Once Upon a Time When America Had Christmas

A Rabbi laments the loss of Christmas.

Rabbi Aryeh Spero

Once Upon a Time When America Had Christmas

A Rabbi laments the loss of Christmas.

Rabbi Aryeh Spero



http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles5/SperoChristmas.php



It's December 2030, and I'm shopping with my grandson in a mall in
Northern Virginia. We've purchased a gift for a relative.

"Gift wrap?" inquired the clerk.

"Yes, thanks."

"Happy Chanukah, Merry Kwanzaa, or Eid Greetings?"

I frowned. The clerk whispered, "Listen, I think there may still be a
few rolls of Christmas wrap in the back if you want..."

My grandson looked up at me and asked, "Why is the man whispering,
Grandpa?"

The clerk leaned over the counter: "The store's Diversity Regulations
stipulate that we're no longer permitted to offer anything saying
'Christmas.'"

"Grandpa," David asked, "when did the stores stop offering Christmas
paper?"

"I'm not exactly sure," I replied, "but I do remember that already back
in 2005 stores like Kohl's and Target no longer allowed their employees
to say 'Merry Christmas.' Now even schools are forbidden to print the
word 'Christmas' on their calendars in the December 25th box."

"But, Grandpa, the President still lights the National Fern!"

"Yes, David, and it was once the National Christmas Tree. But there
were these very powerful and well-moneyed groups such as the ACLU that
for over 50 years relentlessly tried to remove anything of Christmas
from American public life and social discourse. Then there was this

other group, the ADL, which claimed to be fighting bigotry, but really
appeared to be promoting bigotry against Christians and people with
political views the ADL didn't like. Anyway, by the time 2005 had

arrived, most American people no longer had the conviction and mettle
of the people who founded this nation in the 18th century."

"Why not, Grandpa?"

"Well, believe it or not, they simply were worn down by constantly
being called names like anti-Semite, Islamophobe, racist, or
homophobe."

"You mean, people 50 years ago were so scared that they'd allow their
country to be taken from them rather than be called a name? I thought
sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me!"

"Well, there was another factor at work. Back then we called it
'political correctness.' If you spoke out against the ACLU, you were
called 'intolerant.' If you cherished our American freedoms and were
patriotic, you were 'reactionary.' If you were revolted by the

in-your-face perversions of the day, you were 'unsophisticated.' If you
believed in right and wrong, your thinking was 'un-nuanced.'

"Some of the people who stood up against the ACLU," I continued, "were
called Conservatives. In those days, you weren't welcomed in
'progressive' circles if you were a Conservative. You didn't get those
high-paying jobs in the media, Hollywood, or in the University. In
fact, if they knew you were Conservative, you could even lose your job
-- and, if you wanted to keep your job, you had to undergo diversity
training at Sensitivity Sessions and mouth the appropriate platitudes
and apologies, even against your own conscience."

"How did the ACLU control everybody?" David asked.

"You see, they insisted that any references to Christmas and
Christianity were 'offensive' to some people."

"Were the Christians trying to impose their religion on everybody?"

"Heavens, no, David. But when Christians wanted simply to express

themselves as other groups did, they were accused of having a hidden
agenda of 'Christianizing' America. Black 'pride,' Jewish 'pride,'
Islamic and Hispanic 'pride' were considered social goods and

'diversity,' but Christian expression was considered a symptom of
concealed anti-Semitism, racism, Islamophobia, and even American
imperialism!"

"Grandpa, how did you feel when someone wished you Merry Christmas?"

"I felt fine being on the receiving end of good wishes and that
person's desire to include me in his season of joy. Besides, it was the
gracious thing to do. Then along came the Left and they politicized
every harmless and gentle aspect of everyday life, rendering almost
anything any normal person said as somehow 'insensitive' to some person
or group. They took regular daily life which had been sweet and turned
it into a political brawl. They made fair-minded Americans
self-conscious of every word, and relations between people strained and
bitter. They busy-bodied into everything private and personal. And out
of a desire to be considered 'inclusive,' Christians allowed their
Christianity to be rubbed out from the public sphere."

