The War on Christmas

Dear Editor: After reading Mr. Koechler’s letter (“OK With Happy Holidays,” Jan. 12) I don’t know whether to feel sorry for him or be angry with his “distorted” views of a very holy and joyous time of the year for millions of Christians throughout the whole world!

At the signing of this nation’s Declaration of Independence, a Presbyterian pastor named Dr. John Witherspoon (founder of what today is Princeton University) added the final phrase “with firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.”
So God was very much involved in the lives of our Founding Fathers.

Here’s my advice:

1) Make sure you listen to the joyous Christmas carols proclaiming the birth of our Lord.

2) Be sure you sit down and watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Scrooge.”

3) Don’t be around children at Christmas time because they celebrate the magic and anticipation of Christmas with profound joy in their hearts!

As for me, I’ll keep putting my “Keep Christ In Christmas” magnet on my car at that time of the year and Christmas will always be a totally joyous time of the year for me just like it was when I was a child!

Paul Manheimer
Queens Village

 
Dear Editor: In noting their confident lack of inhibition for actually using the word Christmas in Christmas greetings, a reader accuses Republican politicians of promoting the opposite of Christ’s message the rest of the time while not honoring the requirement to provide specific examples. As a Republican, I take offense.

Jesus clearly did condemn sins of judgment, which means among other things not making assumptions about the interior states of heart and mind of others, especially categorical condemnations. Of greater offense is to read remarks, by several contributors over recent years, that imply that it is impossible for anti-Christian bigotry to exist and who maintain, in what seems to be attempts at imaginary bravery for criticizing their own, that it is the duty of Christians to realize that fault for the bigotry can only be attributed to ourselves.

The very real war against Christmas is merely one small part of the greater cultural war against Christianity. No one is saying that religious Christmas cards should be sent to Jewish friends, as the recent reader implied, but that the frequent and obvious episodes of discrimination towards Christian expression, where Jewish and Moslem symbols are welcomed in public places and Christmas symbols are explicitly banned by sneering hate-filled government officials, should not exist.

Neither should Christian teachers be fired for mentioning Christmas in the workplace, as many have. Neither should the efforts of those who protest be scolded with dreary and false platitudes about the Constitution requiring a separation of Church and State and a secular culture. The Constitution was created to place limits on the government, not the people, and in respect to religion, it prohibits government persecution of religion.

As Gandhi famously put it, anyone who believes that the separation of religion and politics is possible does not know anything about either. In recognizing that rights are immutable, the Constitution shouts the existence of God, as does the Declaration of Independence. Almost all state constitutions, to which the Constitution intended to allocate almost all governmental power – a principle obviously ignored these days – mention God as well.

Whole shelves of books have been written by clergy, legal scholars, and historians carefully documenting recent decades of unconstitutional and anti-Constitutional hostility towards religion by “progressives” in government, particularly in the judiciary, and out of government, particularly in academia. Yet there are those Christians who are in denial, and I suspect the reason has more to do with creating a moral escape mechanism, a phony pretext for sitting on one’s hands and ignoring matters like the liberal establishment’s war against life. Any moral sloth is possible when we have become conditioned by a culture where many are willing to turn compassion over to government or define it as getting rid of an inconvenient life. 

Deliberate misreading of the Constitution produces a political life and public discussion divested and divorced from religiously grounded moral judgment democratically expressed by a politically sovereign people. To counter this constitutional misreading is not to institute a sacred politics but a civil public square with civil discourse. Never has the Church, other Christians, or virtually all Americans up until recent decades accepted the odd notion that religion is exclusively a private matter. It is very personal, but it is not private.

Publicly Christ taught. Publicly he was crucified. Publicly he appeared in resurrected glory. Publicly he established his Church to bear witness to his present lordship and his coming kingdom. Publicly a Catholic is baptized and confirmed. Publicly a Catholic pledges allegiance in every Mass. Publicly each of us owes witness to God.

Bruce Mc Guinnis ESQ.
Via E-Mail

Dear Editor: In his letter concerning “Happy Holidays,” Joseph Koechler has missed the point about holiday greetings, particularly in department stores and the like. What many Christians have objected to is that salespeople were forbidden by some stores to use the phrase, “Merry Christmas.”

Happily, as a result of objections to this policy, some chains this year lifted this prohibition which in essence denied people their right to say the word “Christmas,” when in reality for hundreds of years this season has been designated as the time to celebrate the birth of Christ.

It is important to realize that this issue is only part of a larger agenda to keep Christ out of Christmas with the emphasis on making the season into more of a secular holiday.

Since we know there are many of the Jewish and other faiths who shop at this time of the year perhaps the expression should be “Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday,” so as not to insult anyone while keeping the true meaning of the holiday/holyday season alive.

Janet Collins
Jackson Heights

Dear Editor: I disagree with Joseph H. Koechler being okay with “Happy Holidays.” If he truly respected his friends, he would send them cards wishing them a Happy Chanukah, or Happy Kwanza, whichever holiday they celebrated and his friends would in turn send him cards wishing him a Merry Christmas.

The questions are: “Are we as Christians wrong because we don’t want to give our money to those who won’t wish us Merry Christmas?” or “Are they wrong because they want our money but will not wish us Merry Christmas?”

As far as the many Republican presidential candidates sending us Christmas wishes, most of them have proved their loyalty to Christ by constantly voting against the abortion and partial-birth abortion laws. They have shown their agreement with Christ and His love of children by fighting to protect and bringing them into this world.

Jesus said, in Mark 13, “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them…” Can anyone possibly give me any explanation of how voting for abortion of our children is following the teachings of Christ or how the Republicans who vote against abortion are not following the teaching of Christ.

Everyone knocks President Bush because of the war in Iraq, but he will go in the history books as bringing free elections to the Mid-East and don’t forget our war on abortion that has killed 43 million babies. He has stood alone and vetoed bills that allow partial-birth abortion.

How many of you know that in partial-birth abortion the babies’ arms, legs and eyes are cut off and sold. Go to www.priestsforlife.com and see what abortion is before you knock those who stand firm and fight against it.

Frances Ruocco
Brooklyn

The Rosary in Maspeth

Dear Editor: It was nice to read Joseph Franklin’s letter on the power of silent prayer. Over the Christmas holidays, I was able to pray the Rosary with the St. Anne’s Rosary Sodality at Transfiguration parish in Maspeth. The members say the Rosary daily before Mass and offer their prayers for the troops in Iraq and the sick in the parish. These senior ladies pray with the energy of  20-year-olds and have attracted a few men from time to time to join them in the decades of the Rosary.

In the past month, I have heard that three of the people prayed for have regained their health. These devout ladies simply bring themselves to the place of worship daily, say their prayers and Amens and move forward within the love of their relationship with God. They are a beautiful reminder to all of us that God loves us and asks us to share that love with others.

These ladies help all of us at Transfiguration parish remember that the heart of service lies in a heart of love.

Deacon Arthur Griffin
Maspeth