Christmas, a Time for Censorship?

As Christmas quickly approaches, businesses, schools, and the ACLU scramble to censor this wonderful holiday. Stores such as Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Sears/Kmart, Costco and Kohl's have handed down corporate policies prohibiting employees from saying “Merry Christmas.” Public schools across the country have banned students from singing Christmas Carols, and dozens more have caved to ACLU threats to sue if the school does not drop the term Christmas altogether.

Who gets offended by hearing “Merry Christmas?” Is anyone so sensitive that their feelings are hurt by those two words, which for years have conveyed a well wishing of Christmas spirit?

Ironically, not only do these policies pander to extremist-liberals, but the majority of Americans actually reject this absurd idea. Consider that 90 percent of Americans recognize Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ (Gallup, 2000). In fact, 88 percent of Americans are more likely to wish someone they just met “Merry Christmas” rather than “Happy Holidays” (CNN/USA Today/Gallup, 2004).

On November 10, 2003 the Colorado ACLU, in a letter joined by the Anti-Defamation League, alleged that, "Jewish students no longer feel safe or welcome at the Elbert County Charter School" because the school gave students a “Christmas holiday.” The letter demands that the school ban all references to Christmas in the school’s annual holiday program, including secular songs such as Jingle Bells.

In December 2004, Plano Independent School District School officials went so far as to prohibit students from wearing red and green at their ‘winter break’ parties because they claimed they were Christmas colors. Even the plates and napkins had to be white.

Within the past few years, liberal organizations such as the ACLU have initiated over nine lawsuits against school districts to purge the use of Christmas. They claim a violation of the so-called “separation of church and state.”

While I don’t have time to get into a detailed history of this absurd doctrine, realize that the words “separation,” “church,” and “state” never appear anywhere in the First Amendment! The Supreme Court has acknowledged the government’s longstanding recognition of holidays with religious significance, such as Christmas. Congress has proclaimed Christmas to be a legal public holiday. Guidelines issued by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley (under President Clinton) state “students therefore have the same right to engage in…religious discussion during the school day as they do to engage in other comparable activity.”

Stores and schools are disenfranchising the majority of Americans by bowing to the minority who is supposedly offended by the use of “Merry Christmas.”

Think about what Christmas brings to our society; it is such a wonderful holiday. Family and friends unite together around a charitable spirit. Stories such as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, or It’s a Wonderful Life, show how even those with little have much to be thankful for. And if there is a God, and Jesus Christ is His son, then wouldn’t it be wonderful to know that Christmas is the celebration of His birth? Just something to think about…

In the meantime, I wish you a very Merry Christmas.