I enjoy making up politically correct versions of Christmas carols. (Check them out here and here.) But today many young people may not know what I am parodying − they are unfamiliar with the carols we knew so well. This year I listened to radio and watched TV in the weeks before Christmas. Unless I tuned to a religious station, carols were few and far between. Even mall music included fewer carols than in the past.

My favorite carol is “Good King Wenceslas.” It expresses the essence of religion − not dogma, but treating our fellow humans with kindness. But I rarely hear it on TV or radio. Kids used to grow up hearing carols like this for Christmas, hearing patriotic music for Independence Day, and hearing Sinatra sing “My Way” and Elvis sing “Love Me Tender.”

Now kids grow up hearing that Grammy-nominated favorite “F**k You,” and the Oscar winner “It’s Hard out Here for a Pimp.” Can you believe that what young people are exposed to during their formative years has no effect on them? We protect their lungs from second-hand smoke, but we forget to protect their souls from pollution.

Someone who steals the financial inheritance of young people is called a thief and is sent to prison. But someone who steals the cultural and spiritual inheritance of young people makes money with rap “music” or MTV, and is honored by being called “modern” − as in a “modern” TV executive, a “modern” musician, or a “modern” educator.

But he is a worse thief − he stole something more valuable than money. And he left young people far poorer, and far less able to defend their civilization against those who want to destroy it.

When we “deck the hall with nothing at all,” we demonstrate not just a lack of Christmas spirit, but also a lack of the spirit we need to survive as a people. Cultural amnesia is like Alzheimer’s − a tragic condition that robs us of our identity and is ultimately fatal.

Polls reveal that 96% of Americans celebrate Christmas. How is it “inclusive” to exclude this vast majority? And 90% believe it is the birthday of Jesus. How is it “tolerant” not to tolerate expression of this widely held belief? Liberals claim that our Founders were deists or agnostics who wrote the Constitution to prevent any influence of religion on our public life. Nothing could be further from the truth.

“Happy holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”? Insist on it at work. Nativity scenes on city property? Rule them illegal. Salvation Army Santas collecting money for the needy? Kick them out of malls. Carols or Christmas trees in schools? Never! But skeletons and ghouls for Halloween? No problem. The first year West Hollywood, California was incorporated as a city, the city offices were closed on Halloween but open on Christmas Day. What does that tell you?

Then we have the usual complaints about Christmas being commercialized, and that we are deep into “consumerism.” These complaints might be legitimate, if they came from clergy who want to emphasize the spiritual meaning of Christmas. But why do secular liberals make similar complaints?

And why do these people never complain that Halloween is too commercialized? After all, Halloween is now our second-largest shopping season. There may be a clue here. Witches and devils? No problem – shop till you drop. But Baby Jesus in the manger? No way!
To quote Tom Piatak:

Giotto never painted a Kwanzaa scene, Bach did not write a Hanukkah oratorio, and Dickens did not pen a Ramadan Carol.

Could we at least be a tiny bit grateful for the art, music, and literature inspired by Christianity?

This isn’t the first time that totalitarians tried to ban Christmas. The communists did — for example, for 30 years in Castro’s Cuba. Most Christmas ornaments are made in communist China – but until recently were not allowed to be used there. The Nazis replaced Christmas with Julfest, a pagan winter Yule festival. Totalitarians can’t tolerate any Authority higher than themselves. A former conscript in the Nazi SS recalled that he was forced to celebrate not Christmas, but a counterfeit winter holiday concocted by the Nazis:

On Christmas Eve, there was a celebration, not a Christian one, but a pagan German “Julfest.” We were all together and had to sing some trash about the night of the clear stars and other sad substitutes for the true Christmas message.

Those who want to eradicate all signs of our Judeo-Christian heritage imagine that this will lead to a tolerant, secular nation. But the 20th century proved that secular nations can turn out to be anything but tolerant. If you doubt this, study the history of Nazism and communism.

In poker, if you are a good bluffer, you can sometimes win with poor cards. But in real life, you can’t beat something with nothing. The first rule of gun fights is bring a gun. The first rule of culture wars is bring a culture.

Now we are confronted by the threat of Muslim extremists. If we have no deep beliefs, how can we hope to resist the onslaught of fanatics? Observe what is happening in Western Europe. It would be ironic if the campaign against Christianity results not in “tolerance” and “inclusiveness,” but in an extremist Muslim theocracy.

Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, one of the greatest churches in the world, was turned into a mosque, then a museum, and may become a mosque again. When the pope visited, he was forbidden to pray or even to cross himself. This is similar to the situation in Jerusalem. Jews can pray at the Western Wall, which was merely a retaining wall for the Temple that the Romans destroyed in A.D. 70. But Jews are forbidden to pray, even momentarily, on the Temple Mount itself, because it contains a mosque.

Is it possible that the same thing could happen to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and Westminster Abbey in London? Could they become museums or mosques? This seems unlikely now, but we shall see – perhaps sooner than we imagine.

Whenever you feel pressured to say “Happy holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” you might consider these points. But while it is still permitted, may I have the pleasure of wishing you and yours a merry and blessed Christmas!

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Contact: dstol@prodigy.net. You are welcome to publish or post these articles, provided that you cite the author and website.
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