Christmas zealots

(photo by WRAL.com)


Advent is with us and Christmas approaches. It is a wonderful time of year, replete with all the traditions which make Western civilization great. Take the annual war over evergreen trees, songs and stables for instance.

What would Christmas be without zealots strutting about the town square denouncing with great moral rectitude any public manifestation of Christianity in the public square? I ask you, would Christmas seem the same without them? I think not. Why, it would be like holding Oktoberfest without the Womens' Christian Temperance League demonstrating outside the Bavarian beer tents. (What do you mean they don't? They bloody well should!)

Lest you think I am being too abstract in my commentary, I give you this concrete example, courtesy of Life Site News.

The sign at McDonald's on the corner of Falls of Neuse and Spring Forest Road [in
Raleigh N.C.] reads: "Merry Christmas, Jesus is the Reason for the Season." It is a holiday message that Amanda Alpert thinks comes on a little too strongly.

"It offends me because it specifically talks about Jesus, Merry Christmas. It doesn't give credit to anyone else," Alpert said.

Alpert called the McDonald's corporate office in Atlanta and requested that the sign be changed to the politically correct Happy Holidays. The response was the owner has the right to do what she wants with the sign.

"I care because I'm Jewish, and the reason for the season is upsetting to me," Alpert said.

Now that's the spirit of the season, Ms Alpert! Too bad McDonald's actually pays attention to the US constitution and the rights of owners. Still, it was worth a try. A true zealot - in the non-historical, non-Jewish, anaemic secular meaning of the word - must keep at it. You go girl!

Or how about (from WorldNetDaily) the Christian hip hop dancers (aged 8-12) in the great State of California (hat tip to Lost Budgie) who were banned by John Gates, senior supervisor for the Parks and Recreation Division of Chula Vista, from participating in a town holiday festival because they were wearing T-shirts that read, "Jesus Christ Dancer."

The father of one of the dancers, Al Reyes, questioned the supervisor's decision, asking why a Hawaiian dance group was allowed to perform "Feliz Navidad," "The First Noel," "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and a Hawaiian prayer song, in a native language.

After being challenged by a city representative on this point, Reyes said Gates replied, "I don't understand those songs, but I do understand what those shirts say."

Mr. Gates, may be tone deaf or maybe there were other reasons why he objected to the hip hoppers. Were they dancing to Gregorian chant? The article doesn't say. I like to think they were. Let's list Mr. Gates as zealous and vigilant, but somewhat musically challenged. Does the man not visit shopping malls?

I have already chronicled below the verbal assault by zealot John Kaiman on Fr. Nick Zientarski in Manhasset N.Y., when the good reverend father had the temerity to mention the child who must not be named during the blessing of the town's Christmas tree. I commend Mr. Kaiman for his efforts to protect the townfolk of Manhasset. For one brief shining moment he carried the torch of tolerance aloft. Now, alas, that torch is extinguished in because the intolerant burghers rose up as one to denounce his progressive efforts. Mr. Kaiman is a zealot ahead of his time. Lie you down to apologise a while to rise and denounce again, sir. Remember that zealousness is just another word for obstinate persistence.

Yes, we citizens should be grateful for the constant vigilance of these self-appointed guardians of the deep rooted culture of death, for they teach us much needed lessons about the need to be tolerant of others people's beliefs. I would truly miss them if they were not going about their sacred task. Of course, I mean "sacred" in its most anaemic secular sense.

I was going to mention that the tolerance crusaders rewrote the lyrics to the Christian song Silent Night in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. You may have heard Silent Night in the original Deutch, or possibly in its English version. I understand it has achieved a certain popularity in several languages since it was written by Franz Gruber and Joseph Mohr in Oberdorf Austria in l813. Most of us, with the possible exception of John Gates, would likely recognize the melody if we think about it. Mind you, unlike Mr. Gates, most of us visit shopping malls.

In my opinion, the new lyrics are perfectly suited to this age.

Cold in the night,
No one in site,
Winter winds whirl and bite,
How I wish I were happy and warm,
Safe with my family out of the storm.

Unfortunately for the storyline of this blog, the school board claims the whole affair is bogus.

Ridgeway Elementary didn't change the lyrics to "Silent Night." What they did was perform a 1988 copyrighted play called "The LittleTree's Christmas Gift."

That play actually contains numerous songs about Christmas, including the grand finale, an audience-led group singing of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." The play's creator, Dwight Elrich, happens to lead the New Covenant Singers of Bel
Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.

In fact, "The Little Tree's Christmas Gift" has been performed in several churches, including the Oakwood Forest Christian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee, the St.
Anthony Parish School in Des Moines, Iowa, and St. Mark's Episcopal Church of Abeline, Texas.

So why are the Silent Night lyrics changed in "Little Tree's Christmas?" Because the play is about a small, lonely Christmas tree that is told it is "too scraggly, it will never sell." That character sings the revised lyrics - "Cold in the night, No one in sight, Winter winds whirl and bite" - in a scene lamenting his sad state. The rewording has absolutely nothing to do with "secularizing" the song.

Sorry, Virginia, there is no "War on Christmas."

I think I shall cry and not just because of the thought of that scraggly little holiday bush all alone in the cold. It is the thought that zealotry is clearly not being taught in the public schools of Wisconsin. This is not good. We can't just let American youth graduate from schools without the proper indoctination on zealous vigilance and then just let them loose on society. Heck, they might vote for George Bush, or his doppleganger, the font of all evil here on planet Gaia.

Finnally, I choke up because of the more terrifying thought of there being no war on Christmas. Alas. If that assertion is correct, what's an old Catholic, former military, conservative blogger to do?