It seems that in recent times as we approach December 24th, the issue of supporting the Christian holiday comes back in the news every year, at least in North America.
The effort to remove Christ from Christmas is apparently to avoid perceived offence of non-Christians, This means that people and organisations often now use terms like “Happy Holidays”, or “Season’s Greetings” as opposed to the Christian greeting “Merry Christmas”. It also seems that for some, carols with Christian references are also unwelcome.
A shopping mall in British Columbia was the scene of the latest kerfuffle last Friday
The Christian charitable organisation The Salvation Army, kicked off it’s annual seasonal fund-raising campaign with a musical performance at the Pine Centre Mall in the city of Prince George.
The performance included the singing of carols which included the 1956 tune “Mary’s Boy Child” and the African-American spiritual “Go Tell It On the Mountain” both of which make references to Jesus, the Lord, the Bible, and Christian beliefs.
The mall’s promotions manager informed the Salvation Army captain that the Christian themed songs violated the mall’s non-partisan, non-sectarian policy. There was also the side-issue of use of amplified guitars, when the mall had asked for acoustic music only.
Feeling the tension about Christian carols from the mall representative, Salvation Army captain Wilkinson decided to avoid any further problems and ended the show before the planned schedule had been completed.
The Prince George chapter of the Salvation Army has held its seasonal kettle fundraising at the mall for several years prior to this year’s event.
As the situation this year became wider known, the mall later recanted saying the tunes can be performed at future seasonal fund-raising events.
Both the mall and the Salvation Army are now downplaying the situation, although the mall has asked that they pre-approve any future song list.
What’s so dangerous about singing? Heidi Jones
Last year at this time a somewhat similar incident occurred involving a children’s choir in the British Columbia town of Fort St. John.
The children’s choir was to perform at the seasonal Salvation Army kettle donation drive at a local Walmart.
The children;s choir in Fort St John B.C was prohibited from singing carols in two places over “safety” concerns in 2017 (Christine Kress via CBC)
The store however said they choir of 20 children was too many to have in the store on a busy shopping day.
The choir then decided to try a shopping mall across the street but the mall said the choir’s insurance of $2-million wasn’t enough and that they required insurance coverage up to $5-million.
In the end, the choir joined the Salvation Army outside a grocery store, but organiser Heidi Jones quoted in the CBC at the time said, “I don’t know what’s so dangerous about singing”.
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