Topic category:  Religion & Philosophy in the News

Here in the hypersensitive twenty-first century, one of the unique holiday traditions of this era is to see who can toss the biggest hissy fit in the attempt to frighten the less combative throngs into altering their very way of life and culture in order to alleviate the possibility of conflict.

One hundred activists have been arrested in Rotterdam for demonstrating in the streets against a fictitious character named “Black Pete”.

For those having no idea who that is, in Scandinavian folklore Black Pete is the sidekick of Santa Claus. But instead of distributing toys and treats, Black Pete dispenses punishment in the form of the dreaded lumps of coal in the stocking.

Tolerancemongers are tossing their typical tizzy because Black Pete is depicted with a blackened face, red lips, and what is perceived as an Afro wig.

One theory holds this is because Pete is believed to be a Spanish Moor while others insist it is simply because he is covered in soot as a result in trafficking in hydrocarbon residue.

It is claimed such a depiction is racist.

Before this subversive impulse dissipates, these radicals bent on tearing down centuries of Western tradition (as Black Pete's supporters insist that the character is part of their cultural heritage as an integral component of their Christmas tradition) will condemn the Santa motif in its entirety for imposing the standards of the chronologically advanced upon the recently nascent.

After all, who are the bourgeoisie to impede the vanguard destined to bring change and transformation through violent upheaval?

If defenders of the Western way of life do not say enough is enough, soon it will be more than those expressions of culture formulated in less socially aware times on the line.

For example, elsewhere in Western Europe at a Woolworth's store in Germany, Christian decorations were removed just days after they were put up.

The reason given was that the retail establishment was now a “Muslim store”.

Die hard freemarketeers of the sort that think that it is a good thing when pewee athletic coaches berate the kids and even smack them around a little will likely respond that a merchant should be allowed to sell whatever the business desires. That is of course unless the products in question that an establishment doesn't want to sell happen to be birth control related and then suddenly the concept of proprietary discretion is tossed into the conceptual remainder pile.

But do not customers have the right to demand that assorted enterprises provide desired goods and services?

If the heathen can pour across the frontiers of the West demanding under threats of and actually committed acts of violence demanding that these besieged populations alter a variety of longstanding norms and practices, the civilized peoples of the Earth are well within their own rights to withhold financial patronage of such non-responsive merchants.

If Woolworth's fails to comply, perhaps that name in Europe will become like it is across large swaths of North America as a defunct retailer relegated to the proverbial annals of business history and remembered little more by a quickly depleting pool of shoppers.

It should be interesting to see if this alliance between multiculturalists and free market purists will remain united and intact regarding a development in Saudi Arabia.

It was announced there that the private schools for internationals residing within that particular Islamic kingdom would be forbidden from celebrating Christmas.

The prohibition even forbade schools from even altering examination dates in the attempt to give students a bit of a surreptitious break.

Will there be similar outcry from the voices insisting that celebrations in primarily Christian and Caucasians lands must be altered for the purposes of establishing the ballyhooed safe spaces for minorities and that whatever choices these protected demographics might make within their own COMMUNITIES must be affirmed in a celebratory fashion by the broader society?

The Constitution warns that enemies can be both foreign and domestic.

As such, one of the most pernicious of threats is this paradoxical situation where many of diversity's most enthusiastic acolytes demand that we as Americans eliminate the cultural expressions of the faith that has guided the nation throughout much of its history while looking favorably upon the very creed whose most fanatic practitioners have few qualms about physically mutilating those with whom they disagree.

By Frederick Meekins

Frederick Meekins
Issachar Bible Church & Apologetics Research Institute

Biography - Frederick Meekins

Frederick Meekins is an independent theologian and social critic. Frederick holds a BS in Political Science/History, a MA in Apologetics/Christian Philosophy from Trinity Theological Seminary, and a PhD. in Christian Apologetics from Newburgh Theological Seminary.