Update:
Came across this graphic on Facebook that really captures the message I tried to convey and the concept of “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
With credit and thanks to the unknown originator.
Original Post
There is nothing new about “The Faux Rage About a False War on Christmas,” by the so-called Religious Right.
We had it in 2004 when Bill O’Reilly started “agitating about a ‘war on Christmas’ with an assist in 2005 from Fox News Host John Gibson, the author that year of The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse Than You Thought.” So writes Dr. Jeff Schweitze, a former White House senior policy analyst the author of five books, at the Huffington Post in 2011.
And if you just Google “War on Christmas 2005,” you’ll find a slew of articles alleging such warfare, and try “War on Christmas 2006” and 2007, and 2008, and so on, until l we come to the latest edition, “War on Christmas 2013.”
Will the Right ever get off this silly, broken record?
Schweitze concludes his rather long, but well-worth-reading 2011 article as follows:
There is no war on Christmas; the idea is absurd at every level. You are probably being deafened by a rendition of “Jingle Bells” right now. But the Christian right is waging a war against reason. And they are winning.
I agree with most all of what Schweitze writes, except for the last sentence.
As I wrote in a letter at the Dallas Morning News, titled “Wars at Christmas,” way back in December 2005:
…the so-called “War on Christmas” continues to be a hotly debated topic. Otherwise perfectly sane people are accusing each other this year of being politically correct, anti-Christian or even un-Christian for using anything but Christmas in their greetings or descriptions of holiday images and activities.
Although I am a Christian, I must admit that I don’t give a ho-ho whether someone calls a decorated seasonal tree a “Christmas” tree or a “holiday” tree, or whether someone wishes me “Happy Holidays” or a “Merry Christmas” as long as they are sincere.
But silly me, I do care about “less important” issues such as the plight of the poor, the ongoing genocide in Darfur, and the continuing carnage in Iraq.
I wish all Americans peace and joy this Christmas/Holiday Season.
Yes, this letter was written in 2005, but just replace Darfur with Syria, Iraq with Afghanistan and, voilà!, it is current — as is the alleged War on Christmas. And, no, the Christian right is not winning because Christmas is not a political football game.
‘Nough said.
Image: www.shuttetock.com
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.