- Well, 2004 has arrived, which means that dreaded "C
word" is behind us. Put politely, "the holiday season" has
passed. Having shopped in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle lately and
having listened to talk radio in each city, I couldn't help noticing a
startling double standard.
-
- Overwhelmingly, store assistants and talk-radio hosts
bid farewell to Jewish guests with a cheerful "Happy Hanukkah"
while others, including those identified as Christians, received the generic
"Happy holidays." With each passing year, secular fundamentalism
more successfully injects into American culture the notion that the word
"Christmas" is deeply offensive. Well, after watching this year's
repeat of the annual "hate Christianity ritual," I think we may
be mistaken in allowing this assault to go unchallenged.
-
- OK, maybe referring to it as a "hate Christianity
ritual" is a little over the top. But it certainly is obsequious regard
for faiths like Judaism and even Islam, while treating Christianity with
contempt and disrespect. It is not that I want Judaism treated with less
respect; it is just that I think that Christianity deserves just as much
respect. And I say this as an Orthodox rabbi who has spent a lifetime teaching
Torah and devoting myself to the long-term interests of Judaism.
-
- I don't think that America's Jewish community does itself
any long-term good by denouncing every public expression of Christian faith
as if it were a force-fed dose of castor oil. This anti-Christianism is
not only unhealthy for all Americans; I think it is particularly destructive
for Jews to be leading the extirpation of all signs of Christian fervor
from the village square.
-
- Palm Beach, Fla., prohibited a Christian group from placing
a depiction of Christ in the manger alongside a menorah on public property.
One of the plaintiffs, Maureen Donnell, told Fox News, "They've discriminated
against us. They allow the menorahs but they have absolutely no interest
in these Nativity scenes." Donnell and her co-plaintiff want the menorah
and the Nativity scene to be displayed next to each other. But Palm Beach
officials remained unmoved. Today, Palm Beach is a city with a large Jewish
population. It would be wonderful to be able to believe that Palm Beach's
Jews fought as valiantly for Christian religious rights as they have had
to do in the past for their own.
-
- Many Jewish parents, who remain indifferent when their
children bop to rap music's obscene lyrics, recoil in horror at the same
kids' exposure to Christmas carols. It is invariably a local rabbi who
teams up with the ACLU to file a lawsuit against the school singing carols
or the town unwary enough to allow a Nativity scene on the library lawn.
-
- A music teacher in a Washington school removed the "C
word" from the lyrics in Dale Wood's "Carol from an Irish Cabin"
to read: "The harsh wind blows down from the mountains and blows a
white winter to me."
-
- Parent Darla Dowell, whose 7-year-old daughter sang the
song, called the decision "absurd."
-
- "I think the most important thing that angers me
is that they sent a message to my child that there's something wrong with
Christmas and saying Christmas and celebrating it and performing it at
her school with her peers," Dowell told Fox News. She couldn't understand
why it's OK to exclude Christmas when her daughter was forced to sing Hanukkah
tunes that included lyrics about the "mighty miracle" of Israel's
ancient days. In that song, there were at least six mentions of the Jewish
holiday.
-
- Although I suppose it is possible, does anyone feel confident
that Mrs. Dowell will think better of Jews in 2004 than she did in 2003?
How exactly does this aggressively applied double standard help to maintain
the mutual respect that used to characterize the relations between American
Jews and Christians?
-
- A 1989 Supreme Court decision in Allegheny County v.
ACLU found a Nativity scene on the main staircase of the county courthouse
to be unconstitutional. The court emphasized that the privately owned crèche,
which included a banner proclaiming "Gloria in Excelsis Deo"
("Glory to God in the Highest"), was indisputably religious.
In the same case, however, a five-judge majority found that a nearby display
featuring an 18-foot Hanukkah menorah did not violate the Establishment
Clause.
-
- In the interests of truth and friendship, it ought to
be the entire Jewish community protesting the court's actions. Instead,
in a bizarre inversion of truth, many of us Jews triumph at Christianity's
suppression as if we had just replayed the 2-millennia-old victory of the
Macabees against secularism.
-
- Holiday greeting cards also demonstrate this syndrome
quite well. Don't take my word for it - step up to the greeting card racks
in your local drug store and see what I mean. Virtually every Hanukkah
card is tasteful, well OK, deferential at least. Similarly, every Kwanzaa
card is a paper paean to this rootless, recent invention. Cards intended
for blacks and Jews are respectful. No sir, you won't find too many cards
taking vulgar, humorous shots at those holidays.
-
- Now check out the Christmas cards. Oh sorry, I should
have said "check out the holiday cards" or "check out the
winter season cards." You'll be hard pressed to even find a card that
mentions the word "Christmas." It is as if the word is deemed
so offensive that casual card browsers should be protected from accidental
contamination. Alongside the decent cards you'd expect, you will also find
tasteless Christmas cards that mock the holiday. You'll even find off-color
risqué Christmas cards that you'd be embarrassed to be caught looking
at. What secularism seems to be saying is, if we can't completely banish
Christmas, let's at least turn it into a bad joke.
-
- New York City schools encourage their students to bring
decorations that reflect Judaism and Islam, but Christian decorations are
prohibited. Yes, that is right. Holiday displays of the Jewish menorah
and Islam's star and crescent are allowed in some 1,200 public schools
in New York City, but the crèche, or nativity display, are verboten.
