Changing of Media Narratives

PART V / XIV

The Virginia Company of London embarked on a publication journey to spread the narrative that the Powhatan attack as a ‘Barbarous Massacre’ rather than war retaliation. The company commissioned several writers to write about the attack and to make it look like these authors wrote about the incident themselves while still reinforcing the ‘massacre’ narrative through their consensus. One of the campaign’s primary texts emphasized that the attack was unprovoked and advocated for the complete extermination of the Powhatan Confederacy. The text exaggerated the details of the incident and framed the English colonists as innocent victims, completely deflecting their previous attempts to invade Native territory and failing to mention that the attack was more of a retaliation than a ‘massacre’. The Company’s corporate-controlled narrative dominated English interpretations of the incident. A collection of pamphlets, woodcuts, and poems were published to reinstate images of the suffering of the English colonists and the brutal savagery of the Natives.

Te Deum Excerpt, Chapter 8

Santa Claus, also known as St. Nicholas, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Christmas Eve. The popular conception of Santa Claus originates from folklore traditions surrounding the 4^th century Christian bishop St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children. St. Nicholas became renowned for his reported generosity and secret gift-giving. The image of Santa Claus shares similarities with the English figure of Father Christmas, and they are both now popularly regarded as the same person. Dutch settlers brought the legend of Sinterklaas (‘St. Nicholas’) to 17^th century New Amsterdam (present-day New York City), followed by the ‘image’ originating in the United States during the 19^th century. The 1823 American poem ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’, written by an anonymous author, recounts St. Nicholas arriving at the author’s home on Christmas Eve in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer. The poem laid the foundation for modern depictions of Santa Claus, strengthening the association between Santa Claus and Christmas. Over time, this connection has been maintained and reinforced through song, radio, television, children’s books, family Christmas traditions, films, and advertising.

Early representations of the gift-giver from Church history and folklore, especially St. Nicholas, merged with the English character Father Christmas to create the mythical character known to the rest of the English-speaking world as ‘Santa Claus’. In the United States, British and Dutch versions of the gift-giver merged further, losing his bishop’s apparel, and was at first pictured as a thick-bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat; admittedly being a parody of Dutch culture in New York, and much of this portrait is his joking invention. The image of Santa Claus has been subject to advertising depictions, such as by The Coca-Cola Company’s Christmas advertising in the 1930s, with the distinct colors of red and white to promote the brand. Father Christmas was historically depicted wearing a green cloak, but has been increasingly merged into the image of Santa Claus, portrayed in a red suit in the 19^th century. The image is so malleable to commercial interests, that in Brazil, a version of Santa with green clothes instead of red became popular through television commercials for the soft drink brand Dolly appearing along with their mascot. It became a form of patriotism adapting the character to the colors of the Brazilian flag and at the same time rivaling Coca-Cola commercials.

Santa has been over-exaggeratedly described as a positive male cultural icon. TV producer Jonathan Meath stated, “Santa is really the only cultural icon we have who’s male, does not carry a gun, and is all about peace, joy, giving, and caring for other people. That’s part of the magic for me, especially in a culture where we’ve become so commercialized and hooked into manufactured icons. Santa is much more organic, integral, connected to the past, and therefore connected to the future.” This entertainment industry executive has gone so far to entirely remove the notion of Jesus Christ, and deceitfully tries to separate Santa Claus from a completely manufactured figure centered around commercialization.

Writer Carol Jean-Swanson makes similar points, noting that the original figure of St. Nicholas gave only to those who were needy and that today Santa Claus seems to be more about conspicuous consumption: “He mirrors some of our highest ideals: childhood purity and innocence, selfless giving, unfaltering love, justice, and mercy. The problem is that, in the process, he has become burdened with some of society’s greatest challenges: materialism, corporate greed, and domination by the media.”

