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A Note on the “War on Christmas” from the Front Lines

December 26th, 2006

I am currently in the San Francisco Bay Area to visit family and friends for the holidays. One could call this area the deepest reaches of liberal secular culture within the United States, and, as such, the front lines of the War on Christmas (™ and © Bill O’Reilly).

The radio waves are saturated with Christmas tunes singing of Christ Our Lord, Christmas decorations abound with armies of mangers, people are going to church to celebrate Christmas mass, and signs and colors of Christ are everywhere.

Maybe it’s just me, but the whole “War on Christmas” thing seems a lot more like conservatives who get 99% of what they want whining like spoiled children because they can’t have that last little tiny bit and deny others even the smallest of crumbs.

This is not to complain about Christmas. I just had a very nice evening with family last night around the Christmas tree, and am very much enjoying the scenery and the holidays. I have said “Merry Christmas” so many times in the past few days, and will again in years to come.

Let’s just not try to claim that Christmas is in peril or anything, okay? So, as I listen to Bing on KBAY and enjoy the day off with my girl in a house on an avenue decorated by festive lights, Merry Christmas to all.

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  1. December 26th, 2006 at 11:08 | #1

    The fact that you, as a non-Christian, say “Merry Christmas” is a reflection of the degree to which the holiday has become secular rather than religious. You don’t think of Christmas as having to do with Christ so why is a big deal made of saying “Merry Christmas”? It’s no longer a reflection of religion to say it.

    It is a reflection of an effort on the part of many people to eradicate the religious overtones of the holiday. I’m not a Christian but the extent to which the religious aspects are being stripped out is a ridiculous over-reaction. I don’t blame Christians on this count. It’s their holiday and it’s being gutted of all meaning by applying a censors pen to any references to it.

    No one suggests Jews stop saying “Happy Hannukah” nor that their holiday be referred to generically. This is clearly anti-Christian bias at work.

  2. Luis
    December 26th, 2006 at 11:25 | #2

    Shari: I would disagree. That everyone says “Merry Christmas” does not rob it of meaning; every mention is a reminder of its dominance.

    That no one is being pressured not to say “Happy Hannukah” is because virtually no one is saying that except in very culture-specific or culture-generic situations. In culture-specific situations, like within Jewish-only events or venues, it would not make sense to ask not to say it, just as it would make no sense to ask no one to say “Merry Christmas” at Christmas Mass. In culture-generic situations, people say “Happy Hannukah” just to balance the “Merry Christmases.”

    If Christianity is the only religion that is dominant and therefore the only one anyone has cause to ask for fairness regarding it, saying there is an anti-Christian bias is like saying that people protesting feeding early Christians to the lions had a clear anti-Roman bias because no one was criticizing the Christians for feeding Romans to the lions.

    Unless you can show me how “Happy Hannukah” is being overused to any degree whatsoever in public or the media.

  3. Tim Kane
    December 26th, 2006 at 16:25 | #3

    Shari:

    I’ll tell you what shocks me the most: That so many “christians” say “Merry Christmas” when so many of them no longer go to mass, Especially protestants, especially evangelicals.

    It’s only Christmas if you are Catholic, perhaps Lutherans and High episcapalians, and perhaps Eastern Orthodox (then again, they use a different date based upon the lunar calendar).

    I seem to recall that Thanks Giving was created by congregationalist Christians as sort of Protestant alternative to Catholic Christmas, kind of like what the Jews did with Channuka.

    I just can’t decide if these protestants and evangelicals aren’t being hypocritical – hating Catholicism on the one hand, using the catholic term for a catholic liturgical event on the other hand – or maybe it’s Cathoic imperialism. The Catholics are imposing their lingo on the rest of us.

    On the other hand, maybe it takes all a step toward gratitued and fellowship. You know, where ever two or three are gathered et al…

  4. December 26th, 2006 at 17:02 | #4

    So, every time you mention a holiday by it’s proper name, it’s an inication of “dominance”? I think people who feel so strongly that Christianity is overbearing in American culture simply should not reinforce the dominance of the religion by embracing its holidays, even as secular ones.

