The Weekly World: The “war on Christmas”

There are many conflicts going on right now. In Syria, at least 40,000 people have been killed in a bloody civil war.  In Gaza, a tenuous peace has only just put a halt on daily missile-attacks against civilian as well as military targets, where hundreds were killed in a few short weeks.  But these aren’t the worst; the most vicious, most dangerous and most insidious war is the one waged every year against Christmas.

That’s right, the war on Christmas is a sinister specter of the militant secular agenda.

“I think it’s all part of the secular-progressive agenda to get Christianity and spirituality and Judaism out of the public square,” said Fox News Anchor and insightful investigative journalist Bill O’Reilly, in 2007.  “If you can get religion out, then you can pass secular progressive programs like legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage, because the objection to those things is religious-based, usually.”

Conservative activist and draftsman of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) Robert Knight expressed agreement with O’Reilly in a CNN interview last December.  “This is actually a very serious subject because a lot of people are waking up to realize that the war on Christmas is really a culmination of a war on faith, and the idea that the public square has to be cleansed of any religious expression – particularly Christian religious expression.”

While it may be true that the United States was founded on the principle of separation from Church and State, omitting the word “Christmas” takes away the rights of White Christian Republican Americans to feel supported by people who don’t agree with them.  It’s an insult to the conservative tradition of a Christian Nation started by McCarthy in the 1950’s.  We are, after all, one nation “under God” (circa 1953).

Now, I understand that some liberal critics say that government acknowledgment of Christian values constitutes special treatment, and that the large businesses that are choosing “Happy Holidays” over “Merry Christmas” are doing so of their own accord.  Business autonomy, just as Republicans always claim to support.

But that’s missing the point – why should customer service companies worry about all of their customers?  Speaking about companies that have opted for a less religious holiday greeting, John Gibson, author of the book “The War On Christmas,” said retailers “tend to worry about 100% of the customers, and if 85% of the country is Christian and 97% celebrate Christmas, there’s that little extra percentage that may not.”  This, in his view, “indicates hostility, by refusing to say the word ‘Christmas.’”

He goes on: “What I’ve noticed is – the way this appears in schools, for instance – is we don’t call it the ‘Christmas break;’ it’s the ‘winter break,’ as if people worship winter.”  I couldn’t agree more; breaks should only be in recognition of an object or auspicious day of worship.  While I don’t remember exactly what religious event summer break is based on, you can bet your soul it’s something divinely important.

So remember, this holiday season, don’t let those angry atheists and speech-squelching secularists take away our special privileges.  It is, after all, a guaranteed right to espouse one’s religion, and to attempt to silence people who think differently.  It’s ‘Merry Christmas,’ not ‘Happy Holidays,’ Kwanza, Hanukkah, the winter solstice, Yule (a festival for Odin) or anything else.  It’s about Jesus, and companies shouldn’t be allowed to choose not to incessantly remind people of that, regardless of their personal beliefs.