Christmas police – British version

They’re fighting Christmas battles across the pond, too.

From the land that produced “A Christmas Carol” and Handel’s “Messiah,” more evidence that Christianity is fading in Western Europe: Nearly 99 percent of Christmas cards sold in Great Britain contain no religious message or imagery.

“Traditional pictures such as angels blowing trumpets over a stable, Jesus in his manger, the shepherds and three wise men following the star to Bethlehem are dying out,” the Daily Mail reports. A review of some 5,500 Christmas cards turns up fewer than 70 that make any reference to the birth of Jesus.

That’s astounding. Seventy – out of 5,500.

 “Hundreds . . . avoided any image linked to Christmas at all” — even those with no spiritual significance, such as Christmas trees or Santa Claus.

It’s turned into a bizarre phobia. Which then changes the marketing industry.

Presumably the greeting-card industry is only supplying what the market demands; if Christian belief and practice weren’t vanishing from the British scene, Christian-themed cards wouldn’t be, either. But some Britons, not all of them devout, are resisting the tide. Writing in the Telegraph, editor-at-large Jeff Randall — who describes himself as “somewhere between an agnostic and a mild believer” — announces that any Christmas card he receives that doesn’t at least mention the word “Christmas” goes straight into the trash.

 That, from a semi-agnostic, semi-mild believer. Well, good for him to step up.

“Jettisoning Christmas-less cards is my tiny, almost certainly futile, gesture against the dark forces of political correctness,” he writes. “It’s a swipe at those who would prefer to abolish Christmas altogether, in case it offends ‘minorities.’ Someone should tell them that, with only one in 15 Britons going to church on Sundays, Christians are a minority.”

I never thought of that. Jolting, isn’t it?

Well, these things have a way of drawing the believers out of their slumber or malaise. The editor who puts together a newslist that carried the above story followed up the next day with a personal note on reaction to it. Here’s what she said:

After seeing yesterday’s story about the near impossibility of finding religious “Christmas” cards in Britain, I e-mailed two English friends to ask if this had been an accurate story. Here are their responses:

#1: “True. I was lucky, I went to my friend…who sells charity cards, and because she is a Catholic, she demands that the majority of the cards she sells are religious….”

#2: “Unfortunately it is TRUE according to the newspapers, traditional Christmas is NOT PC this year, as it might offend other faiths!!!!!! To be fair other faiths have raised objections: they want us to keep our Christian Christmas traditions especially as they like the Christmas rites & rightly so—together with the “ordinary people” — voices have been raised in a storm of protest.

Charlotte [a daughter] tells us you can’t buy packs of ‘religious themed’ cards, only singly. Rebecca [another daughter] has had to go to Ebay to purchase a Nativity Set & reports there were lots for sale….says a lot!

As I buy cards through a charity it hasn’t affected me. However if it did affect me I would make my own religious cards & would continue to celebrate the birth of Christ as we have always done. Thought we lived in a democracy!!!!!

Over here, we live in a representative republic. How things go are pretty much determined by whose values the republic allows to represent us.

By the way, who started all this? Who was the first person to say they were offended by Christians observing the birth of Christ? What’s this all about, anyway?