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Better angels needed for peace in Christmas wars
Q: What do you think of the American Humanist Association's new "Godless Holiday" campaign? The ads will say: "No God? . . . No Problem! Be good for goodness' sake. Humanism is the idea that you can be good without a belief in God.
Humanists, atheists, Christian fundamentalists and cable talk-show hosts are again launching verbal grenades in the Christmas wars.
Last year's outbreak was so successful that the American Humanist Association (AHA) has launched another holiday campaign with signs on buses and rail cars in five American cities. The ads show the smiling faces of individuals wearing Santa hats. One sign says, "No God...No Problem!"
"This year's holiday campaign aims to promote the idea of being good without God," said AHA's press release. It quoted the organization's executive director saying, "Religion does not have a monopoly on morality--millions of people are good without believing in God."
On the other side, the American Family Association (AFA) has launched a boycott against three stores owned by Gap Inc., accusing the company of censoring the word Christmas.
"The boycott is part of our ongoing campaign to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to put Christ back in Christmas," read an AFA press release. "Christmas is special because of Jesus...For millions of Americans the giving and receiving of gifts is in honor of the One who gave Himself. For the Gap to pretend that isn't the foundation of the Christmas season is political correctness at best and religious bigotry at worst."
Fueling the conflict, Fox News claimed there was a war on Christmas at an elementary school in the Boston area--before Thanksgiving. Other cable channels can't be far behind.
Caught in the crossfire are Americans of all religious convictions and no faith commitments who want to enjoy the Christmas season without the culture war. When our nation is already fatigued from two real wars, we really don't want fatigue from a fake one.
As a Christian, I must confess that the American version of Christmas is too materialistic and narcissistic. It's more about getting than giving, more about ourselves than others, more about Santa than the Savior.
If there is a grand conspiracy with Happy Holidays, instead of Merry Christmas, it has to do with commercialization of a sacred event for the singular purpose of profit, not purging faith from the public square. I wish Christian fundamentalists felt less alienated from our culture and were more on target with moral critique.
I also wish humanists and atheists felt accepted enough in the public square that they didn't need to defend themselves with an ad campaign and could spend those dollars on advancing the common good.
Surely if "the better angels of our nature" prevailed, then we would all profess that what everyone of goodwill really wants at Christmas is what the angels proclaimed at Jesus' birth--"on earth peace."
By
Robert Parham
|
November 24, 2009; 11:22 AM ET
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Posted by: Paganplace | November 30, 2009 3:18 PM
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There is no "war on Christmas" - no one is trying to stop Christians from celebrating their holy day. People who celebrate other winter holidays are simply becoming more open and vocal about it. As for boy-cotting retailers who fail to "keep Christ in Christmas," I'm pretty sure that Jesus never celebrated his birthday by going out and buying designer jeans and a PlayStation.
Posted by: lepidopteryx | November 25, 2009 11:14 AM
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Yeah well. No one ever said Christianity wasn't big business. Love those little placards in them restaurants: "Christ it the silent partner in this business." Lucky for him, he doesn't open his mouth.
Then, there are those hilarious preachers telling us what God done bought for them.
Pleez. Get it out of our face. Keep it home, in the basement, wherever. Not here.
Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | November 24, 2009 7:09 PM
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The comments to this entry are closed.
"Humanists, atheists, Christian fundamentalists and cable talk-show hosts are again launching verbal grenades in the Christmas wars."
Again, you act as though some people generally-excluded from a presumptive 'Christian society' were the ones who declared there was a 'War On Christmas.'
My Gods, man. For decades, now, I used to watch Christians go to Fundie-owned Wal-Mart and blame 'Paganism' for their own spending habits. Then a scant three years ago, they were blaming Fundie-owned Wal-Mart for not sufficiently-sanctifying it all with mandatory Christ references at the checkout counter.