City leaders in Dundee, Scotland, are planning a spectacular festive season celebration with the difference that its winter revelry this year will include no references to Christianity. All references to the religious elements of Christmas have been deliberately dropped from the switching-on ceremony for the city’s festive lights.
In addition, instead of a traditional Christian nativity scene, Dundee is shifting its focus to be ‘more inclusive of people with different faiths or no religious views’ and will set up a solar-powered disco, a circus, a continental market and even have a fairy on stilts entertaining crowds.
Those who believe in the real meaning of Christmas have condemned the decision. Members of Dundee's Church of Scotland Presbytery have voiced their concern to the city council, saying that the religious aspect of Christmas has been eroded. They are urging Kirk members to contact their local councillors to protest against the move.
Philip Harris, a Christian and member of a church in Broughty Ferry, said:
‘It seems ludicrous to have a Christmas event which makes no mention of Christmas. It just seems like the usual political correctness. Hopefully the council will reconsider.’
Rev. Allan Webster, Vice-Convener of the Committee and chaplain to both Dundee City Council and the city’s Overgate Centre, said:
‘Christmas is a Christian festival, and the dropping of the term Christmas lights and the telling of the Christmas story is an erosion of the religious festival.’
Rev. Webster, who has already offered his services to the council for this year’s event on November 27, added:
‘It is important for all faiths to be able to celebrate their festivals and I must stress I would also be concerned if people of any other religion had their festival diluted.’
The Winter Light Night has been organised by the One City, Many Discoveries campaign and forms part of the Homecoming Scotland finale.
A spokesman for Dundee City Council said:
‘When we are contacted by Dundee Presbytery we will look at the points they are raising and respond to them.’
In September this year, Camden Council, in north London, reconsidered a ban on posters by a church advertising a weekend of events, unless they remove words such as ‘God’ and ‘Christian’ from the text in order to avoid ‘offending religious sensibilities’. Whilst the council officials insisted they cannot support a Christian group, the council continues to provide for inquirers details of 13 mosques, Muslim study groups, and Islamic social groups.
(See the CCFON report)
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has also said that non-Muslims should fast and even go to the mosque during Ramadan to enhance understanding of their ‘Muslim neighbour’ and ‘find out more about Islam.’
(See the CCFON report)
In 2008, Foreign Secretary David Miliband paid special respect to Ramadan and not Christmas when the Foreign Office launched a consultation on whether Christmas merited a special greeting for embassy officials.
(See the Daily Mail report)
In the same year, council leaders in Oxford decided to ban the word Christmas from festive celebrations to make them more 'inclusive'.
(See the Oxford Mail and The Daily Telegraph reports)
In the US, Liberty Counsel, a pro-life group advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family, has launched their seventh annual Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign focusing on the censorship of Christmas in the public square as well as in retail. The group has developed their own Naughty-and-Nice list of retailers based on information from consumers.
Professor Mathew D. Staver, founder and chairman of the group and dean of the Liberty University School of Law, said:
‘Renaming a Christmas tree to a holiday tree, stopping students from wearing red and green, and censoring religious Christmas carols are absurd, but true, examples of the war against Christmas.’
CCFON comment: Christmas is about the person of Jesus Christ. The historic record of the birth of Christ can be found in the Bible. Unlike any other baby, the one born that night in Bethlehem was unique in all of history as he was not created by a human father and mother. He had a heavenly pre-existence. He is God, the Son, the eternal, all powerful Creator of the universe who came to earth in the flesh. To substitute the real meaning of Christmas with politically correct slogans will further erode our rich Christian heritage and return the nation to a state of ignorance and superstition.
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