Editorial: Have yourself a merry little... whatever
The next time someone wishes you “season’s greetings” or “happy holidays” instead of “merry Christmas,” don’t take it as a pleasant tidbit of cheer. According to right-wing commentators like Fox News’ John Gibson and Bill O’Reilly, it’s all part of a “liberal plot to ban the sacred Christian holiday.”
And if you think they’re spouting screwball conspiracy and getting unduly worked up, you’re a poor, deceived creature who just doesn’t see that Christmas–and by extension Christianity–is under siege.
Despite polls showing roughly 80 percent of Americans are Christian, a third of all respondents to a Dec. 1 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll estimated that less than half the country was Christian, with the most devoutly so thinking themselves an even smaller minority.
The fact is that Christians, however insecure, are not some persecuted, powerless, put-upon minority in this country. As Adam Cohen pointed out in a recent New York Times piece, they rule all three branches of the federal government, as well as dominate every state’s supreme court and legislature.
Besides, the origins of Christmas in America are commercial, not religious. Orders beginning with the Puritan pilgrims resisted it as impious, decadent and distracting, noting that according to the Bible, Dec. 25 was just another day. It was not until the 1920s that Christmas as we know it caught on, de-fanged by the emerging retail sector into an event more material than spiritual.
Now, amid the “Keep Christ in Christmas” signs popping up on pious lawns, using the Savior as a commercial pawn is not just benign, it’s praiseworthy. Crusaders are assaulting all sorts of targets for foregoing “merry Christmas.”
The Catholic League launched a boycott of Wal-Mart after it discovered searching the store’s Web site for “Christmas” took browsers to a page titled “Holiday.” The American Family Association aimed its arrows at Target, hoping to set an example for other retailers not using “merry Christmas” in their advertising.
On a November edition of “The O’Reilly Factor,” Bill insisted stores that don’t say “merry Christmas” to avoid alienating the fifth of their customers who are not Christian are “insane.” He also argued that while “merry Christmas” shouldn’t offend non-Christians, non-denominational greetings absolutely and rightly offend the faithful flock.
(Never mind that the “Christmas store” on O’Reilly’s personal Web site was a “holiday store” until bloggers called him on it. The site’s graphics remain offensively atheistic, with lots of snowflakes, wreaths and bells, but nary a Messiah or Magi.)
In a recent set of “talking points,” O’Reilly heralded Wichita, Kan., for changing the name of its city tree to a “Christmas tree” from the downright obscene “community tree.”
Is there truly such a shortage of substantive wrongs to right in the world today that such things matter?
We should all relish any form of seasonal goodwill sent our way, whatever inspires it, and stop being so easily riled over trifles.
And if it makes them happy and keeps them quiet, we say let the Christians deck the public halls with their tacky trimmings. Judging by the gaudy “holiday tree” currently marring the view of the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda, the only thing truly offensive about such displays taking up secular space are their aesthetics.
And if you think they’re spouting screwball conspiracy and getting unduly worked up, you’re a poor, deceived creature who just doesn’t see that Christmas–and by extension Christianity–is under siege.
Despite polls showing roughly 80 percent of Americans are Christian, a third of all respondents to a Dec. 1 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll estimated that less than half the country was Christian, with the most devoutly so thinking themselves an even smaller minority.
The fact is that Christians, however insecure, are not some persecuted, powerless, put-upon minority in this country. As Adam Cohen pointed out in a recent New York Times piece, they rule all three branches of the federal government, as well as dominate every state’s supreme court and legislature.
Besides, the origins of Christmas in America are commercial, not religious. Orders beginning with the Puritan pilgrims resisted it as impious, decadent and distracting, noting that according to the Bible, Dec. 25 was just another day. It was not until the 1920s that Christmas as we know it caught on, de-fanged by the emerging retail sector into an event more material than spiritual.
Now, amid the “Keep Christ in Christmas” signs popping up on pious lawns, using the Savior as a commercial pawn is not just benign, it’s praiseworthy. Crusaders are assaulting all sorts of targets for foregoing “merry Christmas.”
The Catholic League launched a boycott of Wal-Mart after it discovered searching the store’s Web site for “Christmas” took browsers to a page titled “Holiday.” The American Family Association aimed its arrows at Target, hoping to set an example for other retailers not using “merry Christmas” in their advertising.
On a November edition of “The O’Reilly Factor,” Bill insisted stores that don’t say “merry Christmas” to avoid alienating the fifth of their customers who are not Christian are “insane.” He also argued that while “merry Christmas” shouldn’t offend non-Christians, non-denominational greetings absolutely and rightly offend the faithful flock.
(Never mind that the “Christmas store” on O’Reilly’s personal Web site was a “holiday store” until bloggers called him on it. The site’s graphics remain offensively atheistic, with lots of snowflakes, wreaths and bells, but nary a Messiah or Magi.)
In a recent set of “talking points,” O’Reilly heralded Wichita, Kan., for changing the name of its city tree to a “Christmas tree” from the downright obscene “community tree.”
Is there truly such a shortage of substantive wrongs to right in the world today that such things matter?
We should all relish any form of seasonal goodwill sent our way, whatever inspires it, and stop being so easily riled over trifles.
And if it makes them happy and keeps them quiet, we say let the Christians deck the public halls with their tacky trimmings. Judging by the gaudy “holiday tree” currently marring the view of the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda, the only thing truly offensive about such displays taking up secular space are their aesthetics.
posted by Holly at 4:04 PM
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