From the NSS weekly newsletter

Editorial by Terry Sanderson
CHRISTIANS TRY TO FORCE US TO OBSERVE THEIR RELIGION
Let’s be honest, very few people in this country celebrate Christmas as a religious festival anymore. It is much-vaunted that 72% of people in this country say they are Christians, but only something like 15% will show their face in a church over the Christmas season. And most of them are only doing it because “it’s a nice thing to do”.

This week, I have been running from one radio studio to another, from one TV station to the next, commenting on various bits of propaganda that have absolutely no basis in reality. Take the supposed survey of companies that “revealed” that 74% of them intended to “ban” Christmas decorations from their premises. The survey was allegedly conducted among more than 2,300 firms, but regrettably in all my contact with various parts of the country through their local radio stations, no-one was able to find even one of those companies. There was no indication from anybody that they intended to “ban” anything to do with Christmas (except perhaps the drunken orgy otherwise known as the office party).

Peter Done, the managing director of Peninsula, the firm that produced these highly contentious figures commented: “Christmas trees and decorations may well be a thing of the past in many workplaces this Christmas as political correctness culture has spread to the workplace. Although employers who are enforcing the ban are sceptical and dismayed by this trend, they feel that they have little choice in the matter due to the threat of litigation; as they have to protect themselves, their reputation and their livelihood.”

He went on to suggest that much of the alleged reticence of commercial firms to put up decorations was a fear of offending “religious minorities”. So, it turns out that it’s the poor old Muslims and Hindus are to blame again.

The Hindu Council was forced to issue a rather pleading don’t-blame-us statement, reading: “Hindu Council UK is concerned that a report claims that 3 out of 4 employers have banned Christmas decorations from their offices for fear of offending other faiths. Hindu Council UK would like to stress that they have no objection whatsoever if employers were to put up Christmas decorations. We live in a Christian country and respect Christian faith and traditions as we respect other faiths and traditions. Hindu Council UK would be disappointed if some employers were to use faith as an excuse not to decorate their offices for Christmas.”

The fear from these minority communities is almost palpable. One of my radio stints was an hour long programme on the BBC Asian Network which included a phone in. Everybody from a Muslim background who rang in said quite clearly that they had no problem with Christmas -- they liked it, in fact, and would join in all the celebrations except the religious bit.

Rather like the vast majority of the supposed 72% of ‘Christians’, then.

Peninsula’s survey was quoted quite uncritically by the media, because it fits with their agenda. The fact that it is unsupported with evidence and completely out of step with everyone’s lived experience was disregarded by most newspapers and broadcasters who presented it as gospel. Did anybody think to ask Peninsula for some evidence to back up its claims? Of course they didn’t -- what a lot of spoilsports we’d be to do that.

So now the spotlight is turned on “the fundamentalist secularists” who, according to the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, are the real villains of this piece. Sentamu yesterday put out a ludicrously overblown and opportunistic statement hysterically pointing the finger at “illiberal atheists”.

“There is a worrying trend to be seen where illiberal atheists have combined with aggressive secularists to create a ludicrous situation where those who don’t believe in God have decided that a Christian festival is offending other faiths. Aggressive secularists are trying to pretend that it is possible to enter into the true meaning of Christmas by leaving out Jesus Christ. The person who is at the heart of the celebration is totally excluded. This really is a case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, or in this case throwing out the crib at Christmas. Aggressive secularists are behaving like the inn keeper on the first Christmas Eve and saying there is no room at the inn -- no room for Christ at Christmas! It is like having a birthday party, the guests turning up and giving each other presents, forgetting why they came and totally excluding the birthday child. Have you ever known such self-adulation and hypocrisy?”

“This aggressive brand of secularism is trying to undermine the cultural traditions of this country by using flawed arguments about “multi-faith, multi-culturalism” whilst at the same time trying to negate faith groups all together.

Is the man fully in control of his faculties? Who are these “aggressive secularists” who want to rob Christians of Christmas? Come on, Johnny, name names. And don’t trot out Richard Dawkins, because he has never said any such thing. Nor has anyone at the National Secular Society. We’re all for people celebrating the season -- usurped, as it was by the Christians from its pagan origins -- in whatever way they want, whether that’s in the church or the shopping mall, in the Cathedral or in front of the telly pigging out on selection boxes.

The Christian push to incite resentment against non-Christians is dishonest and dangerous. I was in conversation with the Bishop of Lichfield on Radio Northern Ireland when he made one ridiculous claim after another. First he said that 50% of the population would be in church at Christmas. In fact it is much more likely -- according to Christian Research -- to be 5% at the Church of England and little more than 15% for all denominations put together. A few glamorous cathedrals might be overflowing, but the parish churches will be struggling, as usual, to fill their pews.

After explaining that he had just come back from a procession through the centre of Stafford after which he blessed a nativity scene in the town centre (all paid for by the taxpayer), he then had the cheek to berate other (unnamed) councils which he claimed were putting up “secular decorations” which were a “mish-mash”. He urged Christians to be more upfront about their religion, and presumably ram it down everyone else’s unwilling throats along with the mince pies.

Perhaps this was all best summarised in an article in the Daily Mirror by Brian Reade, who wrote:
“The real affront to Christ is the tiny group of agitators running grotesquely aggressive campaigns to turn Christmas into an annual whingefest for all who worship the religion of “PC Gone Mad”. Fanatics who see anti-patriotic conspiracies in everything which doesn't conform to their mythical world view. Bigots who believe if an immigrant doesn’t know the date of the Magna Carta, he’s a sponger, unworthy of working and living here... They know we’ve always had a mid-winter festival since Pagan days and that a Pope invented Christ’s birthday as December 25 out of convenience. That Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, scientologists and atheists also like a joyous escape from the shortest days of the year. They know that’s why America has always called it Happy Holidays. It makes it more inclusive. Makes you think of others at this giving time. Where’s the offence here?”