Outraged Faith Leaders Respond to New York School’s ‘Jingle Bells’ Cancellation
Prior to the holidays, a school district in upstate New York announced that it would ban the teaching and singing of the beloved Christmas classic song “Jingle Bells” in the name of diversity and equity. The school district’s actions have drawn the ire of some significant faith leaders like Dr. Alveda King, Pentecostal Pastor Mark Burns and Dr. Michael Brown.
Burns, who is running for U.S. Congress in South Carolina later this year, says the action by Council Rock Primary School is just another example of cancel culture’s attack on Christianity in America.
“The liberal left’s shameless attempt to label ‘Jingle Bells’ as racist is just another despicable attempt to remove Christianity from society entirely,” Burns says. “The left’s pet project in schools right now, DEI—so called diversity, equity and inclusion—is really all about erasing Christianity, erasing the rule of law, and erasing Western civilization.
“And in the case of the erasure ‘Jingle Bells’ from this school district, this New York school board is canceling a song that doesn’t overtly refer to Christianity, but which is closely associated with the secular celebration of a high Christian holiday,” Burns adds. “The left is actually going one step further with this Stalinistic cancel culture. Clearly the next step for cancel culture will be the complete removal of even vague references to Christianity.
“The left and godless Democrats obviously want to erase Christmas. Any objection they make in protest of that fact is clearly a lie. They are canceling us while telling us we are crazy. Quite frankly, it’s abusive behavior.”
“Everyone associates the song ‘Jingle Bells’ with Christmas, which everyone knows is really about the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, of course the liberal left wants to cancel anything to do with Christianity in public schools and in society more broadly.”
Dr. Alveda King, niece of late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., says the school’s action only promotes divisiveness in our culture, not unity.
“We will never solve the problem of racism until we do what my Uncle Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said to do,” Alveda King says: “‘We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters, added by Alveda King], or perish together as fools.’
“Acts 17:26 teaches us that we are one blood, one human race,” she says. “We are not divided into separate races by skin color; that is ethnicity, not race. Looking for divisive markers according to skin color breeds racism. ‘Jingle Bells’ is a song written years ago. It is futile to continue to divide the human race by markers that delight some and offend others. There is one critical race, the one-blood human race.”
Dr. Michael Brown, author, apologist and host of The Line of Fire, offered a response as well.
“Talk about a ridiculous, woke overreaction,” Brown says. “This is yet another example of an extreme, PC culture destroying some of the simplest joys of life and making everything into a race issue. Sing the song and enjoy the season!” {eoa}
Brown has authored a new book titled, The Silencing of the Lambs, due out in March, from Charisma House. The book chronicles the ominous rise of cancel culture and what we can do to overcome it. {eoa}
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