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Thread ID: 16016 | Posts: 9 | Started: 2004-12-18
2004-12-18 09:49 | User Profile
[url=http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/News/Francis/Principalities.html]WAR ON CHRISTMAS IS A WAR ON THE WEST[/url]
by Samuel Francis
December 15, 2004
December is not even half over, and already the war on Christmas has started. Out in the Red State of Colorado, where traditional culture supposedly thrives, the city of Denver has waded into a little cultural gunplay that is attracting national attention. But Denver is not the only battlefield. Increasingly, it looks like Christmas may be pitched in the same trashcan as the Confederate Flag.
In Denver, local merchants have for years sponsored a pallid festival called the "Parade of Lights," which sported Santa Claus but no Christian images. The "mood," as The New York Times described it last week, "was bouncy, commercial and determinedly secular." The Parade "shunned politics and anything remotely smacking of controversy, including openly religious Christmas themes that might offend." (Well, not entirely.)
It's interesting there's someone in Denver who thinks that "openly religious themes" in a Christmas event "might offend." It's even more interesting to consider that someone in Denver actually would be offended by such themes. But perhaps most interesting of all is that nowhere in the entire New York Times story, despite several references to "the controversy," is a single person or group identified who actually admits to being offended by religious imagery.
The people who were offended were local Christian groups fed up with the absolute refusal of local businessmen to mention religion at all. This year, the Faith Bible Chapel sought permission to run a float in the Parade of Lights that carried explicit religious themes, with a choir singing hymns and carols. Permission denied. Too controversial, you see. Can you imagine what would happen if somebody in a Christmas parade actually started singing "Silent Night"? The horror, the horror.
Michael Krikorian, a spokesman for the Downtown Denver Partnership, which sponsors the parade, says they don't allow "direct religious themes," and that includes "Merry Christmas" signs and singing or playing traditional Christmas hymns. "We want to avoid that specific religious message out of respect for other religions in the region," Krikorian smirks. "It could be construed as disrespectful to other people who enjoy a parade each year."
But the horror of being misconstrued apparently extends only to Christian themes. The Parade of Lights, as the Rocky Mountain News reported, "includes the Two Spirit Society, which honors gay and lesbian American Indians as holy people; a German folk dance group; and performers of the Lion Dance, a Chinese New Year tradition 'meant to chase away evil spirits and welcome good luck and good fortune for the year.'" Sounds sort of like a "specific religious message," no?
Nevertheless, denied permission to chase away the evil spirits of their choice, "hundreds" of Denver area Christians showed up on the sidewalks anyway and sang "carols about mangers, shepherds and holy spirits, handed out hot chocolate and spoke of their faith."
There you go. The witchcraft trials can be expected to start any day now.
In fact, nothing much happened, except the businessspersons now say they are going to have to "re-evaluate" the event. "This was always just supposed to be a cutesy parade, for the kids," says Jim Basey, president of the Downtown Denver Partnership. "The purpose was to get bodies downtown." No offensiveness for Basey.
Denver is not the only city to enjoy a little Christmas cultural warfare. The Washington Times reports that the mayor of Somerville, Mass., has issued a public apology for "mistakenly" calling the local "holiday party" a "Christmas party," while "School districts in Florida and New Jersey have banned Christmas carols altogether, and an 'all-inclusive' holiday song program at a Chicago-area elementary school included Jewish and Jamaican songs, but no Christmas carols."
In Washington, a school banned a play of "A Christmas Carol" because of Tiny Tim's prayer, and neighboring libraries banned Christmas trees. The website Vdare.com sponsors an annual scrutiny of the "war against Christmas." It has lots more examples.
Christmas, to be fair, is not an exclusively religious holiday, though Christians are entirely right to insist on preserving that meaning, among others. It's a celebration that has been around so long it has acquired non-religious meanings as well, but meanings that go well beyond Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman. It's a festival that comes from the heart of the traditional West, which is why music, literature, films and common social customs center around it so much.
