Naomi Lakritz, Calgary Herald
Published: Thursday, December 22, 2005
Offensive. Season's greetings. Holiday tree. Winter festival. Yep, it's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas.
Once again, the Pharisees of political correctness are claiming the right to be offended on behalf of those of us who are of minority faiths. They never asked our opinion, of course, but they insist we must take umbrage at the creche in our neighbour's front yard. Or they fret that someone may wish us "Merry Christmas" and the foundations of multiculturalism will crumble to dust.
Listen here, politically correct Pharisees. I'll decide for myself what's offensive, and it's not Christmas. It's your supercilious, patronizing attitude toward me, my fellow Jews and people of other faiths. Even more offensive is your disdain for Christianity. It's the only religion in this country that is supposed to hide itself from public view as though it were something shameful.
If merely taking offence weren't enough, some of the more fervent critics go even further. Without "offensive" Christianity, they say, we'd be free to worship "reason." But whose definition of reason? Theirs?
Last week, the Ayn Rand Institute posted this paean to reason on its website: "Life requires reason, selfishness, capitalism; that is what Christmas should celebrate . . . It is time to take the Christ out of Christmas, and turn the holiday into a guiltlessly egoistic, pro-reason, this-worldly, commercial celebration."
In his book, The End of Faith, Sam Harris, another vociferous defender of "reason," argues religion is mental illness: "While religious people are not generally mad, their core beliefs are."
Well, if Christianity's core belief of "do unto others" is madness, then let's have more of it. Christian "madness" has made the world a better, more humane and compassionate place -- qualities that those who subscribe to "egoistic pro-reason" are not exactly known for.
Harris says faith is irrational because it is belief without evidence. Yet, the "evidence" is all around us. The soup kitchens, the homeless shelters, the Catholic hospitals, the outstretched hands to those who struggle, the countless charitable and social justice works Christian churches carry out in every Canadian city are all the evidence needed.
So, too, the extraordinary work done in Third World countries by organizations such as Samaritan's Purse, Christian Children's Fund, the Mennonite Central Committee and hundreds of others. These groups run the orphanages, dig the wells, feed, clothe, educate, vaccinate and care for the sick and dying.
Calgary's own Mustard Seed, which provides counselling, food, clothes, shelter and services for 800 people a day, was started by Pat Nixon, a homeless former drug dealer who was rescued by a Baptist church group.
A recipient of the Order of Canada, Nixon has said: "God was preparing me for His service in His kingdom."
I fail to see how celebrating the birthday of Jesus, the man in whose name all this amazing and wonderful work is done, can possibly be offensive.
