The letter to the editor was well crafted, thought provoking and touching. It was all the more notable because it was written by Christina, only 15.
Of a Toronto Star Life Section article about the Canadian Humanist Association, Christina wrote in her letter, "I'm glad to see that The Star is open-minded and ready to support different philosophies, but why not an informative article promoting mainstream faiths, when faith is so important to so many people?"
"The concept of a Greater Spirit may seem nonsensical to some; scientific theory can explain the creation of everything logically. But you can trace the creation of the universe all the way to before the Big Bang, and there will always be the question: who created that?
"I really don't want to preach, but I don't ever want to live in a world where no one believes in God. I am 15-years-old and while many of my friends and peers are questioning or disowning their faith, I am trying very hard to hold on to mine.
"So if you printed an article why people don't believe in God, why not print some articles about why people do?
"The worst you could do is give a person hope."
More than 100 years ago, an eight-year-old girl named Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the New York Sun...."I am eight-years-old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'if you see it in the Sun, it's so.'"
The editorial, written in response to Virginia's letter by editor Francis P. Church is still referred to countless times all these years later. Church wrote in part, that if there were no Santa Claus ..."There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence....The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see."
Indeed, Church's words are contained in what has become the most reprinted editorial of all time.
Thanks to Eric Newton, Managing Editor of Newseum, the world's first interactive museum of news, those browsing the internet can discover that Virginia O’Hanlon grew up to be an educator in New York, "teaching countless disabled children about Christmas, newspapers, families, faith" before her death in 1971.Now, it is Newton's words on the net which bring inspiration to any who may fall upon them... "The (Church) editorial evokes a time when newspapers were the most trusted news medium, when the great American editorial really was the great American editorial...But there is more. 'Church just didn't spin another yarn about Santa Claus', notes historian William David Sloan. He gave us a reason for believing.'"
"Newspapers today need Church’s poetry on the editorial page. Too often, journalists climb up upon stacks of facts and fall asleep. We need to wake up, jump up, reach up for the big idea, for the greater truth, for the one that might just touch the stars."
Christina's letter to The Star coincides with a time when a one-man "Board of Inquiry" Judge Ken Halvorson ruled that Saskatoon's public schools can't start their day with the Lord's prayer. In his edict, Halvorson refers to Saskatoon’s schools as a "backwater of religious tolerance".
"The practice of Bible readings in public schools must cease," he ordered.
The order to censor Christian clergy at the memorial for the SwissAir disaster at Peggy's
Cove came from no less than the federal government.
Times have changed indeed when a 15-year-old feels the need to defend her own faith, in an era when the secular humanist movement and the politically correct mood have made displays of
Christianity something worthy of attack.
Little wonder why today's youth feel somewhat alienated and why 15-year-old girls are asking newspaper editors, why not write stories about people who believe in God?
Yes, Christina, "The worst you could do is give a person hope."
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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