A memo has been sent to the employees of King County, Washington, regarding holiday celebrations that requires them to use “religion-neutral” language. The memo of November 14 says it is okay to say “Happy Holidays” and “Holiday Greetings.” But all references to Christmas are regarded as taboo.
Ron Sims, the King County Executive who released the memo, explains that “we at King County want to ensure that any upcoming holiday celebration at the workplace is held in a respectful, inclusive, and sensitive manner that does not favor one religion over the other.” (His emphasis.) The following sentence, however, says that “Particularly in public areas, this means that any holiday recognition or celebration should be religion-neutral.” The policy ends by saying that “Cultural information sharing about various religious holidays in the name of diversity is allowable when it is done in the context of employee education and is inclusive of various religious celebrations such as Ramadan, Hanukkah, Christmas, etc.”
Catholic League president William Donohue commented as follows:
“The time has come for employees in King County, Washington, to be arrested for saying, ‘Merry Christmas.’ But before they do so, they should contact the local media. What a show this would be—having dozens of Catholics being handcuffed by the cops for uttering what their boss regards as an obscenity. And this business of being allowed to share ‘cultural information’ about religion is truly Orwellian: the gods of newspeak couldn’t stop it if they tried anyway.
“The champions of diversity are the single greatest proponents of despotism in the United States today. Any expression that violates their crabbed vision of reality is subject to censorship. Indeed, in the name of diversity they promote ideological uniformity. Similarly, in the name of inclusiveness, they exclude people of faith. The diversity despots are both a menace and a national disgrace.”