"Just so they could be called 'nice' by a bunch of bullies, Grandpa?"

"Yes, because unbeknownst to our good-willed Christian friends, the
ACLU and its fanatical left-wing collaborators were zealously engaged
in a deliberate plan to expunge Christianity from America, all the

while pretending that their intent was simply to have a more inclusive
America and not offend non-Christians."

"So Grandpa, I guess American Christians were suckers."

"I'm afraid so."

As we walked around, I noticed how quiet and gloomy the store was, and
remembered back to the days when every department, resplendent with
colorful decorations and Christmas music, was almost bursting with
shoppers.

"Grandpa, if the ACLU and ADL were against religion, why did they want
religious symbols for Moslem-Americans and Jewish-Americans and
African-Americans?"

"Well, David, that's the dark little secret that only your Grandpa and
a few others knew. These people weren't anti-religious as much as they
were anti-Christian: anti- the majority religion that made America,
America. They weren't against Allah or African gods. They hated the
Christian God. Many simply despised Christians of Faith, hated them as
people."

"Isn't that hatred, too?"

"Yes, indeed, 100% bigotry. But the bigotries of the Left, and those of
minorities, were called 'tolerance.' Whatever they said, in those days,
was considered the moral high ground, the law. Whomever they supported,
even brutal dictators like Fidel Castro, was considered enlightened."

"So Grandpa, if you knew what the real goals were of the ACLU and ADL,
why didn't you speak up, then?"

"I did, as did others, but so few would listen. If only they could have
realized that failure to act would bring about even greater curtailment
of their rights and complete demolition of our great American
civilization."

"Grandpa, who were the people who made up the ACLU?"

"Well, sadly some of our own wayward brethren who had long ago
abandoned belief in God, the Bible and our own Jewish religion. Having
no religious identity, they basically defined themselves as 'not being
Christian,' so they fought Christmas displays tooth and nail. Many felt
insecure even in their identity as Americans, so they waged war against
the Christianity underlying America."

"Who else belonged to the ACLU?"

"People who were raised Christian but rejected it and were therefore
embarrassed by it. And, of course, the ACLU had its atheists, too. They
despised America's Judeo-Christian ethos."

"Grandpa, we were taught in school that our country was founded on our
Judeo-Christian-Islamic heritage. And that our Founding Fathers were
guided greatly by the principles of the Holy Koran." "Yes, another
victory for liberalism: rewrite history and deny the facts, all in the
name of 'inclusion'."

"Grandpa, where is the ACLU located today?"

"Why, it's right there in Washington, D.C., across from the U.S.
Capitol."

"You mean that big white-marble building where the Supreme Court used
to be? The one with the statues of Mohammed and Ruth Bader Ginsburg?"

"Yes, David. You see, the country decided that since, in effect, the
ACLU and leftist judges determined almost every American law in the
last 50 years, as well as being the final word as to what is
Constitutional, we might as well dispense with the Supreme Court and
locate in that building America's real judicial, legal power: the
ACLU."

We took our packages and walked out of the store and were guided down
the escalator by Spanish and Arabic directions, though, unlike my
grandson, I focused on the smaller English subtitles.

We drove on Route 50 until we came to Falls Mosque, Virginia. I
remembered when the city had been renamed from the original Falls
Church when that section of Virginia was granted the right to no longer
live by American law but, instead, by its own shariah law now that 40%
of the people in that area were Islamic. The ACLU told us that in the
name of multiculturalism, not to do so would offend Islamic
sensibilities and honor.

However, I knew that such a step had been rooted in timidity. We had
become fraidy-cats, enfeebled, because 50 years of liberalism had made
us no longer believe in ourselves, who we were and what we stood for.
That had always been liberalism's goal.

