POLITICAL CORRECTNESS 2

Those darned Christians
From the way they're treated, you'd think they were a threat to the nation
By Licia Corbella
Calgary Sun
December 17, 2006

This country is in danger.

Most recently, that danger -- rooted at best in misplaced good intentions and at worst in either ignorance, hatred or intolerance -- was made evident by an Ontario judge.

Last Thursday Ontario Court Justice Marion Cohen ordered a Christmas tree to be moved out of the lobby of the Ontario Court of Justice on Jarvis St. to an infrequently travelled corridor because it's a Christian symbol and might offend people.

Thankfully, there was a backlash to her intolerance of the majority and founding culture and ethic of this country and the tree was replaced in its traditional spot.

"This is stupidity and takes political correctness to new heights," said Farzana Hassan, president of the Muslim Canadian Congress.

"We should ban political correctness, not the Christmas tree."

Well said. But can we?

Have we already gone too far down the anti-Christian political correctness road and if so what does it mean for this great country and, indeed, all the free world, where similar nonsense takes place frequently?

Last week's Christmas tree debacle is nothing new.

Many businesses, including Wal-Mart, The GAP and a host of others, have forbidden their employees from wishing Christmas shoppers a "Merry Christmas," even if fully 20% of their profits will be raked in during this short but busy season. They'll take our Christmas money but eschew the reason why we're digging a little deeper into our bank accounts.

In Canadian public schools, children who learn about Ramadan and Diwali and other minority religious holidays will be let out of school for the "winter break." No longer can they celebrate a Christmas concert, instead they will rehearse for a "Winter Festival" or "Winter Celebration."

The religious carols that make the generation gaps disappear are replaced by Frosty the Snowman and Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

According to the 2001 census figures on religion, fully 76.6% of all Canadians describe themselves as Christian, with the largest denomination being Catholic at 43.2%. Think about that. More than three-quarters of this country is Christian.

Yes, that's a decline from almost 100% a century ago, but it's still an overwhelming majority and one I don't think we have to apologize for or try to deny as a reality.

The next biggest ranking, with 16% goes to "no religion." The drop after that is immense, since Muslims are the next largest group, and yet they make up just 2% of the population. About 1.1% of the population adhere to the Jewish faith and it goes down from there.

Last year, during the Christmas election campaign then-prime minister Paul Martin bought a wreath.

Asked by a reporter if he was buying a holiday wreath or a Christmas wreath, Martin laughed and said: "It's a $240 wreath."

What a spineless coward. So desperate was Mr. Dithers for every vote he thought saying the word "Christmas" might alienate someone out there so he would deny the reason for the season, his own professed faith and a national statutory holiday, all for a few votes. Talk about a cheap date!

His predecessor was worse, of course.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien's office banned a United Church minister from Nova Scotia from reading from the New Testament or mentioning Jesus Christ during a service to commemorate the 229 people killed in the Swissair Flight 111 off Peggy's Cove way back in 1998.

The prime minister's protocol office however, did not impose a similar ban on a Rabbi, who read from the Hebrew Scriptures or on the Muslim representative, who read from the Qur'an or to a Native Canadian who spoke of her people's beliefs.

The Liberals also threw away hundreds of years of military tradition when it removed the Maltese Cross from the caps of chaplains so as not to offend a newly hired Muslim chaplain.

What they should have done was create a new cap badge with a Muslim symbol for the Muslim chaplain and start a new tradition instead of destroying long-held Canadian, Christian ones.

The great irony in all of these examples is the very reason we are such a tolerant and free society is because our society is based on the Judeo-Christian ethic.

It's why people of all faiths and races risk and sacrifice so much to move here. Christianity and the tolerance it produces is what has allowed this kind of double standard against itself to exist.

We must stop this deterioration or the intolerance to the tolerant culture will disappear. Tolerance should be a two-way street. In Canada, sadly, it goes just one way.

The danger of this should be obvious.

With the exception of Japan and Israel, the only free countries in the world are all founded on Christianity.

Chip away at that foundation and what are you left with? Who knows, maybe a cold Saudi Arabia, or Indonesia or Iran.

On that note, Merry Christmas!

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