Counterpoint: Should Religion Be Removed From Public Christmas Celebrations?

In the opening salvo of the re-introduced war on Christmas campaign, it’s important to note an old cliché. In war, truth is often the first casualty. So it goes with the untimely re-emergence of the forces of God seeking to emblazon the spirit of Christmas onto the rest of us, like the lepers we are.

Let the pagan origins of Christmas become but a footnote to this story, lest one truly understand the context of a giant pine tree in one’s living room. Consider the convergence of two factors: the religious tradition of Christmas and hyper-consumerism; or in an apt metaphor, Black Friday. These two things are annually rammed together like the little drummer boy and a Mac truck. And now, enter the forces of good.

Just recently – well, before Thanksgiving – the American Family Association (AFA) in Mississippi decided to unleash its Christmas protectionist messages – a familiar theme with them – against the blasphemers at retailing giant Gap Inc. According to the AFA’s Web site, the goal was to call for a “two-month boycott over the company’s failure to use the word ‘Christmas’ in its advertising to Christmas shoppers.”

To them, “Happy Holidays,” a seemingly innocuous phrase on its face, can be summed up as a big “bah humbug.”

Such actions are becoming their own Christmas tradition. Somewhere lost in the outrage over semantics are common messages that can be gleaned from traditions and doctrines, just as fundamentally important to their followers as Christian ones. Among these attributes of “good will” and “peace to man” includes humility, open-mindedness, and tolerance.

As purely a holiday tradition, such themes have already largely been embraced by others, including many secularists who celebrate the notion of the season as one that is fundamentally and democratically inclusive of others. Believing that such principles cannot or do not coincide with the rest of a society during a holiday season is both arrogant and presumptuous.

Beneath the upcoming furor – most certainly being constructed via the pulpit and elsewhere – is a more fundamental debate. Freedom of religion is a wonderful, blessed thing to the Christian, and vital to understanding it is the inherent privilege in the celebration of Christmas as a national holiday to begin and end with.

For no other religious group has such an entitlement or right, and rest assured if this were the case, the war on Christmas brigade would be pissing in its version of eggnog.

As it turns out, the American Family Association was dead wrong in its assessment. Contrary to its claims, Gap did incorporate Christmas, as well as a litany of other religious specific terminologies in its advertisements.

One thing is beyond certain: Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity – both fearless crusaders for protecting Christmas from the heathens, need little introduction to the invocation of mass hysteria. They will run with this “war” (a pretty mind-numbing and ill-constructed analogy given Iraq and Afghanistan) facts be damned. They usually do.