Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Politically Correct


The holiday season was on my mind as I left work tonight to meet some friends for dinner. In the work environment everyone in the States has moved to Happy Holidays to be all-inclusive. I recently witnessed an email exchange where a customer had to point out that Happy Holidays was not inclusive enough for the agnostics and atheists. Seriously. What does God have to do with the holidays? Please know I mean no offence by that. I really have no opinion except to say that you just can’t win sometimes.

As I got to my friends’ house, who works at a state (public in America) school, she was telling me about the nativity play that they are working on producing this time of year. I asked her if that has ever been in jeopardy because the school is multi-cultural and a government funded institution but she said no, they celebrate all the holidays. Every once in awhile a parent will say something but it has never caused them to have to get rid of the nativity play. She told me that one of the teachers as they were preparing for the nativity play started asking the children questions to see if they understood the importance of the story. She asked the kids why Mary and Joseph were staying in the stable and the kids said it was because it was Christmas, a busy time of the year when a lot of people travel.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If there were any evidence that Mary and Joseph were traveling in December (hell, if there were any evidence they existed), that bunch of schoolkids might've been on to something, since Christmas originated as a set of pagan festivals that predated Christ. Check the recent "Bedazzled" blog entry for more info.