Calm down, Liam Fox. There is no politically correct war on Christmas
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Version 0 of 1. Liam Fox is not going to apologise for being a Christian. We know this because not only has the former defence secretary sent out old-school Christmas cards featuring the baby Jesus – unlike the prime minister’s heathen offering, involving himself and Samantha surrounded by Chelsea pensioners without so much as a sniff of tinsel – but because he’s made a YouTube video explicitly to tell us so. Being tolerant of other people’s religions, he explains, is a good thing – but by golly that doesn’t mean skulking around apologising for his. And while it is obviously useful to have the card business cleared up, it does leave one wondering who, exactly, is demanding this apology that Dr Fox so bravely will not give. There are places in the world today where to celebrate Christmas openly is to risk being mocked, hounded and persecuted, sometimes even to death. Churches have been torched and worshippers murdered or imprisoned for apostasy everywhere from Nigeria and Sudan to Iraq and Syria. Up to a quarter of North Korea’s Christians are thought to live in labour camps because they refuse to submit to the secular cult of its leadership, while faith is also being forced underground in China. Less dramatically, there are even countries nearer home where Christians might understandably feel a bit marginalised in December: recently a French administrative court ruled that a model nativity scene in a town hall in the Vendée be removed to preserve the neutrality of a secular state, which seems a bit heartless. But none of this really applies in Fox’s north Somerset constituency (or indeed his workplace, where daily proceedings open still with prayers). He might be protesting, perhaps, against Alastair Campbell’s dictum that Tony Blair shouldn’t “do God” in public. But unlike the left, the right aren’t really squeamish about faith, which means a Tory MP refusing to apologise for being a churchgoer sounds a bit like a Labour MP refusing to apologise for having been to a comprehensive. And while there are many things that do upset practising Christians in Britain – from casual blasphemy in everyday conversation to the decline of marriage and the backlash caused when Cameron said we should be “more confident about our status” as a Christian country – Fox doesn’t actually mention those. So we must assume he is simply upholding the time-honoured ritual, as traditional as mince pies and mulled wine, of fretting about political correctness ruining Christmas: as evinced by the one in 14 schools putting on a totally secular alternative to the traditional nativity play, according to a recent Netmums survey, or by politicians wishing people a weedy Happy Holidays. (Personally I’m with Fox in loathing Happy Holidays, but mainly because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Season’s Greetings.) This is just a wild guess, but the prospective Tory leadership contender Fox might also have an eye on Nigel Farage’s perennial grumbles about the failure to defend the nation’s Christian heritage. Which only brings us back to the same question: defend it against what, exactly? For now that the tabloid myth of loony left councils renaming the whole thing Winterval has finally died away, the war on Christmas seems to boil down mainly to changing taste in greetings cards and parents being denied the inalienable right to watch their kid singing Little Donkey, preferably with a tea towel on its head. Well, except in the 13 out of 14 schools where they still can. And maybe the handful of non-Christian faith schools where parents presumably don’t miss it so much. Still, it must be awful for those parents who are Christian enough to be offended by newfangled nativity plays featuring walk-on parts for Elvis and Lord Sugar – almost as if schools had expanded the traditional stable-based cast because parents wanted every child to get a part, or something – but maybe not quite Christian enough to take their children to a church youth group or Christmas crib service of the sort so many now offer, where they can re-enact the pure nativity story to their heart’s content. Perhaps I’m lucky. Our village primary is one of the roughly 93% that does do God at Christmas – and, indeed, does it big time. My son’s nativity play this week was bursting with wise men and angels, and songs about His redeeming love, and for good measure was performed in the village church. As a non-believer, I wouldn’t have it any other way. That’s partly because I am a shameless hypocrite who secretly draws great nostalgic comfort from the carols and the rituals and the balding glitter star at the top of the tree, but also because like many Church of England schools, this one excels at instilling the values to which no sane parent could reasonably object – kindness, respect for others, forgiveness – and teaching the bible stories without ramming them down tiny throats in a way likely to offend those of other faiths. Few things feel more deeply and intrinsically British to me, more worthy of defending, than this tradition of fudging our way through a difficult conversation while being ever ready to apologise for any imagined offence caused. It seems reasonable to assume, too, that the one in 14 schools putting on secular plays might not all be little rural schools like ours; that some might boast a much more riotous mix of all beliefs and none, and find an end-of-term “winter wonderland” play the only sensible compromise. If secular parents can cope with an hour of Joseph and Mary while raising their children in accordance with their beliefs on the other 364 days a year, it’s surely not too much to expect the reverse. But if what all this is really about for some is the unspoken fear of schools being “taken over” by immigrant children who will change the indigenous culture for good, here’s the good news: Christians should probably feel pretty cheerful about that, given the increasingly godless state of that culture. As ageing Anglican congregations dwindle, the fastest growing church in Britain was recently identified as the African evangelical export The Redeemed Christian Church of God. An influx of eastern Europeans has, meanwhile, pepped up Catholic worship. Or to put it another way, if you really want a guaranteed nativity play, maybe send your child to a school with lots of Nigerian and Polish parents. Happy Christmas. |