    “Merry Christmas” is used more than “Happy Hannukah” because there are more Christians than Jews in the U.S. And there are more people who celebrate Christmas even when they aren’t Christian.

    If this type of situation was applied to any other religion’s most sacred holiday, people would be screaming religious persecution. Just because Christians have too much influence in politics, it doesn’t justify genericizing their holidays in order to undermine their dominance.

  5. Luis
    December 27th, 2006 at 02:20 | #5

    So, every time you mention a holiday by it’s proper name, it’s an inication of “dominance”?Well, it sure isn’t a sign of its obscurity. Though in this line of discussion you’ll note that I was not speaking of just mentioning a holiday by its proper name, I was speaking of using the phrase “Merry Christmas.” That everyone says it as a matter of course is an indication that it is commonly accepted as the standard. I think people who feel so strongly that Christianity is overbearing in American culture simply should not reinforce the dominance of the religion by embracing its holidays, even as secular ones.Perhaps so, but to me it is a nicety, something people appreciate. While I see it as an indication of the dominance of a religious holiday, I do not object to it on a cultural level, only insofar as it might encroach on civil rights, which personal mentions do not do. I never complained that people said it too much, I simply pointed out that blowhards like Bill O’Reilly are dead wrong. “Merry Christmas” is used more than “Happy Hannukah” because there are more Christians than Jews in the U.S. And there are more people who celebrate Christmas even when they aren’t Christian.Well, that’s kind of my point. You indicated that there is an anti-Christian bias because people don’t ask others not to say “Happy Hannukah,” and my point was that they don’t because the expression is not used in a way that excludes others on a massive scale. Who knows, maybe this whole issue exists in reverse in Isreael.If this type of situation was applied to any other religion’s most sacred holiday, people would be screaming religious persecution.Only because that religion would not be excluding on a massive scale and already suffers from persecution far more than Christianity. But here, Christianity is the dominant religion, it tends to shove aside others, gets 99% of the attention and recognition–and yet when a small segment of society starts using a generic name to express greetings to a multicultural audience, that dominant group starts screaming religious persecution. Go figure. Just because Christians have too much influence in politics, it doesn’t justify genericizing their holidays in order to undermine their dominance. Umm, I don’t recall having said that genericizing a dominant religion’s holidays was justified (in fact, I made a point that I myself do not do that). In fact, I don’t see where there was ever a big drive for that in the first place. I believe what happened was that retailers and other businesses addressing the general public, for example, wanted to appeal to the widest possible audience. They did not want to address only Christians, but everyone. So they started using “Happy Holidays.” This was not intended as a jab at Christmas, it was simply a way of reaching the largest possible audience. In fact, as I recall, this has been going on for decades. It has only become an issue because wingnuts like O’Rielly want to make their group appear persecuted, so they made a big deal about it. It was not because there were tons of liberals or Jews or anyone out there demanding that people say “Happy Holidays.”

    Now, if you want to talk about businesses and the lowest possible denominator, that’s another subject we can discuss.

  6. Tim Kane
    December 27th, 2006 at 07:54 | #6

    I just want to know when people who never go to mass, will quit saying “Merry Christmas”. Either get another holiday of your own, or become Catholic.

    Merry December 25th, is perfectly respectable for all those so called ‘Christians’ who refuse to go to a Catholic mass on December 25th.

    (I am, of course saying all this in tongue in cheak. Civil life requires a balancing act between civics, fairness and culture. A big part of religions swiss knife multipurpose functionality is culture. In the modern era, and the separation of tasks, necessary for specialization, it seems logical that people who are no longer religiously christian, might still be culturally christian. No harm there. And for the faithfull, low hanging fruit for proof of concept in spreading the word, or so it would seem. In context of all that, no greater freedom, than freedom of religion. And yet the republicans tried to destroy that and condemn us to a Muslim like existence of faith based civics. Most definitely antithetical to our civic tradition and christian religion in particular: Ceasar’s being Ceasar’s and God’s being God’s and all that sort of thing.)

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