(The case is currently being heard in federal court in Brooklyn. The suit,
which should have been brought in a spirit of brotherhood by a Jewish organization,
doesn't seek to prohibit the Jewish and Muslim exhibits, but to end discrimination
against Christianity.)
-
- Nationwide, Christmas Nativity scenes are banned from
city halls and shopping malls but Hanukkah menorahs are permitted. (They
are only cultural symbols, not religious, you see.) Seattle city employees
are prohibited from wishing one another a merry Christmas but permitted
to say "Happy Holidays" or even "Happy Hanukkah."
-
- The storm troopers of secularism who so diligently guard
the rest of us from inadvertent exposure to the Christmas virus can rest
for another year. Their work is done for now, but right after Thanksgiving,
they'll be back, you'll see. Hey! I have a great idea - this year, let's
be ready for 'em.
-
- Radio talk-show host Rabbi Daniel Lapin is president
of Toward Tradition, America's leading bridge-builder, spanning the divide
between Christians and Jews by sculpting ancient solutions to modern problems
in areas of family, faith and fortune.
-
- © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.
-
- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36435
-
-
- Comment
- Jim Mortellaro
- 1-5-4
-
- Here I Come to Save the Day ...
-
- The Rabbi speaks truth. This Christian will attest to
the fact. However in my old age, I much prefer to diss those who are or
have been Christians, former Christians who have somehow developed a most
horrible taste for their religious background.
-
- Perhaps it is because of the Christian Fundamentalists
and their subservience to the word as written. Perhaps it is the fundamentalists
of all religious, fundamentalists of all political associations ... perhaps
it is fundamentalism which creates this atmosphere of "Diss the Christians!"
-
- But why the Christian? Because the Christian is in the
majority. And the majority is open for attack by all comers. All minorities.
It's the guy with the visibility that takes the heat most of the time.
The guy at the top, some of the time.
-
- In this society, it is the man at the top who takes hits
merely because he or she is on the top. It makes you a target, being on
top. And this society is rife with such culbable stupidity. The green eyed
monster creates hate which begets violence and this world is ruled by violence.
Dylan said that so it must be so. I am a Dylan fundamentalist. Sue me.
-
- To be a practicing, believing Christian today is to be
a target. To be president, a leading home/housewares lady person is to
be a target, to be the Crocodile Hunter is to be a target, to be a Jackson,
et al. is to be a target. The underdog is now in the catbird seat. Throw
a sufficient amount of bovine excrement at the target and baby, some is
gonna stick.
-
- "Have no fear ... UNDERDOG is here!"
-
- "Here I come to save the day, Mighty ACLU is on
the way. Here I come to save the day, Mighty (fill in your own particular
paradigm here) is on the way!"
-
- OK. I am a Christian. I am enamored with the love and
security of past decades. Of the innocence of the past. Now however, we
must deal with reality. And the reality is that those like the Christian,
like the righteous Politically Conservative, like the righteous left, all
take the hits we don't deserve. To be righteous and truthful to our own
selves is anathema. It's the new law.
-
- The old law, the one Jesus left with us, the law of love,
is now bunk. Replaced by the new covenant. The covenant of hate. The law
of the oppressive society which is now repressing righteousness in all
it's forms. Those who observe this new covenant are not, however, associated
with Jesus or the prophets, or God Himself, they are associated with evil.
They are those who testify their truth whilst knowing they are being hurtful
to others.
-
- They are the evil ones. They are the ones who are asocial,
sociopathic if you will. Hurting others who you know are your betters does
wonders to your ego. It is self fulfilling. It gathers within you the esteem
for your own self which you lack. And as this writer has written in the
past, those who have arrived at this nexus in their lives know all too
well that they began their journey with a lie.
-
- Their asocial behavior is demonstrated by the fact that
now, they've grown to believe their lies.
-
- I have spoked.
-
- Jim Mortellaro
-
-
- Comment
Alton Raines
1-5-04
-
- I'm personally sick and tired of hearing how American
Christians are persecuted. And I am one. Every freakin' one of us that
signed up in this faith knew the score. Being a Christian means standing
in the gap, being entirely and utterly different from everyone around you.
When the mob moves left, you're moving right. When all rationale and logic
says to do "A" you're very likely to find the real Christian
doing "B" or "C" or "XYZ" because everything
we do springs from an unworldly paradigm; as Jesus said, "My kingdom
is not of this world (system)." Likewise, neither are his true followers
and neither are the laws and ways by which they conduct themselves in life.
You can always spot the phoney Christian, he or she is embraced by the
world and is embracing the world system -- the true believer does not.
But do we whine about the subsequent persecutions? God forbid! In fact,
we hope for more. We desire to suffer with Christ. We understand the cosmic
significance of suffering. We know we're not here for a good time. We're
here to represent a line in the sand of time, a demarcation which divides
all -- God's way or the highway. When you hear Christians whining and moaning,
you can discount them as frauds. We are, like our Lord, "lambs to
the slaughter" -- "he opened not his mouth." Neither do
we. We don't take people to court. We don't sue. We don't seek back what
is stolen from us. We don't return evil for evil. These are the teachings
of the Son of God, the Lord of Life, Jesus Christ. You either live it,
or you don't. But God forbid we need any special attention, services, laws
or PACs in Washington! We don't need it. Screw us, kill us, imprison us,
ignore us, do whatever you will ... we win. We inherit not only the earth
but eternal life with the Creator by grace through faith. But don't pity
us. And please don't confuse us with our false brethren of the world.
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