Anyway, the rage among liberals had been to change all these historic
American names, as was being done by their mentors and idols in Eurabia
who guided us as to what was sophisticated. Londonstan, Parisabia, and
Berlindad, all were renamed cities in the greater Caliphate living
under the Religion of Peace.

My grandson interrupted my thoughts: "If the ACLU people hated America
so, why didn't they just leave?"

"Son, they were on a mission. They wanted to reshape America and make
it socialist, with themselves at the helm calling the shots, running
the show. They didn't love America as America, but they knew they would
love it completely when it became socialist. Besides, no one leaves

America. Look at those Hollywood gripers. The money is too good here.
The fame. The ease and the safety. Where else do you become a hero by
bashing your country? Why would they leave, their family is here?"

As we got out of our car near home, we spotted a small building with a
Cross. It was lit up and the distant sounds of a hymn could be heard in
the cold evening air.

"What's happening inside that building?"

"David, that is a church. A church is a place where Christians gather
privately to express their Christianity, now that public expression of
Christianity in America is forbidden."

"Grandpa, how many Christians were there in America back in 2005?"

"Well, I'd say about 260 million. Indeed 85% of the country was then
Christian."

"85%?" David exclaimed, amazed, bewildered.

"Incredible, right? Of course, half the Jews had no problem with
Christmas, and not all atheists were offended by Christmas trees -- but
it turned out that less than 10% of the country's population was able
to control the other 91%."

"And the Americans didn't fight for themselves at all?"

"Well, they had been bullied so long, son, they lost their fiber. The
others were afraid of a newspaper called The New York Times. And the
people themselves decided they had more important things to do than
defend their heritage."

"But, Grandpa, without traditions and heritage, you have nothing,
right? Why did they accept that everybody else's feelings were more
important than their feelings?"

"They had become intimidated by a foolish and destructive wind that ran
across the land. It was a suicidal ideology: liberalism. It taught that
the greatest virtue was national self-criticism. It resulted in people
hating their own great country, America. And thus a handful of
well-positioned, manipulative liberal elitists were able to bring down
an entire powerful country."

I thought back to what distorted times they had been, back in late
2005. While Christians were reviled and seen by liberals as the enemy,
jihadist terrorists were "understood" and their detention raised a cry
in their behalf for "compassion." Social and political energy was
channeled in two directions: overwhelming concern for the highest
degree of humane treatment for Islamic terrorists coupled with an all
out assault against Christians wanting merely to say Merry Christmas.

"You know, David," I continued, "I remember back when I was growing up
in America in the 1950s. The Christians had beautiful Christmas trees
covered with glittering lights lining the avenues in the snow, children
went from house to house singing Christmas carols, people gave presents
to each other wrapped in sparkly wrappings, strangers would extend
unexpected kindnesses and generosities to each other, and walking down
a street on a wintry night one might even come across a gentle nativity
scene that didn't hurt anybody. But that was America then, not now."

Words are only good if they lead to action, I thought. Nothing happens
unless the people venture boldly into public debates and the streets
and face down those who are trying to destroy them and put their
heritage and children in harm's way. Where had the activists been? We
were too fine to get out in the streets, too gentlemanly to call things
the way they were, too preoccupied with appearing 'compassionate' to
stop the leftists and jihadists. Maybe our good-willed friends simply
never realized that some of America's greatest foes were citizens
within our own borders.

I put my arm around my young grandson. "My America is gone now. How
wonderful it was. It was heaven on earth. We could have taken to the
streets. We could have stood together and risen up, one citizen at a
time, defying every challenge in every forum, and fighting for our
freedoms on the front-lines of every village and town."

"So what happened, Grandpa? How did we lose America?"

"I'll tell you: our soldiers on the battlefield overseas were brave,
but we folks at home had no guts."



Rabbi Aryeh Spero, president of Caucus for America, is a pulpit rabbi
and radio talk show host and can be reached at
www.caucusforamerica.com.