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The War Against Non-Christians

December 16th, 2007

News from the front lines: Primarily in order to tick off atheists, the Green Bay City Council President personally paid for a nativity scene to be erected in the city park in front of city hall. Apparently, he and the other council members who voted to approve the display thought they were cleverly dodging First Amendment church-and-state violations by paying for the nativity with personal funds, thus avoiding using taxpayer money. Apparently they did not understand that the land it occupies is paid for with taxpayer dollars, as is the upkeep and lighting–not to mention that the council’s approval of a Christian only-display is in itself an endorsement of a specific religious faith.

Under the category of “Our Religious Icons Are Bigger Than Your Religious Icons,” Christians in Long Beach, NY were furious when they learned that in a public religious display with a Christmas tree and a menorah, the menorah was much larger. The tree was only seven feet tall; the menorah 20 feet tall. For a Christian symbol to be displayed less prominently than a symbol of another belief system was, quote, “an insult to Christians.” The city’s lame response: we searched far an wide, even as far as Canada, and couldn’t find a bigger tree. Um, yeah. Christians will be happy to know that the seven-footer has been taken down in shame and a new tree, exactly 20 feet tall, is being erected in its place. My only wonder is that they somehow restrained themselves from getting a bigger tree. However, the entire brouhaha is yet another example of childish Icon Envy.

WalMart attempts to greet customers universally as equals. Christians respond in fury that they are not given special, exclusive treatment, and that people of other religions are not shunned. WalMart, naturally, caves.

Meanwhile, the War Against Non Christians spreads to England, where Christians angrily insist that Christianity get special treatment, lamenting the “politically correct” trend of treating everyone as equals. Their claims as to why Christianity deserves to be highlighted? Here’s the money quote: “Christian campaigners had worked hard in the past to secure freedom of speech and religion.” Did he mean to say “Christian Crusaders”? Such an attitude ignores the fact that Christians have been and still are responsible for far more effort to curtail such freedoms, despite the number of those who work in the opposite direction. In fact, most western religions have been responsible for almost all of the religious oppression in history, and for a good part of repression of free speech as well. Maybe Britons should celebrate that fact as well. The ironic twist? The Christian defender was a Sikh. That left Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, to be the only voice of reason, stating the obvious: “Christians are not being pushed out of public life. If anything they are over-represented.”

And finally, the best for last. Of course you know about how Papa Bear Bill O’Reilly and his minions consider any statement of holiday cheer that does not include the word “Christmas” as being an outright attack against Christianity. Never mind that such a viewpoint is bigoted as it means people of all other faiths are not only excluded, but tagged as the enemy. Think I’m exaggerating? The get a load of this story, where four young Jewish subway passengers were physically assaulted for saying “Happy Chanukah.” Their attackers? A gang of ten Christians, likely Bill-O fans, who had taken upon themselves the mission of yelling “Merry Christmas!” to everyone on the train. The four Jewish kids decided to return the holiday cheer, and got attacked for their blatant non-Christian-ness. The ironic twist? The person who came to their aid was a Muslim kid, who interposed himself between the Jewish kids and the Christian attackers, and got punched and beaten for his troubles. The Jews and Muslims are now forming an interfaith alliance as a result. This, by the way, was not in Jerusalem (does Jerusalem even have a subway?). It was in lower Manhattan.

Of course, the whole idea that Christians being under attack because the holidays are becoming more generic is kind of like saying that American art is under attack because Japanese anime are not being respected as they should be. Christmas has less to do with Christ than it has to do with compromises to pagans to get them to convert. From the pagan rites and seasonal holidays being magically transformed into “Christian” events, right up to the color of Santa’s costume being decided upon by the Coca-Cola company, Christmas is Christian in name only, codified more by repetition over the years than by relevance to anything actually Christian in nature. The “12 Days of Christmas” began as the celebration of Saturnalia; “Yule” is in honor of Thor. Christmas trees are decidedly pagan. For these reasons, even Christians have sometimes rejected Christmas, from Puritans to Protestants, and even today, sects like Jehovah’s Witnesses.

But to today’s religious revisionists, anything that is associated with Christianity is sacred no matter what its origins, and lack of worship of any of that is equated to an attack against Christianity. This demonstrates all too well why there should be a high and strong wall of separation: as has happened so often in the past, if Christianity gains control, it will persecute those not belonging to its controlling sect. This is quite ably demonstrated already by the scorn and aggression being heaped on people by Christians for failing to pay obeisance to a religion not their own. And yet Christians show outrage when Islamic countries persecute people for Christian activities. They’re simply more outright about their bigotry.

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  1. Stuart
    December 19th, 2007 at 14:02 | #1

    In answer to your rhetorical question — no Jerusalem doesn’t have a subway. There is a planned light rail line though: http://www.rakevetkala-jerusalem.org.il/en_main.html.

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