{"id":314,"date":"2010-12-03T12:54:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-03T12:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/fun-friday-war-on-christmas-time-again.html"},"modified":"2010-12-03T12:54:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-03T12:54:00","slug":"fun-friday-war-on-christmas-time-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/fun-friday-war-on-christmas-time-again.html","title":{"rendered":"Fun Friday: &#8216;War on Christmas&#8217; Time Again!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While I appreciate that some&nbsp;people have genuine concerns about church-state separation, religious&nbsp;freedom and cultural sensitivity, I simply&nbsp;can&#8217;t take &#8220;war on Christmas&#8221; stories too seriously, given the real wars going on in the world. As Stephen Colbert noted last <a href=\"http:\/\/religion.blogs.cnn.com\/2010\/11\/30\/dueling-billboards-face-off-in-christmas-controversy\/\">night on <em>The Colbert Report<\/em><\/a>, &#8220;it&#8217;s the only war that&#8217;s been going on longer than Afghanistan!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>(I do enjoy Colbert&#8217;s take on the holidays every year, partly due to his hilarious cartoon intro featuring Jesus rescuing Santa from his bullet-riddled sleigh. I can&#8217;t find the image online, but you can catch it around minute&nbsp;1:22 of the music video for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/the-colbert-report-videos\/211034\/november-23-2008\/a-colbert-christmas--toby-keith-sings\">Toby Keith&#8217;s &#8220;War on Christmas&#8221;<\/a> song from Colbert&#8217;s 2008 holiday special, at the end of this post.)<\/p>\n<p>CNN&#8217;s Belief Blog&nbsp;has highlighted several Christmas season controversy stories in the past few days:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/religion.blogs.cnn.com\/2010\/12\/02\/christmas-returns-to-phillys-christmas-village\/\">&#8220;Christmas&#8221; returns to Philly&#8217;s Christmas village <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/religion.blogs.cnn.com\/2010\/11\/30\/dueling-billboards-face-off-in-christmas-controversy\/\">Dueling billboards face off in Christmas controversy <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/religion.blogs.cnn.com\/2010\/12\/02\/my-take-wheres-the-outrage-over-the-noah-ark-park\/\">My Take: Where&#8217;s the outrage over Noah&#8217;s Ark park?<\/a> (Stephen Prothero for CNN)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Check back for updates, and here&#8217;s that catchy &#8220;War on Christmas&#8221; carol:<\/p>\n<table style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #f5f5f5; FONT: 11px arial; COLOR: #333\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" width=\"360\" height=\"353\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e5e5e5\" valign=\"center\">\n<td style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 1px; PADDING-TOP: 2px\"><a style=\"COLOR: #333; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\" target=\"_blank\">The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: right; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; PADDING-TOP: 2px\">Mon &#8211; Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"HEIGHT: 14px\" valign=\"center\">\n<td style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 1px; PADDING-TOP: 2px\" colspan=\"2\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/the-colbert-report-videos\/211034\/november-23-2008\/a-colbert-christmas--toby-keith-sings\" <a>A Colbert Christmas: Toby Keith Sings<a><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #353535; HEIGHT: 14px\" valign=\"center\">\n<td style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: right; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; WIDTH: 360px; PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; OVERFLOW: hidden; PADDING-TOP: 2px\" colspan=\"2\"><a style=\"COLOR: #96deff; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"center\">\n<td style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px\" colspan=\"2\"><embed style=\"DISPLAY: block\" height=\"301\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"360\" src=\"http:\/\/media.mtvnservices.com\/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:211034\" bgcolor=\"#000000\" allownetworking=\"all\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" flashvars=\"autoPlay=false\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" wmode=\"window\"><\/embed><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"HEIGHT: 18px\" valign=\"center\">\n<td style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px\" colspan=\"2\">\n<table style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\">\n<tbody>\n<tr valign=\"center\">\n<td style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; WIDTH: 33%; PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-TOP: 3px\"><a style=\"FONT: 10px arial; COLOR: #333; TEXT-DECORATION: none\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/full-episodes\/\" target=\"_blank\">Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; WIDTH: 33%; PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-TOP: 3px\"><a style=\"FONT: 10px arial; COLOR: #333; TEXT-DECORATION: none\" href=\"http:\/\/www.indecisionforever.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">2010 Election<\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; WIDTH: 33%; PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-TOP: 3px\"><a style=\"FONT: 10px arial; COLOR: #333; TEXT-DECORATION: none\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/video\/tag\/March%20to%20Keep%20Fear%20Alive\" target=\"_blank\">March to Keep Fear Alive<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Share your thoughts&nbsp;in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; FONT: medium 'Times New Roman'; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; LETTER-SPACING: normal; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px\" class=\"Apple-style-span\"><span style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 12px\" class=\"Apple-style-span\">*<a style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, sans-serif !important; COLOR: rgb(2,61,137); FONT-SIZE: 14px !important; TEXT-DECORATION: none; PADDING-TOP: 0px\" href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beliefnet\/beliefbeat\">Click here to<span style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, sans-serif !important; FONT-SIZE: 14px !important; PADDING-TOP: 0px\" class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, sans-serif !important; FONT-SIZE: 14px !important; PADDING-TOP: 0px\">subscribe to Belief Beat<span style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, sans-serif !important; FONT-SIZE: 14px !important; PADDING-TOP: 0px\" class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/strong><\/a>and<span style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, sans-serif !important; FONT-SIZE: 14px !important; PADDING-TOP: 0px\" class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><a style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, sans-serif !important; COLOR: rgb(2,61,137); FONT-SIZE: 14px !important; TEXT-DECORATION: none; PADDING-TOP: 0px\" href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/beliefbeat\">click here to<span style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, sans-serif !important; FONT-SIZE: 14px !important; PADDING-TOP: 0px\" class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong style=\"PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, sans-serif !important; FONT-SIZE: 14px !important; PADDING-TOP: 0px\">follow Belief Beat on Twitter.<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While I appreciate that some&nbsp;people have genuine concerns about church-state separation, religious&nbsp;freedom and cultural sensitivity, I simply&nbsp;can&#8217;t take &#8220;war on Christmas&#8221; stories too seriously, given the real wars going on in the world. As Stephen Colbert noted last night on The Colbert Report, &#8220;it&#8217;s the only war that&#8217;s been going on longer than Afghanistan!&#8221; (I&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fun Friday: &#039;War on Christmas&#039; Time Again! - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/fun-friday-war-on-christmas-time-again.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fun Friday: &#039;War on Christmas&#039; Time Again! - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While I appreciate that some&nbsp;people have genuine concerns about church-state separation, religious&nbsp;freedom and cultural sensitivity, I simply&nbsp;can&#8217;t take &#8220;war on Christmas&#8221; stories too seriously, given the real wars going on in the world. As Stephen Colbert noted last night on The Colbert Report, &#8220;it&#8217;s the only war that&#8217;s been going on longer than Afghanistan!&#8221; (I&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/fun-friday-war-on-christmas-time-again.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-03T12:54:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Neroulias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fun Friday: 'War on Christmas' Time Again! - Belief Beat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/fun-friday-war-on-christmas-time-again.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fun Friday: 'War on Christmas' Time Again! - Belief Beat","og_description":"While I appreciate that some&nbsp;people have genuine concerns about church-state separation, religious&nbsp;freedom and cultural sensitivity, I simply&nbsp;can&#8217;t take &#8220;war on Christmas&#8221; stories too seriously, given the real wars going on in the world. 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A graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously written for The New York Times and other media outlets. She and her family live in Seattle.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/author\/nneroulias"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}