Catholic League president William Donohue commented today on some disturbing responses to Christmas:
“In San Francisco, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a band of characters theLos Angeles Times affectionately calls a group of ‘queer nuns,’ has been bashing Christmas all month. In Minneapolis, gay-themed Christmas bashing has been happening at the Hennepin Center for the Arts and the Brave New Workshop. To understand why this is going on, consider what one New Hampshire non-Christian said when asked about Christmas celebrations in the schools: ‘It’s offensive to those who don’t celebrate it.’ Better yet is Phil Goodstein, a Denver historian who recently labeled the nativity scene ‘utterly obnoxious.’ Julie Wells, also of Denver, confesses that ‘I wish they had kidnapped the Baby Jesus when they kidnapped Rudolph,’ adding that she fantasizes about ‘driving a Chevy Blazer’ over a crèche. And both atheist Christopher Hitchens (always the contrarian), and Dallas Cowboy fullback Darian Barnes, boasted over the weekend how much they ‘hate Christmas.’
“One of the most offensive incidents this Christmas season occurred recently in Plainfield, Illinois, outside of Chicago. At Central School, a song called ‘I Hate This Holiday’ was listed in the holiday concert program. The song, which is really a parody from the choral ‘Frosty’s First Adventure,’ was taken by school bus driver Carmen Brown as a real slap in the face at Christians; she called for a boycott of the concert. In stepped Linda DiLeo, the school’s principal. She, too, thought the song was meant to offend, but nonetheless justified it: ‘We have Jewish children, we have children who celebrated Ramadan a couple of weeks ago. We take into account that we aren’t all celebrating the same holiday and try to put on programs that everyone can celebrate.’
“In other words, DiLeo thinks it is necessary to bash Christians at Christmastime because Jews and Muslims don’t celebrate Christmas. This is rank bigotry—against all three religious groups—and that is why we are making a formal complaint to the Illinois State Board of Education.”
