Hanukkah and Nativity Scenes

This is the time of year that political correctness goes bananas. People and organizations use the excuse "we don't want to offend anyone" to try to remove all Christian symbols from the public square. This is not about anyone feeling offended but more about secular power flexing it's muscles.

Let's look at that phrase "we don't want to offend anyone." You can use this excuse to ban almost anything. That is exactly the point. The people and organizations, like the ACLU, are using this broad language to push their own agendas, not because they are sincerely interested in protecting anyone's rights. We hear this phrase over and over again but it only applies to Christianity and Christian symbols, not Muslim, Jewish or anyone else. Why is that? Is anyone offended by a public menorah celebrating Hanukkah?

Here in the Northwest the city of Portland, Oregon has a tradition of putting a huge Christmas tree (soon to be Holiday Tree?) in the public square downtown and also allow the lighting of a large menorah for Hanukkah. No nativity scene is allowed because it is too religious. What about the menorah which is lighted each night by a rabbi? Is that not religious? What if a Christian was offended?

This exact same case was recently decided by a Florida court where a woman wanted to put a nativity scene along side an existing menorah display on city property and was denied by the city council. She went to court and the city tried to argue that a menorah is not a religious symbol. They lost. The nativity scene will now be added to the public square as it should. To most Jews, the idea that the menorah has no spiritual meaning to the Jewish people is ridiculous but it shows how far the secularists and anti-Christians will go to remove true Christian symbols from public buildings and squares.

Diversity should be the celebration of all faiths and ideologies, not the suppression of the majority religion and elevation of everything else. This is the view of the proud politically incorrect. And to be even more politically incorrect we want to wish everyone a very "Merry Christmas!"