Protester Burns in Christmas Inferno

Americans celebrate Christmas in many different ways but in Bakersfield, California, an apparent secular fanatic observed the holiday by dousing himself with flammable liquid and setting himself ablaze.

According to press reports, he meant to show his passionate objection to Thursday night’s decision by the Kern High School Board of Trustees to change the name of the winter break to “Christmas vacation” and the spring break to “Easter Vacation.” The protester (the headline proclaimed, “Name Change Sparks Protest”) first set fire to a Christmas tree and several flags, then lit himself to express his displeasure at the Board’s decision. Fire Department spokesman Garth Milam indicated he “suffered first degree burns on his shoulders and arms” and received treatment in a local hospital.

Many commentators have condemned the alleged hysteria and extremism by religious conservatives who complain about the “War on Christmas,” but none of the holiday’s defenders has tried to burn himself (or herself) to death to protest less attention to the season’s religious origins. It took a militant secularist (driven to suicidal rage by the designation of a school break as “Christmas vacation”?)to give macabre new meaning to the “season of light.”

Yes, it’s a sad story and the perpetrator is probably insane but the incident still illustrates a point I’ve made repeatedly on the radio show: in today’s battle between America’s religious majority and a beleaguered (and tiny) secularist minority, there’s far more extremism, intolerance, militancy, aggressiveness and even insanity on the secular side. The “separationists” and non-believers feel threatened by religiosity, and compelled to attack it, in a way that the faith community seldom feels menaced by atheism or secularism. The reason for the greater tolerance from religious believers is simple but profound: if we’re wrong about God’s existence, the long-term consequences are insignificant, but if atheists are wrong in their non-belief the impact on them could be substantial and, in fact, eternal.

In contrast to our Muslim counterparts, Christians and Jews don’t observe our holiday seasons by attempting to secure heaven through suicide or self-mutilation, but a secular-minded lunatic just lit himself ablaze in order to protest even the slightest, most subtle reminder that he might face even more painful flames in the future.

"The reason for the greater tolerance from religious believers is simple but profound: if we’re wrong about God’s existence, the long-term consequences are insignificant, but if atheists are wrong in their non-belief the impact on them could be substantial and, in fact, eternal"

As great a fan of Michael Medved as I am, I must take issue with this one point in his article. There is, in the heart of man, through Natural Law (think Clarence Thomas) an inherent sense of good and evil. If we are wrong about the existence of God, then there are still reasons to abide by the rules set forth in the Ten Comandments, as well as the "emanations" from other religious faiths. These convictions give voice to that sense of right and wrong, ascribing moral authority, without dominating or enslaving men, to the Creator, and making possible the foundations for cultures such as the one that is distinctly American.

It is only with the influence of this faith that a society such as ours can exist. Secularists find this idea intolerable specifically because it speaks to that shard of understanding in their souls that tells then there is more to reality than themselves, and more to life than mere existence.

In this way, the ramifications of faith are great and far reaching - not insignificant in any way. It is the insignificance of a life without higher purpose that gives rise to the nihilism of self-immolation.....perhaps a eerie preview of the immolant's ultimate destiny. Secular libs find no problem coexisting with pseudo-religions like Islam (Submission) because the values being defended by the Judeo-Christian majority are of no value to them, and in fact, they may find kindred spirit in the life denying practices of the fanatics.

/series commentary off/return to snarky jerk mode

To paraphrase the Savior "By their fruit(cakes) you shall know them."

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