{"id":139,"date":"2010-12-23T05:43:10","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T05:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/the-c-words.html"},"modified":"2010-12-23T05:43:10","modified_gmt":"2010-12-23T05:43:10","slug":"the-c-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/the-c-words.html","title":{"rendered":"C as in Christian, Christmas and controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s not just conservatives sensing an elite war on the the words “Christmas” <\/i>and “Christian.”<\/i><\/p>\n

As part of a panel discussion on local Washington D.C. program Inside Washington<\/i><\/a>, NPR’s liberal Nina Totenberg apologized for using the apparently-controversial phrase “Christmas party”<\/i> while recounting a discussion she had with a government officials about the budget. One can only hope that the station aired the proper language warning before the broadcast.<\/p>\n

And, appearing at the Y(MCA) on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show<\/a>, <\/i>mockumentarian Michael Moore (also hardly a right-wing Christian conservative) had this to say regarding what some people would do to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange: “When you’ve got a vice president of the United States on Sunday calling him a high-tech terrorist, you’ve got people in Congress calling for, you know, him to be arrested, Sarah Palin, people, other pundits saying that it would be okay to assassinate him, it’s just like, you know, I don’t know, I was raised a certain way and I was raised to be a good Christian<\/u>, if I can say that here.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Moore’s shocking language was followed by (nervous?) laughter from the audience and Maddow assuring him that “It’s the Y-M-C-A. You want to know what the ‘C’ stands for? Don’t worry.”<\/i><\/p>\n

The YMCA, of course, stands for (or has stood for) Young Men’s Christian Association but last July the organization announced that it is rebranding itself as simply The Y. The new logo, we were told in a press release<\/a>, “reflects the vibrancy and diversity of the organization.”<\/p>\n

<\/i>Now, it’s true the new logo still include the full initials (YMCA) in much smaller type but that’s probably transitional. Check back in a few of years and they’ll probably be gone.<\/p>\n

The Y joins the Christian’s Fund which changed its name in 2009<\/a> to ChildFund International — to reflect the religious diversity of its supporters, donors and staffers — in moving toward erasing its, specifically, Christian roots.<\/p>\n

I wonder if other organizations, like the Gay Men’s Health Crisis or the NAACP, will be changing their names to reflect the diversity of their supporters as they, respectively, battle against AIDS and for civil rights (two issues of concern to all Americans). Probably not — and they shouldn’t. It’s important to remember your roots. <\/p>\n

Somewhere along the line (fairly recently) the word “Christian” <\/i>has become singled out as being “non-inclusive” while other group designations are held up as symbols of America’s diversity. And, of course, to those doing the singling out, mentioning “Christmas”<\/i> is way out of line in mixed company.<\/p>\n

Also sliding deeper into the controversial category over the past few years is the Pledge of Allegiance — with one Massachusetts school<\/a> now actually requiring permission slips from parents before allowing their children to participate in its recitation. <\/p>\n

Saying “Christian”<\/i> and “Christmas”<\/i> in public forums and kids reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, controversial things in modern-day America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s not just conservatives sensing an elite war on the the words “Christmas” and “Christian.” As part of a panel discussion on local Washington D.C. program Inside Washington, NPR’s liberal Nina Totenberg apologized for using the apparently-controversial phrase “Christmas party” while recounting a discussion she had with a government officials about the budget. One can…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5,1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-current-events","category-media","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nC as in Christian, Christmas and controversy - Catholics Media and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/the-c-words.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"C as in Christian, Christmas and controversy - Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s not just conservatives sensing an elite war on the the words “Christmas” and “Christian.” As part of a panel discussion on local Washington D.C. program Inside Washington, NPR’s liberal Nina Totenberg apologized for using the apparently-controversial phrase “Christmas party” while recounting a discussion she had with a government officials about the budget. 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Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","caption":"John W. Kennedy"},"description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. 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