At least some of the people who want to abolish it are not intentionally anti-Western. They're people who have simply disengaged themselves from their own civilization and are entirely indifferent as to whether it survives or not. Being strangers in their own land, they no longer have a clue as to what Christmas and its symbols mean, and it's not only Christmas that's "just supposed to be a cutesy parade." It's everything else their civilization has created.
To find out more about Samuel Francis, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at [url]www.creators.com[/url].
COPYRIGHT 2004 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
2004-12-18 11:25 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Increasingly, it looks like Christmas may be pitched in the same trashcan as the Confederate Flag.[/QUOTE] While I'm on Canny's side and don't want to see Christmas assaulted any further, let alone discarded, drawing analogies to the Confederate Flag seems, to me, a [I]disastrous [/I] tack to take. It connotes the birth of Christ with a longing for chattel slavery, for pity's sake. Maybe he's not so Canny, our Sammy.
Sometimes I wonder about conservatives. Even the 'moderate' tradcons shoot themselves in the foot by adding these kinds of wildly-inappropriate riders to every argument they present, time and again. You've [B]got [/B] an issue that people instinctively are responding to - [I]don't [/I] complicate their wrath with such notions as God taking sides in the Civil War.
[QUOTE]Denver is not the only city to enjoy a little Christmas cultural warfare. The Washington Times reports that the mayor of Somerville, Mass., has issued a public apology for "mistakenly" calling the local "holiday party" a "Christmas party," while "School districts in Florida and New Jersey have banned Christmas carols altogether, and an 'all-inclusive' holiday song program at a Chicago-area elementary school included Jewish and Jamaican songs, but no Christmas carols." In Washington, a school banned a play of "A Christmas Carol" because of Tiny Tim's prayer, and neighboring libraries banned Christmas trees. [/QUOTE] This is [I]insanity[/I]. This goes far beyond Jewish subversion and speaks to a despicable and craven pusillanimity in white Christians, perhaps to be expected from people who make a big deal about telling the world they re-elected Bush because he "shares our religious values". The only way this changes is twofold:
a] a concerted effort - [I]beginning in late November [/I] - to boycott the buying of Christmas cards and presents. Of course you won't get a 100% turnout, but even 50 or 60% will effectively bring business first to its knees and then, to its senses. (It [I]has [/I] to begin in late November because you can't allow the business community time to 'rethink', ie, save face and not lose their shirts. You have to hurt them badly enough that they won't [B]need[/B] any further reminders that Christmas is not a marketing gimmick, to be abused with impunity, for years to come)
b] [I]explicitly targeting [/I] all public officials up for re-election who have facilitated the anti-Christmas trend. And I mean attack ads that make the charge and back it up from the public record. It would be nice if we could have normal, rational conservatives, and not Jerry Falwell-type bozos in ice-cream suits, leading the charge
But you're not getting Christmas back by wishing the bad people away under your breath in the dead of night where nobody can see or hear you.
[QUOTE]The Parade of Lights, as the Rocky Mountain News reported, "includes [B]the Two Spirit Society, which honors gay and lesbian American Indians as holy people[/B]....[/QUOTE] "Yes, I'd like to trade in this crucifix for a lilac-scented arrowhead, please."
"Ah. Joining the Two Spirit Society, are you?"
"Yes, my two kids and I are riding in the float at this year's Parade of Lights."
"Sounds fab. Who's the float honoring this year?"
"Mates Like Crab, the chieftain of the Kaposi Sarcomas."
2004-12-19 06:59 | User Profile
[QUOTE=il ragno]While I'm on Canny's side and don't want to see Christmas assaulted any further, let alone discarded, drawing analogies to the Confederate Flag seems, to me, a [I]disastrous [/I] tack to take. It connotes the birth of Christ with a longing for chattel slavery, for pity's sake. Maybe he's not so Canny, our Sammy.
