Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Arrowman · 12-10-2002, 02:06 PM

Background: Matthew Abraham is a journalist who writes a column in the local newspaper. he also works for the Catholic Church. His columns are normally harmless "fluff" pieces - musings on suburban life, that sort of thing; occasionally he slips in a hard point that makes you stop and think. In this week's column, he writes about a local Christmas Carols event in a local park.

Unfortunately the column is not online so I'll just have to quote the relevant pieces.

Quote:

...The evening began with a Christmas message from Salvation Army Captain Dennis White, a man not about to give ground to those killjoys who would remove Christ from Christmas.
"Jesus is the reason for the season" he declared, and this had a nice ring to it.
I bet Mike Rann [Premier of SA] wished he'd used that line last week when he declared by press release that Christmas would not be erased while he was Premier...
[Note: Interesting point here. Mr Abraham does not seem to get the distinction between the Premier making a statement that he was not going to go overboard with political correctness, and an outright endorsement of a particular religion. Fortunately, the Premier does understand that distinction and I am sure would not have dreamed of using that line!]
<more words from Captain White about the birth of Jesus>
...If any atheists, agnostics or Education Department Thought Police lurked among the checked woollen rugs and aluminium deck chairs, they wisely held their breath...
...kicked off their three song set with John Lennon's Happy Christmas, War Is Over...Silent night, holy night. And so this is Christmas, and what have you done?

The column is a shocker - not because it is an overt Christian diatribe, but in fact because it is not. It smugly dismisses the interests of a significant part of the population as though they just don't matter. The very subtlety of its message, and the way it is likely to be simply accepted without thought by the readership, is the real shocker.

Here is the letter I have just sent off. brevity is the guarantee of publication in this local newspaper, so I have decided to keep it very short and to the point. Also, for those who might question this, I have avoided overtly identifying myself as an atheist because I don't want people having an excuse to miss the point by dismissing my letter as "atheist whining". I want it to read like a liberal Christian could have written it (which, of course, they could have).

Quote:

Matthew Abraham is normally a reasonable and tolerant columnist so it came as a shock to read his latest column (Messenger, 11 Dec). One does not have to be an atheist or agnostic to be offended at his smug dismissal of some 25% of the Australian population at this time of peace and goodwill.

(Interestingly, and somewhat hypocritically, Mr Abraham feels free to take a snide swipe at "atheists and agnostics" but fails to acknowledge that his column also marginalises Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and a range of other non-Christian faiths.)

Indeed, given the rich intellectual history of the Catholic Church I am surprised that he seems to be unaware of the pagan origins of the Christmas festival.

And the irony is complete when he quotes John Lennon - who also wrote the wistful lyric "Imagine no religion....". I doubt that Mr Lennon would have been impressed with your column, Matthew.

(Note: For those who are wondering, this is how I came up with the "25%" figure. The latest Census results show 68% Christian. The other 32% includes 10% "not stated, overseas visitors etc". Allocating that 10% in proportion to the rest (ie 7% Christian, 3% non Christian), gives 25% non-Christian overall as a nice, safe, defensible figure.)

Daggah · 12-10-2002, 04:06 PM

You should've quickly pointed out that Jesus has as much to do with the season as the IPU...

beejay · 12-10-2002, 06:21 PM

Quote:

"Jesus is the reason for the season" he declared, and this had a nice ring to it.

Doesn't everybody know that the reason for the season (and all seasons) is the 23 degree tilt in the Earth's axis?

BigBlue2 · 12-11-2002, 12:53 AM

Good letter, Arrowman. It is short, sharp and to the point as you intended - a pretty good smackdown, in my view. Hopefully it will get published.

Arrowman · 12-11-2002, 03:27 PM

Thanks. BigBlue. Your "hopefully it will get published" reminds me of my last effort with that paper, which I would like to brag about now.

Another regular columnist in that paper is Terry Plane, a former Labor Party staffer who, at least while the Liberals were in power in SA, barely concealed his bias. Among other things he always referred to the Liberal Premier (John Olsen) by a nickname, while always using the correct name of the Labor Opposition Leader (Mike Rann, now premier of course).

Then the Liberals changed leader (to Rob Kerin) and at one stage issued a press release with his name badly mis-spelled "Ron Kiren". So the columnist adopted that name for Kerin, while still always referring to Rann properly.

It had gone well beyond a joke and (even though I am not a fan of the SA Libs) and wrote a brief letter suggesting that "If Mr Plane ever wants to be taken seriously as a journalist and not be forever seen as a former Labor hack, he might like to drop the childish habit of ... " etc.

The letter was never published. But within two weeks the nicknames were gone from the column and have never returned.

Hmmmm...

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12-10-2002, 04:06 PM	#2
Daggah Banned Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Deployed to Kosovo Posts: 4,314	You should've quickly pointed out that Jesus has as much to do with the season as the IPU...

12-11-2002, 12:53 AM	#4
BigBlue2 Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 6,666	Good letter, Arrowman. It is short, sharp and to the point as you intended - a pretty good smackdown, in my view. Hopefully it will get published.

12-11-2002, 03:27 PM	#5
Arrowman Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 1,358	Thanks. BigBlue. Your "hopefully it will get published" reminds me of my last effort with that paper, which I would like to brag about now. Another regular columnist in that paper is Terry Plane, a former Labor Party staffer who, at least while the Liberals were in power in SA, barely concealed his bias. Among other things he always referred to the Liberal Premier (John Olsen) by a nickname, while always using the correct name of the Labor Opposition Leader (Mike Rann, now premier of course). Then the Liberals changed leader (to Rob Kerin) and at one stage issued a press release with his name badly mis-spelled "Ron Kiren". So the columnist adopted that name for Kerin, while still always referring to Rann properly. It had gone well beyond a joke and (even though I am not a fan of the SA Libs) and wrote a brief letter suggesting that "If Mr Plane ever wants to be taken seriously as a journalist and not be forever seen as a former Labor hack, he might like to drop the childish habit of ... " etc. The letter was never published. But within two weeks the nicknames were gone from the column and have never returned. Hmmmm...

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