Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Have Yourself a Politically Correct Nondenominational Winter Holiday








I probably seem like the Christmas Curmudgeon already. I am not really obsessed with the whole "PC is not for me!" thing. But I do enjoy poking fun at it. And I have read some poignant books about PC Christmas that would make me mad, except it doesn't surprise me. I think the best book I ever read on the subject is Away With The Manger by Chris Fabry (copyright 1996). He does an excellent job of pointing out that we must handle the P.C. crowd in a kind and Christian way. We won't reach their hearts by demonizing them. The plot of the story is very interesting, and the book is only 96 pages. I love to read, and would have loved for it to last for 400 more pages. Not everyone loves the printed word so much, but I think this book should appeal to everyone. He also has some revised lyrics for Christmas songs in it, making them secular. They are written tongue in cheek, of course. That is why I included the Spricket video. It reminded me of these lyrics. There is also a secular description of the first Christmas that had me laughing so hard I was crying. I know, a better Christian would have merely been crying...
Another book about the topic is The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse Than You Thought (copyright 2005) by John Gibson. This book is more than twice as long. It is not fiction. It contains several true stories. I found it well written and informative.
However, I found the Chris Fabry book more helpful for not only recognizing the plot, but advising how to deal with it in a Christian way. I know the Chris Fabry book is almost 20 years old, but it is timeless in terms of how we sometimes don't see each other with love as people Jesus died for, but as the enemy of Christmas. Gibson sees us as at War with secularism. Fabry sees the secularist as a wayward brother. The former is tempting, but the latter is more helpful.

7 comments:

Beth said...

Thanks for the funnies and the good suggestions on books that deal with this!! I have a friend who is a friend of Larry the Cable Guy. Wow. Impressive, I know. Not as good as being related to Johnny Knoxville, but still...

The last time I went to my grandparents' church during Christmas I was surprised to see they changed a couple of the hymns' words! All the "men" were changed to "ones" or something along that line. It freaked me out. I'm not sure why it's ok with me to have different versions of the Bible, but if you mess with hymns, I'm devastated!

You've got me thinking a lot about this PC thing. :)

Dory said...

I'm bad. I won't even look in the hymnal, because I refuse to sing the P.C. version of hymns. Would we mess with Shakespeare? Then why with the writers of the great hymns. I just sing it the way it was written LOUDLY. Nothilng can top "Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel!". Anything else seems forced, instead of flowing, beautiful, and praiseworthy...
Sorry for the rant :-)

Sherri Murphy said...

These were hilarious.

And thanks for the tips and insight on how to deal with this strange new world of PC.

It's no secret, I'm not the master of PC.

I think it is OK to poke fun at what we consider rediculous changes in communication, but always need to consider our motive.

I love the verse "Speak the truth in love". If our motive is, love for the other "rediculous" person,
our words will never be ugly. SOmetimes must be harsh, but never ugly. Even those that disagree with us might at least respect us.We'll never gain respect while we're ranting.

my vw today is PHONA.
Me being Italian and all,I think it's funny.

"Woulda someone pleasea answer the Phona?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the book recommendations. I believe I've skimmed 'The War on Christmas,' but I haven't found any others that deal with the topic in a helpful way - they just get your blood pumping.

Dory said...

Sherri,
I agree with you. It is the love that makes all the difference.

Matt,
I know what you mean. What I liked about Fabry's book is the emphasis at the end on love for neighbor. It was prochristian while not making the Christians in the story without fault. It was realistic. It was moving. It was funny (the last being important criteria to me).

Annie K said...

Helen, I'm with you. I ALWAYS tell people Merry CHRISTmas when they say 'Happy Holidays'. I am so not PC that way!!

Helen said...

Annie,
Right on! What is so great about Political Correctness anyway? Is PC really tolerant, when it can't seem to tolerate us? I think not. And it is too paradoxical. You know. "There are absolutely no absolutes!". I know, sometimes God seems paradoxical, but that is only because of our limited vision. If we could see 360 degrees around us, it would all make sense, but we can't, so it doesn't. Oh well...