Education Report

Christmas Is Becoming Extinct

            Lately my ability to attend church has been limited by my wife's infirmity and my own. I have taken to sitting in the back be-cause my participation example has become so poor, and because injuries often make walking to my regular seat difficult. Breaking my leg the day before my birthday took me out of the church's Christmas activities and gave me a chance to observe the world about me during this season's holidays.

            One of the things I noticed this year is how few times people said "Christmas is getting too commercial," and how often they worried about whether businesses would get their profit margin bolstered by the holiday. I have come to the conclusion that Christmas is no longer growing too commercial, it has reached its zenith now. From this point on Christmas is merely going to grow extinct. Between the ACLU, Public School NEA activists, and the Red Cross being afraid of offending Muslims, just to mention a few, Christmas has been reduced to tinsel, snowmen, and some fat guy in a red suit. I do not think these things can long sustain the joy that makes people want to give gifts to everyone they know.

            Some people have said that we need to not offend Jews among us. The number of Jews in the U.S. has declined since Jews named David Sarnoff produced the live nativity at Radio City; George Macy officially launched each Christmas season with his parade; Irving Berlin wrote White Christmas; William Perlberg produced Miracle on 34th Street,and Daryl Zanuck financed it. It is funny how few people used to be offended by Christmas and how many in the age of rebellion are now.

            In the rotunda of Madison, Wisconsin's state capitol building is a sign posted by the Freedom From Religion Foundation that reads: "At this season of the winter solstice may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds." Reason?