Keep the X in XMAS

Remember the iconic scene from 50 years past in A Charlie Brown Christmas where Charlie reads from the Gospel of Luke? That would never get past the censors today. Indeed, we've done a pretty good job of censoring the baby Jesus...

The Bangor Daily News recently reported that when an atheist group complained about a depiction of the manger scene on public property, the Bucksport, Maine town attorney advised removal in order to avoid litigation. The creche was promptly taken down.

Come to think of it, for years I haven't seen the Nativity display that in my childhood prominently stood on Main Street in Nanuet, near Four Corners. Indeed, other than those set up on private residential lawns or on Church or Salvation Army property, we have taken Christ out of Christmas. A business acquaintance once told me, "You shouldn't force feed religion into the holiday!" Uh, there's a reason it's called CHRISTmas! It is a religious holyday--that's precisely the point. Yes, I understand separation of church and state, and the current compunction to be politically correct, but I wonder about all the craziness around us. School shootings, blue and red state advocates at each others' throats, a crazy man targeting Ukrainian civilian centers. Maybe these are the things that happen to humans when we X God out.