Sometimes I wonder about conservatives. Even the 'moderate' tradcons shoot themselves in the foot by adding these kinds of wildly-inappropriate riders to every argument they present, time and again. You've [B]got [/B] an issue that people instinctively are responding to - [I]don't [/I] complicate their wrath with such notions as God taking sides in the Civil War.
Spoken like a true Nawthenaw. Don't you know how killing bluebellies ranks alongside communion as sacrement in the Confed's holy writ? :lol:
This is [I]insanity[/I]. This goes far beyond Jewish subversion and speaks to a despicable and craven pusillanimity in white Christians, perhaps to be expected from people who make a big deal about telling the world they re-elected Bush because he "shares our religious values". The only way this changes is twofold:[/QUOTE] Half the time WN's criticize Christians for their aggressive dictatorial theocratic tendencies, the other half mocking the pusillanimity.
I think part of the problem is just, in the post Christian west, even WN's are so distant from Christianity they don't really understand it, any more than any other cultural foreigner would. Go to Church occasionally and you might be able to understand the Christian world a little better.
Not disagreeing with a lot of your observations, which are right on target. But its a lot easier to offer criticism than really constructively propose action.
2004-12-19 07:09 | User Profile
[QUOTE=il ragno]While I'm on Canny's side and don't want to see Christmas assaulted any further, let alone discarded, drawing analogies to the Confederate Flag seems, to me, a [I]disastrous [/I] tack to take. It connotes the birth of Christ with a longing for chattel slavery, for pity's sake. Maybe he's not so Canny, our Sammy.
I think his point was that the same group is behind banning the Confederate flag and Christmas from the public square, which he may be writing with a wink.
2004-12-19 09:49 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Go to Church occasionally and you might be able to understand the Christian world a little better.
Not disagreeing with a lot of your observations, which are right on target. [/QUOTE]
Then the part about going to church was just schoolmarm-scolding.
[QUOTE]But its a lot easier to offer criticism than really constructively propose action.[/QUOTE]
I gave you [B]two [/B] proposals: boycott Christmas shopping for one year to use your massive economic leverage in your own interests, for once; and remind people in [I]next[/I] year's campaigns which candidates "apologized for", or savaged, or tried to obliterate, the very idea of Christmas [B]this [/B] year.
My God; you people don't seem to really [I]want [/I] anything but to be curtsied before, and admired for your [I]principled complaining[/I]....
2004-12-19 09:56 | User Profile
[QUOTE]I think his point was that the same group is behind banning the Confederate flag and Christmas from the public square, which he may be writing with a wink.[/QUOTE]
Quite possibly. But by making the analogy, you establish a connection your enemies can club you with; and instead of capitalizing on one hot-button issue you can press an attack with, now you have to divert your energies away from going forward to defuse a second, wholly immaterial and counter-productive sidebar...that you raised in the first place.
Honestly, if Francis would just name the Jew every [I]once [/I] in a while, where appropriate, he'd save a lot of time he's now using [I]winking at readers[/I] .
2004-12-19 16:18 | User Profile
It's not the lighted trees, Santa, reindeers, or the giving of gifts they hate. It's the Name of Christ. This is what really drives the Jews and their Gentile flunkys nuts, especially this time of the year.
Oh, by the way: Merry CHRISTmas to all of you on this forum!!!!!
vytis
2004-12-19 22:56 | User Profile
Edgar Steele zeros in like a laser beam on those who work so tirelessly to destroy everything Christian in any society that they infest.
Link: [url]http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/columns/xmas.htm[/url]
2004-12-22 04:34 | User Profile
[QUOTE=vytis]It's not the lighted trees, Santa, reindeers, or the giving of gifts they hate. It's the Name of Christ. This is what really drives the Jews and their Gentile flunkys nuts, especially this time of the year.
Oh, by the way: Merry CHRISTmas to all of you on this forum!!!!!
vytis[/QUOTE]
From me to you even if you don't like me, how can't you? hhehehehehhee
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU.