THE decision by the Broadcasting Commission not to permit the Veritas company to advertise its Christmas wares on radio is being described as rampant secularism (or what the former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, a daily Massgoer and communicant, calls "aggressive secularism"). It is no such thing; and if it were, it might be acceptable, even admirable. What it is is aggressive political correctness, lack of imagination, mindless lack of humour, and a total failure to understand cultural concepts.
In other words, the advertising code which the Commission implemented is alarmingly ignorant of just what constitutes religious balance.
Paid advertising on the airwaves should not be banned unless it attempts to subvert public decency and order. And much though I dislike almost everything to do with Roman Catholicism, neither the Church nor its commercial enterprise, Veritas, can be accused of subverting either.
I was in the Veritas shop in Dublin some months ago in search of a particular publication (for research purposes, I hasten to add) and I found the wares on display almost wholly unpleasant, tasteless and tacky.
They offended against good taste by their design, which had nothing to do with their promotion of Catholicism.
Nonetheless, I shall be visiting the shop again on principle in order at least to buy a few candles.
I suspect a lot of other fair-minded atheists will be doing the same, so the ban may have done Veritas some good.
And just what is wrong with a Catholic commercial company promoting Catholic values? They actually have a duty to promote the religious end of the Christmas message, and if that makes Catholics uneasy, then it's the unease of a guilty conscience.
I suspect that one of the problems might be that very many Catholics don't want to be reminded of what Christmas should mean in their lives.
Catholic spokesmen pointed out, defensively, that the Veritas commercial didn't actually mention religion. That's a virtue? What's wrong in mentioning religious significance in an advertisement paid for openly by a religious organisation?
There has always been a mid-winter festival of light and hope. When Christianity gained dominance in Europe, it appropriated that festival for its own festival of birth and hope. Christians are expected to believe that the Christ child and His birth represent the salvation of the world.
That's what they're supposed to celebrate at Christmas. For other people, it's the festival of mid-winter joy, the festival of children and generosity, with the Christian message merely a charming legend.
If the particular commercial were trying to promote religious values by stealth rather than openly, then there might be a problem.
We see that in other aspects of Irish life, when, for instance, certain members of the Hierarchy try to define hooliganism, crime, and all vice as the product of non-religious thinking.
They don't seem to notice that the gangland murderers all get buried in Catholic funeral services when their enemies catch up with them.
Secularists have no problem with the message of Christmas: they absorb it into the aforesaid notion of mid-winter celebrations, happily teaching children the message of hope, kindness, and the spirit of generosity.
The silly part of this Christmas lunacy is that the Angelus continues to be broadcast on RTE, not as an advertisement paid for by the Catholic Church, but as part of the national broadcaster's programming.
The Angelus is a specifically Roman Catholic devotional prayer, despite the valiant, boring, politically correct attempts by the Religious Affairs department in RTE to give the broadcast a universality with a spread of ethnic minorities and ruddy-faced hearties up ladders as proof that prayer is manly.
It's all part of the confusion that reigns when people are embarrassed about religion.
I have taken part in religious affairs programmes on RTE on several occasions, (usually as the token secularist) and have always found that I am the only participant not to be embarrassed when Catholic teaching is mentioned.
The Catholics try to brush it aside. One religious affairs presenter told me recently that his programme wasn't about religion, but about ethics. In fact, he said in horror, there wasn't a religious affairs department in RTE. His producer corrected him. There was, and the programme came under its remit.
A decade ago, a religious affairs producer in RTE at least knew what he was supposed to stand for.
The late Michael Garvey, a charming and erudite man, reacted with horror when I suggested that programming should encompass all religions, and maybe have a humanist perspective brought to bear occasionally as well.
"Dear god," he said, only half-joking. "We've got enough problems doing the Catholics and the odd Protestant. Anyway this, is a Catholic country, the station has a Catholic ethos."
He was right.
And it still does.
Things like the ban on the Veritas commercial are merely a very thin and superficial overlay.
I had a lot more sympathy with Michael's kind of attitude than I had for a couple of Catholic religious affairs commentators with whom I shared a studio for a discussion of affairs (the sexual kind) far more recently. I pointed out that since this was a religious programme, the bottom line was that having an affair was a mortal sin punishable by eternal damnation.
They both turned visibly pale, and laughed nervously.
One of them told me I was reducing the discussion to a silly level.
I will behave in a conspicuously commercial fashion over the next few weeks (actually, most of my shopping is done, all 33 presents that I will be giving.)
I will not be praying, although I will happily sing (off key) the Christmas carols that I love.
I will be in contact with friends and acquaintances that I may not have not seen all year.
I will eat a little too much, and drink probably more than a little too much.
And I will ask every child I meet what they hope Santa Claus will be bringing them, and in what part of their house Santa leaves the presents.
And every time I see that benighted commercial for Meteor on television, in which the reindeer threaten to go on strike, I will be tempted to lodge a complaint with the Broadcasting Commission.
It's shown throughout the early evening with an utterly unacceptable disregard for who may be watching.
The Commission might just turn their attention to that little piece of unprincipled subversion of the Christmas message, and leave Veritas alone.
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Sotto Voce
(Source: II)