Florida Mall Bans Christmas Music People Understand

What is it about Florida and Christmas this year? Today a mall in Sarasota, Florida announced it would only allow performing choral groups to perform Christmas music as long as it was in a language other than English. The mall specifically targets Christian music as a no-no.

“For choral groups, the Mall prefers no clearly recognizable Christian music, such as carols sung in English, spirituals or gospel,” reads a memo released from the University Town Center Mall in Sarasota. “Classical holiday music or music sung in a foreign language such as Latin, French, Spanish, Italian or German is fine.”

Famed Christmas crusaders known as the American Family Association jumped all over this news. They said:

“This means traditional Christmas hymns like ‘O, Holy Night’ or ‘Silent Night’ will apparently not be allowed unless, as the memo states, they are sung in a foreign language. And since most choirs wouldn’t learn ‘Joy to the World’ in French or German, the mall has seemingly covered all its anti-Christian bases.”

Well, as you can imagine Christmas loving folks jumped all over this one. The mall today quickly retracted the statement saying the policy was published by a third party without review of the mall management.

Right.

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Klement Klark Klaus

K. Klark Klaus is a former professor of theology and, as an academic, abhors the titles of "writer" and "reporter". As a New Yorker he was prominent on his essays on religion for many decades before retiring with his wife to Vermont, where he raises reindeer and writes, er, opines for Christmas Weekly.

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