Merry Christmas

Excellent commentary from the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee, politely requesting that people please stop making claims that latte-sipping politically correct atheists are out to ban Christmas:

“…it’s all utter nonsense. No one is out to ban Christmas or Christianity – not atheists nor other faiths. Yet every year the same urban myths are repeated about the banning of Christmas by some pantomime villain local authority suffering from “political correctness gone mad”. King Rat Christmas wreckers are unearthed, and every year these turn out to be garbage stories, but they are stored in the attic for another airing next December.”

No sooner had I read this article did CFCF’s Barry Wilson in his weekly Kent Brockmanesque “Post-Script” go and make the very claim Ms. Toynbee is dispelling: that political correctness is infringing on the beliefs of the Christian majority and, this is an interesting claim, that religious-themed Christmas cards cannot be found in stores. Remembering this claim, yesterday while finishing up some Christmas shopping in the Bay, I grabbed the first box of Christmas cards I could find, just too see if the claim holds up. Unless an angel is considered secular, I don’t think that it does.

He also wrote something similar two weeks ago on his blog. Wilson isn’t the only offender. Rex Murphy rewrites the same editorial every year. It’s become as much a Christmas tradition as carols, the Swiss Chalet Festive Meal, and skating-themed CBC Christmas specials.

I don’t believe in the Bible as literal truth but as in all great mythology, there is much truth to be found within it. Without mythology, we’re a poorer people.

For reasons as simple as general politeness (which the right has taken to calling “political correctness”) and respect for the beliefs of others, no serious person is reqesting that Christmas be somehow banned, even if such a thing were possible.

People have been saying “Happy Holidays” for decades. It’s a non-issue and I wish the media would realise this and stop rewriting the same pack of misrepresentations every year just because it’s the end of the year and they’re tired of coming up with something original.