Bah, humbug
"The secularist camp, led by Tom Flynn ... charges that 'Merry Christmas' is used to condemn and exclude non-Christians from the month or so between Thanksgiving and New Year's, a season that the Christians have hijacked, and with their traditions 'poisoned the December air.' Americans, says Flynn, 'need to recognize that a war of sorts is genuinely in progress, a war to redefine American life ... and it is desperately important that non-Christians win.'
"Trying to follow Mr. Flynn's twisted reasoning is like trying to follow a white line in a snowstorm. Christians, he claims, are attempting to redefine American life, and if they succeed America will be rendered all but unrecognizable. Worse, if the secularists are defeated, no one will be safe from Christmas carolers, Salvation Army bell ringers and Charlie Brown Christmas specials. ... Wishing someone a 'Merry Christmas' may in fact constitute hate speech, equal in effect to cross burning. ...
"Who would have thought that one little phrase, one little wish for happiness and peace on earth would cause such hard feelings, such belligerencies?"
— Christopher Orlet, writing on "Merry Christmas as Hate Speech," Tuesday in the American Spectator Online at www.spectator.org |
