Banning Christmas in America.
Is Australia Next?
Jerry Bergman
(Investigator 215, 2024 March)
During my first two decades at Northwest State College, we enjoyed a
Christmas party every year. All college faculty, staff, administrators,
and their spouses were invited. The meals were superb, as was the
conversation. It gave all of us a chance to get to know people in other
departments, as well as to get to know each other better. We often
talked shop, but family, children, and other interests were discussed
as well. We also had excellent, often live, entertainment. It was an
event we all looked forward to, even the atheists. Then, as I
understand what happened, the lawyers got involved and somehow
concluded that our Christmas party was a violation of separation of
Church and State. Our Christmas party was not a church but a
get-together which existed since the college was founded in 1968. So
ended our once-a-year get-together.
We also used to have many Christmas decorations around the college and
the lawyers, so I am told, wanted to make sure they all met the
required Constitutional mustard. After the evaluation, all that was
left was colored Christmas tree bulbs. Most of the decorations did not
pass the Constitution sniff test. The candy canes were removed because
the white stands for the purity of Christ, and the red for the blood of
Christ. Of course, the manger, and all figures relating to Christ’s
birth, were removed. Even in Nazi Germany Christmas was not banned. In
fact, even at the top level, Nazis relished their Christmas
celebrations, as documented in detail by James Wyllie (Nazi Wives. The
Women at the Top of Hitler’s Germany. St Martin’s Press New York.
2019). So did ordinary Nazis.
Ironically, the common claim that "the United States Constitution
required a wall of separation between Church and State" is false. This
claim is not in the American Constitution. It was in a letter that
Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Baptist Congregation in Danbury,
Connecticut, in 1802. Jefferson’s meaning is clear when the
entire letter is read. His conclusion was, "the first amendment has
erected a wall of separation between Church and State. That wall is a one-dimensional wall. It keeps the government from
running the Church, while making sure Christian principles will always
stay in government."
As eloquently said by many others, Jefferson was referring to a
conclusion long held in American government that, for most of its first
three centuries the Constitution prevented the government from meddling
into the Church’s business but, as a democracy, the Church can
influence the government. This is allowed for any other group, as is
true of any majority-run government. The influence of the Christian
majority in our government is still found everywhere from the swearing
in of the President on a Bible, to the prayers that open every session
of Congress, to the In God We Trust embellished on all of our
coins.
The Constitutional phrase: "Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"
meant that Congress was prohibited from establishing an official state
religious denomination. Eight of the thirteen British colonies
originally had official, or "established," churches, and in those
states dissenters who sought to practice or proselytize a different
version of Christianity, were sometimes persecuted. Laws mandated that
everyone attend the official state house of worship and pay taxes that
funded the salaries of their ministers. Most New Englanders went to
Congregationalist church services. They were held in a meeting house
which served secular as well as religious functions. The meeting house
was a small wood building located at the center of town.
By the eighteenth century, the vast majority of all colonists were
churchgoers. Church attendance in some areas was then as high as 70
percent of the adult local population. The New England colonists—with
the exception of Rhode Island—were predominantly Puritans who led very
strict religious lives. The highly educated clergy were devoted to the
study and teaching of both Scripture and Gods creation, i.e. the
natural sciences. This has all changed now.
In 2022, an average of only 34% of U.S. adults said they had attended a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple in the past
seven days. Church attendance is about twice as high among Republicans
as compared to Democrats. Banning Christmas is only one indicator of
where our country is heading. So few attend church that my grandkids
have football practice on Sunday morning and the usual Wednesday
evening church service now is football practice. Welcome to secular
Europe.
Is the Decline of Religious Involvement Related to a Rising Crime Rate?
Is Australia going to follow America’s example?
In 2022, the violent crime rate in the United States was 369.8 cases
per 100,000 of the population. The United States also tops the ranking
of countries with the most prisoners. Age-adjusted firearm homicide
rates in the United States are 33 times greater than in Australia and
77 times greater than in Germany. Age-adjusted rates of firearm
homicide are highest in Washington, DC and lowest in New Hampshire.