Always good for a quote expressing something completely absurd, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News recent declared that it's crazy and nuts for public schools to treat all religions equally when it comes to holidays. For him, the only acceptable situation appears to be to treat Christianity as something special and thereby make Christians feel better about themselves and their religion.

Media Matters quotes the November 9 broadcast of Fox News’ The Radio Factor with Bill O’Reilly:

O’REILLY: I mean, this is what the woman in Dallas Morning News [columnist Macarena Hernandez] tried to do about the border and the illegals. They are just liars. It just drives me crazy because it’s all over the place. And nobody calls them on it. You know, every sponsor in South Florida that deals with the St. Petersburg Times should not advertise there for three weeks. I know you gotta do the Christmas stuff, but send them a message. You know, put out an honest paper, or we don’t want to be in it.

Now, I’m glad we won this thing, because there is -- you know, secularism, secular progressives are making tremendous gains all over the country. And in California you can’t -- you can’t say it isn’t through the ballot box; it is in California. It is. The SPs in California are winning the fight at the ballot box. So, I mean, to me it is very worrisome. I think traditional America is good. It made us the great country we are. And to have these radical changes because somebody walks in and says, “Look, I want a holiday because I’m a Buddhist, or I practice Shintoism, I need a holiday.” I mean, what are you, crazy? You know this is nuts. This country was founded on Judeo-Christian philosophy. That’s what it was founded on. And our students need to know that and be taught about that to understand how their country has evolved to where we are today. Period. [emphasis Media Matters’]

So it’s wrong to accommodate the religions of non-Christians in public schools in exactly the same way that Christianity is accommodated in public schools. Why is such equal treatment inappropriate? Because America was “founded on Judeo-Christian philosophy.” Even if we assume that Bill O’Reilly were capable of defending such an assertion (unlikely, even if the assertion were true), why would the historical dominance of Christianity justify the current political dominance of Christianity even when it ceases to completely dominate by numbers?

Here, we have an obligation to teach our children how exactly the country was founded and why 85 percent of Americans are Christian. You don’t wipe that tradition out because somebody is offended. You don’t stop saying Merry Christmas because somebody’s offended. That’s fascism. It’s not a majority rule; it is what’s right and wrong. You either teach the children about the history of their country, or you don’t. [emphasis Media Matters’]

Why would granting non-Christian holidays the same status as Christian holidays constitute a failure to teach children about the history of America? Why would a failure to treat Christianity as something special constitute “fascism”? Why would a failure to make Christians feel special and given them privileges not accorded to adherents of other religions be a bad thing? This appears to be what Bill O’Reilly believes and I’m not sure he has a firm grasp on reality.

 

Read More:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Church and State News
• Religion in Public Schools
• Christmas Symbols, Christmas Holidays
• Secularism 101