Friday, December 03, 2004
Christmas gets a reprieve
There are some encouraging signs that the PC brigade are not getting it all their own way this Christmas. There has been a trend worldwide in recent years to try and eliminate any references to the Christian faith during Christmas celebrations. Some schools only allow the greeting "Happy holiday", for example. This is madness, of course, as without Christianity there is no Christmas. It's all supposed to be in the name of not offending people of other beliefs, even though people of other religions don't appear to be complaining. Anyway, there has been an outbreak of commonsense in Sydney, where the owner of a hamburger bar has been allowed to reinstate a nativity scene after initially having it banned, and the Daily Telegraph has taken the Sydney Lord Mayor's office to task for its mean-spirited Christmas decorations.
As The Telegraph points out in its editorial: "why should there be any concern that by celebrating Christmas we run the risk of offending members of non-Christian communities? In this country, bound by secular customs and practices as much as by religious observances, none is excluded from the Christmas compact of giving and receiving, of sharing of the human spirit."
There are some encouraging signs that the PC brigade are not getting it all their own way this Christmas. There has been a trend worldwide in recent years to try and eliminate any references to the Christian faith during Christmas celebrations. Some schools only allow the greeting "Happy holiday", for example. This is madness, of course, as without Christianity there is no Christmas. It's all supposed to be in the name of not offending people of other beliefs, even though people of other religions don't appear to be complaining. Anyway, there has been an outbreak of commonsense in Sydney, where the owner of a hamburger bar has been allowed to reinstate a nativity scene after initially having it banned, and the Daily Telegraph has taken the Sydney Lord Mayor's office to task for its mean-spirited Christmas decorations.
As The Telegraph points out in its editorial: "why should there be any concern that by celebrating Christmas we run the risk of offending members of non-Christian communities? In this country, bound by secular customs and practices as much as by religious observances, none is excluded from the Christmas compact of giving and receiving, of sharing of the human spirit."
