement of religion,” say guidelines for religious expression at Christmas posted at CatholicLeague.org.

“Every year I get a permit to put up a life-size crèche in Central Park,” Donohue said. “The Jews put up a menorah. Nobody insists it be called a holiday candelabra.”

New Transit Ads

Donohue’s kudos to Grucci in October helped publicize its no-Christmas, no-fireworks stand. The response “has been unbelievably positive,” said Butler, who now calls himself “Christmas Cop.”

“It should be a case study,” he said. “It goes along the lines of ‘We, as Christians, are mad as hell and won’t take it any longer.’”

Among the letters he received:

“God bless you for taking a stand against political correctness as our country travels the slippery slide to full secularism,” wrote John DiTore from Goose Creek, S.C.

A Long Island architect urged Patchogue’s mayor to “stand for Christ and against those who want him eradicated.”

A New York woman suggested village officials not take Dec. 25 off as a paid holiday. She wrote, “Tell me, what holiday is it, if it isn’t Christmas?”

Secularists are paying big money to co-opt the holiday. On Nov. 11, the American Humanist Association announced its ad campaign in The New York Times and The Washington Post. The ads read: “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.”

Spokesman Fred Edwords said, “It’s our holiday, too; it had pre-Christian origins. And from a publicity standpoint, with a lot of interest now in atheism in books and movies, we’re striking while the iron is hot.”

Edwords acknowledged that “significant negative reaction has come from the religious right nationwide” but said nothing too critical had emerged from D.C., where the transit ads are running.

He hadn’t talked with JoEllen Murphy from McLean, Va. Murphy sparked a grassroots counterrevolution among Catholic friends. Her goal is to raise $12,500 for simultaneous transit ads that read: “Why believe? Because I created you — for goodness sake — and I love you. –God.”

Outside the Supreme Court

Meanwhile, the Knights of Columbus is continuing its yearly “Keep Christ in Christmas” campaign, spokesman Peter Sonski said. The Catholic fraternal organization makes available Advent wreaths and religious cards, banners, ornaments, billboards and public service announcements to remind people whose birthday we’re celebrating.

“It’s a program that Knights across the country take advantage of,” Sonski said. “As with any volunteer group, how fervently it’s used varies each year depending on council members.”

Knights Council 725 in Patchogue fervently “washed their hands” of the boat parade and, along with Butler, set up a lighted, public 40-foot Christmas tree and Nativity scene.

The National Clergy Council and the Christian Defense Coalition erected a Nativity scene on the sidewalk in front of the U.S. Supreme Court Nov. 20 to launch Operation Nativity, which promotes nationwide private and public displays.

The Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council, sees efforts ratcheting up on both sides in the Christmas wars. “Groups like the American Atheists, Inc., and even some government entities, are attempting to intimidate and silence Christians,” he said, “so the challenge is greater, but more Christians are rising to that challenge and boldly exercising their constitutional right to religious expression.”

Patricia Stebbins, a Catholic from Sandwich, Mass., is hopeful that some long overdue muscle from the Church Militant is swinging the pendulum.

“I’m seeing people begin to kick back, and ever so slowly, you’ll see signs like crèches in malls and even hear some Christmas carols in schools,” she said. “Christmas Day is a legal holiday and among Christianity’s holiest days. Why should we not observe it?”

Gail Besse is based in Boston.

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