More P.C. Madness

By and large we agree with those who prefer to call Christmas "Christmas," rather than those who insist on the generic "holiday," which is supposedly more palatable to Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Shintoists, Unitarians, Zoroastrians, Taoists, Sikhs, deists, pantheists, atheists, agnostics and adherents of the Baha'i faith, even though we fall into one of those 14 categories. But the effort to be sensitive to non-Christians can lead to some very funny results.

This is from the Web site of the Houston Symphony:

Handel's Messiah By Conductor Christopher Seaman

Both an awe-inspiring holiday tradition and a memorable religious experience, Handel's Messiah returns this holiday season. Guest conductor Christopher Seaman leads Houston's premier performance of Handel's choral masterwork, which includes the timeless Hallelujah Chorus.

If they really want to be sensitive to those who can't stomach "Christmas," shouldn't they change the name of the work to, say, Handel's "Dude"?

From the OpinionJournal [OpinionJournal@wsj.com]

Surely Political Correctness has reached its demented zenith with this uproariously funny contradiction. Calling Handle's very famous story of the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, as a "holiday tradition" must have put the publicist into a pretzel of contradictions. The very term, Messiah, means, Anointed One, and the entire musical is about the birth, life and triumph of Jesus Christ.

This is just one more reason to like classical music.

But, it also shows the ridiculuous lengths to which current PC zealots will go to expunge the word Christmas from our daily life. "Hell hath no fury like a liberal scorned."