Te Deum Excerpt, Chapter 8

The decisive meeting between the Catholic Monarchs and Columbus was held at the Monastery of Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Gaudalupe, Caceres, in Extremadura, Spain. The meeting occurred in June 1492, and is the same venue that houses the shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe, also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe, an adaptation of the Virgin Mary by the Latin Catholic Church associated with apparitions in Mexico. A venerated image on a cloak associated with the apparition is enshrined in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Pope Leo XIII granted a decree of canonical coronation for the image on February 8, 1887. The rite of coronation was executed by the former Archbishop of Mexico on October 12, 1895. It is the most visited Catholic shrine in the world, and the world’s third most visited sacred site.

The shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Spain was the most important of the shrines to the Virgin Mary in the medieval Kingdom of Castile. Following the Spanish Conquest in 1519-1521, the Marian cult was brought to the Americas and Franciscan friars often leveraged syncretism with existing religious beliefs as an instrument for evangelization. The Marian apparitions involve visions of the Virgin Mary and features Archbishop Juan de Zumarrage as a major player in the story who was a prolific writer; however, there is nothing in his extant writings that can confirm the indigenous story. The written record suggests the Catholic clergy in 16^th century Mexico were deeply divided as to the orthodoxy of the native beliefs springing up around the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, with the Franciscan order being strongly opposed to the outside groups, while the Dominicans supported it. The main promoter of the story was Dominican Alonso de Montufar, who succeeded the Franciscan Juan de Zumarraga as Archbishop of Mexico.

In the late 1570s, the Franciscan historian Bernardino de Sahagun denounced the cult at Tepeyac and the use of the name ‘Tonantzin’ or to call her Our Lady in a personal digression: “At this place [Tepeyac], [the Indians] had a temple dedicated to the mother of the gods, whom they called Tonantzin, which means Our Mother. There they performed many sacrifices in honor of this goddess… And now that a church of Our Lady of Guadalupe is built there, they also called her Tonantzin, being motivated by those preachers who called Our Lady, the Mother of God, Tonantzin. While it is not known for certain where the beginning of Tonantzin may have originated, but this we know for certain, that from its first usage, the word refers to the ancient Tonantzin. And it was viewed as something that should be remedied, for their having [native] name of the Mother of God, Holy Mary, instead of Tonantzin, but Dios inantzin. It appears to be a Satanic invention to cloak idolatry under the confusion of this name, Tonantzin. And they now come to visit from very far away, as far away as before, which is also suspicious, because everywhere there are many churches of Our Lady and they do not go to them. They come from distant lands to this Tonantzin as in older times.”

In 1493, Columbus returned from his first voyage back to the same venue in which the decisive meeting took place, the Spanish Monastery of Santa Maria, which houses the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to thank Her for his success.

Te Deum Excerpt, Chapter 8

Under the state atheism of the Soviet Union, after its foundation in 1917, Christmas celebrations – along with other Christian holidays – were prohibited in public. During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the League of Militant Atheists encouraged school pupils to campaign against Christmas traditions, such as the Christmas tree, as well as other Christian holidays, including Easter; the League established an antireligious holiday to be the 31st of each month as a replacement. At the height of its persecution, in 1929, on Christmas Day, children in Moscow were encouraged to spit on crucifixes as a protest against the holiday. Instead, the importance of the holiday and all its trappings, such as the Christmas tree and gift-giving, was transferred to the New Year. It was not until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 that the persecution ended and Orthodox Christmas became a state holiday again for the first time in Russia after seven decades.

European History Professor Joseph Perry wrote that likewise, in Nazi Germany, “because Nazi ideologues saw organized religion as an enemy of the totalitarian state, propagandists sought to deemphasize – or eliminate altogether – the Christian aspects of the holiday” and that “Propagandists tirelessly promoted numerous Nazified Christmas songs, which replaced Christian themes with the regime’s […] ideologies.”

Te Deum Excerpt, Chapter 9

Part VI

Part IV

Preface