| Last updated at 10:53 AM on 24/12/07 |
The absurdity of political correctness 
DON DICESARE
Now that the Christmas season is fully upon us, it may be worthwhile examining how the purveyors of politically correct thinking are slowly but surely pecking away at this Christian tradition with the avowed objective of taking away all references to Christ, God, or Lord, and turning it into "the holiday", a non-descript, meaningless, politically absurd time of the year.
The absurdity was demonstrated last Christmas by an Ontario Judge who ordered a Christmas tree removed from the lobby of the courthouse because it was a "Christian" symbol and it might offend some other religion or even some atheist.
While I'm not about to try to prove or disprove that Christ was the son of God, I am sure of one thing. I can't think of any other person whose birthday has been celebrated by virtually the entire world, continuously for over 2000 years. Nor can I think of any other person whose birth changed the course of calendar numbering from BC to AD and even caused a Christmas truce in the First World War trenches of Europe. His birth obviously means something. I can't say the same about some of the other prophets.
So why are we so afraid of offending a Muslim, or Hindu, or agnostic, or someone who follows Judaism, by celebrating a Christian tradition? This fear of offending is a modern phenomenon pushed into our collective brain by the advocates of political correctness. These same people who want to remove Christmas trees from public places, or the word "Christmas" from all schools, or textbooks, also want to remove the tradition of saying "grace" or "blessing of food" at any public gathering, because it's supposedly a Christian tradition. The Christmas tree tradition incidentally, traces its history back further than Christianity. The Egyptians treasured and worshiped evergreens, the Romans celebrated the winter solstice with a feast in honour of the god of agriculture. They even decorated their houses with green boughs and lights (I'm not sure how they did that!) and exchanged gifts. The Druids used evergreens during winter solstice rituals and placed evergreen branches over doors to keep away evil spirits.
The blessing of food also goes back beyond the beginning of Christianity and the tradition is continued by virtually all religions who give thanks to a deity of some sort, for providing the sustenance of life. It is more than a Christian tradition. It's, in fact, a "planet earth" tradition because this little blue orb in the universe provides us with all we need.
The politically correct zealots have somehow perverted the original aim, at least in North America, of freedom of religion, which provided that we were all free to worship a deity in any form we wish, or not to worship at all. They have almost succeeded in changing freedom of religion to freedom from religion.
It is unfortunate that in doing so, they have inadvertently created an element of intolerance. Christians, in a basically Christian continent, are slowly being forced to "hide" their traditions for fear of offending other religions, while these other religions do not do the same, and in fact, openly and proudly display their faith. Sikhs are allowed to wear their head covering and ceremonial daggers in the military and the RCMP, Muslim women are not asked to remove their burkas, and there are numerous other examples.
This type of lop-sided political correctness builds mistrust and intolerance and does nothing to bring people together. In this age of high-tech communications and ease of information gathering, we should, in fact, be learning more of other cultures and religions, showcasing traditions and customs of all of them, and even embracing those that can help bring about a world-wide peace. Ignorance of other cultures and religious creates intolerance.
By the same token, immigrants of other faiths should be willing to learn of our Christian customs and traditions and allow us to pursue them openly and freely. Tolerance is a two-way street. Some other religions, Islam for instance, seem to have built-in intolerance for anyone who does not follow their credo and the fanatics among them (and every religion has its fanatics) have somehow perverted the Qur'an to allow them to kill the "infidel". Not a very good example of tolerance but a good example of how religion can start wars in the name of somebody's God.
Most of the wars and genocide events started in the past 100 years have had their roots in some sort of religious strife, from Northern Ireland to Bosnia, to the Middle East.
How absurd that we should fight over who has the greatest God! But this is what intolerance does and the advocated of this political correctness nonsense, rather than diminish intolerance, inadvertently help to create it.
We should all live life, celebrate it and the diversity of culture and religion, in a nation that tolerates them all, and where all religions learn to tolerate each other.
If all religions are somehow correct and they all really worship the one and same God, then the diversity shouldn't matter. Let's forget this meaningless "holidays" stuff and use the words that truly describe the season, whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan or whatever faith we believe in. Merry Christmas all!
Don DiCesare lives in Corner Brook and is a member of The Western Star's Community Editorial Board.
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