Lights Out - Minnesota

Imagine the scene. There you are, living in the suburbs of middle America in December 2020; it’s cold outside and you think back on the year that’s been. Who’d have thought it? 

A potentially deadly virus, lockdowns, riots, looting, a contested election, job uncertainty and on. What a dark landscape, so you decide to lift everyone’s spirits by putting up Christmas lights on the house. 

Well done. “Merry Christmas!” you say cheerfully to yourself while decorating a festive tree; things are starting to look up at last, about time. Then boom, the Postperson arrives with a letter blasting your Christmas lights for intolerance, division, and “systemic biases.”

Wow, systemic bias, that's pretty bad. So hurry up, you suburban criminal, and report yourself for wrongthink. That's obviously before you work through struggle sessions in the nearest Maoist Minnesotan reeducation center. 

Satire? If only. Four Minnesota households in a suburb of Minneapolis, St. Anthony, received an anonymous Advent letter this year, excoriating them for decorating their houses for the holiday season. Here it is:

 

I couldn’t help but notice your Christmas lights display. During these unprecedented times we have all experienced challenges which casual words just don’t describe what we’re feeling. The idea of twinkling, colorful lights are a reminder of divisions that continue to run through our society, a reminder of systemic biases against our neighbors who don’t celebrate Christmas or who can’t afford to put up lights of their own.

We must do the work of educating ourselves about the harmful impact an outward-facing display like yours can have. I challenge you to respect the dignity of all people while striving to learn from differences, ideas, and opinions of our neighbors. We must come together collectively and challenge these institutional inequities; St. Anthony is a community of welcoming of all people (sic) and we must demand better for ourselves.

 

Demand better? Yes indeed. Let's start with calling an end to leftist gibberish and tyranny masquerading as tolerance and "welcome." A false welcome to everyone except those who disagree with you. This isn't about toleration, it's about forcing your will on other people, in this instance on those who choose to display the outward signs of Christmas, of celebrating Christ's birth, on their houses.

How dare you, Nazi! As if for a second that a garish if cheerful twinkling light was anything other than a sign of good cheer. But of course our latter-day puritans hate the sign because they hate its significance. 

It proclaims, consciously or not, that God became a man and lay, as a child, under a star in Bethlehem. And with that birth salvation came into the world. 

This is abhorrent to the enemies of Christmas and, if they can, they'll ban the feast of the Incarnation from the public square, like their spiritual ancestors, the Bolsheviks of 1917 or the Puritans of the seventeenth century. But you know what?

The gates of Hell shall not prevail against the angelic host, which cries out, Gloria in Excelsis Deo, glory to God in the highest at the birth of the Christ Child. Nothing, much less mean-spirited, narcissist, Midwestern killjoys and their rich Ivy Satanic League (sorry,  add Berkley) friends can stop that.

Here endeth the Lesson,

LSP