Thursday, March 28, 2013

Madness!

Not an Easter Bunny
Not an Easter Bunny!

A few months ago when I was writing an article in defense of the Christmas tree a thought occurred to me that the Easter was actually spared all the controversy that Christmas was facing in America. Were they going to outlaw the Easter egg as well? Was the Easter egg to become a Spring egg or a holiday egg or something of that sort?

Sooner than I could even envision an organized anti-Easter campaign a principal of the Heritage Elementary School in Madison, Alabama has banned the use of the word Easter in her school insisting that calling a bunny an Easter bunny or an egg an Easter egg infringed on the rights of others. The Principal Lydia Davenport explained the move, saying, “Kids love the bunny and we just try to make sure that we don’t say the ‘Easter Bunny’ so that we don’t infringe on the rights of others, because people relate the Easter bunny to religion.” Pure idiocy! 

And if this does not make you scream I don't know what does. But things can really get much nastier than that. 

In Florida an university professor, Dr. Deandre Poole who teaches Intercultural Communications, makes students stomp on Jesus. During his class students were instructed to write the word "Jesus" on a piece of paper and then place it on the floor and stomp on it. When one student refused to do it because he considered the assignment insulting and offensive, he got suspended from the class. 

The stomping activity was part of a suggested exercise found in the instructor’s manual accompanying the classroom textbook. The exercise was devised to teach students the importance of symbols in culture so why all the big fuss over it. But wait. What if the students were asked to write "Allah" or "Mohamed" on a piece of paper and then stomp on it? Can you imagine the outrage that would have spread around the world if a word of it got out?

Dr. Poole did not pick up the word "Allah" for his exercise because he was smart enough to understand that every Muslim cleric around the world would have declared a fatwa against him. This would have meant an end of his career as he would have had to go into hiding if he wanted to stay alive.

The voices against Christians and their rituals are becoming louder and louder in America and I really wonder why. This phenomenon is unknown in Europe.

Why do progressives of this world think that it is all right to insult Christians, but show utmost sensitivity and respect to other religions at the same time?

Are Christians an easy target because they do not behead artists who immerse crucifixes in their own urine?

Normally, the Christians' bashing goes unnoticed, but this time Florida Governor Mr. Rick Scott demanded a formal investigation into this matter. 

For all we know symbols may be quite arbitrary, but they assume very strong, emotional meaning for those who know how to read them.  

I will leave you here to reflect on the state of society we are living in.

By Dominique Teng