The Family Research Council comments on the selective censorship of the anti-Christmas spirit...As organizers of the German Christkindlmarket festival in Chicago can testify, 'tis the season for attacks on religious liberty. The city ordered that the annual fair reconsider its promotion of the new film "The Nativity Story" on the grounds that it might offend non-Christians. Cindy Gatziolis, a spokesman for the Mayor's Office of Special Events, said the city doesn't want to be "insensitive" to people of diverse faiths. A spokeswoman for New Line Cinema, the studio producing the movie, responded by saying she finds it hard to believe that non-Christians who attend an event called "Christkindlmarket" would be caught off guard by the presence of products having to do with Christmas.
Rather than accommodate all religions, these so-called pluralists have marginalized America's largest. Towns and businesses everywhere are sending the message that when it comes to tolerance, 86 percent of the American population need not apply.
It's a sad commentary on the world's "freest" country if a public Christmas festival is no place for the Christmas story. Celebrating the holidays, whether it's Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, is a fine idea, but it's also fitting that the invitation and respect be extended to Catholics and Protestants. All we want for Christmas is consistency.
