Dr Hermen Shastri's concern for the government's sensitivity to anything that 'insults Islam' ill-suits a Christian clergyman, particularly in relation to the national celebration of the Feast of The Emmanuel (Hebrew for God among His People), more commonly referred to as Christmas.

Leaving aside elements of Christian belief and historical truth that the Education Ministry regularly blanks out in historical books read by Malaysian school children (such as that Jesus died a death by crucifixion), Shastri's acquiescence in a state-sanctioned stripping of the sacred meaning of Christmas is a gravely misplaced rendering unto Ceasar what is not Ceasar's.

The now annual government-sponsored national celebration of Christmas is a farce by reason of its refusal to acknowledge the true meaning of that occasion: the birth memorial of Jesus.

The government may have its reasons for eliding the fact (I must say in some cases Marx was indeed right about religion being the 'opiate of the masses'); but it is a sad day when a Christian doctor of divinity finds reasons to rationalise the stripping.