{"id":324,"date":"2008-12-10T12:56:44","date_gmt":"2008-12-10T12:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/time-for-christians-to-wage-wa.html"},"modified":"2008-12-10T12:56:44","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T12:56:44","slug":"time-for-christians-to-wage-wa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/time-for-christians-to-wage-wa.html","title":{"rendered":"Time For Christians To Wage War on “The War Against Christmas” Whine"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the the most\u00a0depressing aspects of the Advent season is the perennial reappearance of the “War Against Christmas” argument in some conservative political and religious circles.\u00a0 This story-line, most visibly associated with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly<\/a>, is based on the idea that Christians are being mortally offended, and perhaps even threatened in their religious liberties, by department-store decisions to peddle their wares under the slogan of “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas.”\u00a0 The “War Against Christmas”\u00a0theory also feeds on the usual tedious and marginal fights<\/a> over publicly-authorized Nativity scenes and equal access to other seasonal religious or even anti-religious messages.<\/p>\n

I think it’s time for Christians to reclaim Christmas by declaring war on the whole “War on Christmas” whine, and on the planted axiom that\u00a0Jesus Christ needs to be proclaimed on department store facades and municipal squares.\u00a0 More generally, Christians\u00a0should be offended by the idea that\u00a0commercial or government neutrality towards religious expression represents some sort of persecution–a\u00a0grievous insult to\u00a0the\u00a0sacrifices\u00a0of true Christian\u00a0martyrs, past, present and future.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I admit this is a subject on which I have a hard time being any more calm and rational than O’Reilly himself.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Are\u00a0contemporary American Christians really so weak and defensive that they identify the terrible outrage of being exposed to pan-religious or secular expressions of the holiday season with the experience of the many millions of Christians who have suffered active discrimination, state-sanctioned repression of their private religious practices, and injury, torture and death, for confessing Christ?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Have we forgotten the terrible price Christians have paid, in terms of the secular blandishments of power, and the inducement to slaughter each other as well as “infidels,”\u00a0by confusion of\u00a0the Kingdom of God with\u00a0kingdoms–political and commercial–of this world?<\/p>\n

And as an American Protestant, I have to ask: have we forgotten that our own heritage used to acknowledge a sharp separation between church and state, and between secular and religious worlds, as essential to our own liberty and growth?<\/p>\n

Ironically enough, on the particular issue of Christmas, the Scots-Irish and Calvinist forebears of many U.S. evangelical Protestants waged the most systematic “War on Christmas” on record, as nicely summarized recently<\/a> by Bruce Wilson.<\/p>\n

While I obviously don’t endorse any official ban on Christmas, the inclination of some\u00a0magisterial Reformers to fear Christmas as a\u00a0“Holy Day”\u00a0that has little to do with Jesus Christ is instructive.\u00a0The best way to remind people of the “reason for the season” is to disassociate the Feast of the Incarnation from Santa Claus, the Yule Log, and other pre- and post-Christian observances that have been merged with it over the centuries. And the place for that is in homes, churches, individual souls, public and private acts of Christian charity, and observances of the real sacrifices of real Christian martrys.\u00a0 Demanding this association in the commercial and political realms devalues the Christian content of “Christmas” decisively.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

That’s why I think Christians, regardless of\u00a0our various views on other issues, should unite to denounce and fight the “War on Christmas”\u00a0campaign.\u00a0 At\u00a0best, it’s a testament to\u00a0our weakness and cowardice.\u00a0 At worst, it’s an identification of the Gospel with\u00a0all the\u00a0dark\u00a0places where the\u00a0Gospel\u00a0casts light.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the the most\u00a0depressing aspects of the Advent season is the perennial reappearance of the “War Against Christmas” argument in some conservative political and religious circles.\u00a0 This story-line, most visibly associated with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, is based on the idea that Christians are being mortally offended, and perhaps even threatened in their religious…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[312,311],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-08","tag-oreilly","tag-war-on-christmas"],"yoast_head":"\nTime For Christians To Wage War on "The War Against Christmas" Whine - Progressive Revival<\/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\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/time-for-christians-to-wage-wa.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Time For Christians To Wage War on "The War Against Christmas" Whine - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the the most\u00a0depressing aspects of the Advent season is the perennial reappearance of the “War Against Christmas” argument in some conservative political and religious circles.\u00a0 This story-line, most visibly associated with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, is based on the idea that Christians are being mortally offended, and perhaps even threatened in their religious…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/time-for-christians-to-wage-wa.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-10T12:56:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ed Kilgore\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Time For Christians To Wage War on \"The War Against Christmas\" Whine - 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He was formerly Vice President for Policy at the Democratic Leadership Council; Communications Director for U.S. Senator Sam Nunn; and a federal-state relations aide to three governors of his home state of Georgia. Kilgore has published widely in political magazines; is a frequent guest on political radio and television programs; and is a well-known blogger, especially at his former site, NewDonkey.com. He also served on the script and speechwriting team at the last five Democratic National Conventions. He holds an undergraduate degree from Emory University, and a law degree from the University of Georgia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/ekilgore"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}