Hear the audio version here (segments older than 3 weeks may be unavailable)
Well it seems that the liberal media who so willingly ignore the brazen stupidity of the liberal atheist/humanist crowd this time of year as they seek to neuter the meaning of Christmas, slapping X's wherever they can, destroying Nativity Scenes and vanquishing the indoctrination brought on by Candy Canes from the hallways of our public schools, have gotten a little exercised about the censorship this year.
Yep, they've finally had enough of changing the words to traditional Christmas songs and they're letting everybody know about it. Now, before you get too excited, I should tell you what prompted their agitation. It was not the account described by 16 year old New Jersey high school student Colin Curran which detailed:
[A] story about a high school assignment which involved creating a music playlist for a young children's holiday breakfast. There was one catch - none of the songs could contain a certain set of offending words, such as Christmas, Hanukah, Jesus, God, or Santa Clause. The reason, Colin explains, is that the "principal does not want to offend anyone with belief-specific music".
No, that wasn't too big of a deal to the mainstreamers. What got them ticked wasn't the censorship of the name of Jesus. It was the censorship of the word "gay." No, I'm not kidding. Here's the unbelievable story:
The war on Christmas music has taken a strange turn, with the mainstream media finally up in arms at the overly PC handling of the holiday's song lyrics. But it isn't the constant barrage from uber-sensitive atheists trying to eliminate every reference to Christmas from our schools and public places that has them fired up.
No, it's an elementary teacher in Michigan that has raised their ire. The flurry of controversy arose when the teacher, weary of hearing her students giggling every time they had to sing the words ?gay apparel' during their rendition of Deck The Halls, decided to replace the word ?gay' with ?bright'. The reception from the media, as you may have heard, was rather chilly.
...
Here is a sampling of some of the coverage:
The Daily Mail
"Parents thought the Cherry Knoll teacher had been naughty and not so nice when the elementary instructor replaced ?gay' with ?bright' after her students wouldn't stop laughing when they sang the word."
MSNBC
"Use it as a teaching moment or just tell the kids to pipe down and sing the song as written."
Dan Savage
"Someone had to straighten out that carol - can't have children donning gay apparel."
Huffington Post
"A Michigan music teacher's decision to censor the word ?gay' from a traditional Christmas carol is being met with a frosty response."
Fox Nation
"A traditional Christmas carol is at the center of controversy at a TCAPS elementary school."
Of course, the school's principal, Chris Parker, didn't miss an opportunity to crank the PC up a notch by calling this a ?teachable moment' for student and teacher alike.
In a report for ABC 57 News, Parker doubles down on his overreaction saying, "We have an anti-bullying and discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation and so going forward, the teacher will be addressing ?this is how we're supposed to be reacting. This is the way to be respectful about this.'"
The amount of attention being heaped upon the Deck the Halls non-troversy, and the lack of attention being paid to the omission of Christmas altogether from a music playlist in New Jersey are striking. Why no outrage over the removal of basic, essential elements of many holiday songs? Christmas songs eliminated? References to God and Santa Clause? Now that's okay. But gay? That's just going too far.
I have to tell you I am blown away by this. Not so much that it happened, but that there is no shame felt by these forces of political correctness due to their obviously raging double standard. How can they get worked up to the point of outrage that a teacher decides to eliminate a peripheral and insignificant word like gay (which in this context doesn't even reference homosexuality) simply to try to take away a classroom disruption when they say that its silly for Christians to get worked up when someone tries to eliminate baby Jesus from "Away in the Manger" or the coming of the Lord from "Joy to the World?" It's crazy.
In fact, the only thing crazier is that they continue to get away with it.
