viewfromthebellybutton

Don’t you just love loaded or leading questions? Me neither…

There has never been a “war on Christmas”. The gripe has been around since at least the 20s: “ ‘Last Christmas most people had a hard time finding Christmas cards that indicated in any way that Christmas commemorated Someone’s Birth,’ wrote Henry Ford in 1921, more than 80 years before Bill O’Reilly would utter similar complaints on Fox News.” (A History of the War on Christmas) A notorious ant-Semite, he blamed Jews of conspiring to “…’abolish’ Christmas celebrations in public places:

Not only do the Jews disagree with Christian teaching — which is their perfect right, and no one dare question it — but they seek to interfere with it. It is not religious tolerance in the midst of religious difference, but religious attack that they preach and practice. The whole record of Jewish opposition to Christmas, Easter and certain patriotic songs shows that.

“What Ford called ‘Jewish opposition to Christmas’ actually boiled down to a few instances of Jewish leaders challenging the teaching of Christianity in public schools — as when a Massachusetts school board was lobbied, and initially consented, to remove all references to Jesus from classroom ‘Christmas exercises’ in 1912. Jewish groups also challenged classroom Bible readings, which were not uncommon at the time. However, the groups did not argue against Christianity itself, but rather launched a First Amendment challenge to proselytizing in public schools.” (ibid)

The 50s saw similar conflicts, except blame was placed on Commies, when in fact, it was the same as before: Special status afforded to one religion (Christianity) over others.

The fight continued through the 70s and 90s until today. For the same reasons. Except people like Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, et. al., have actually claimed the “war” has extended to personal displays of religiosity, the “right” of people to even say “Merry Christmas” has been somehow abridged. Pure garbage.

In other words, the “war on Christmas” has always actually been a struggle by non-Christians to get Christians to follow the Constitution, which does NOT prohibit individuals from publicly expressing whatever personal religious—or irreligious— sentiments they wish, whether it’s “Merry Christmas”, “Happy Hanukkah”, or “Go Fly a Kite”! Rather, the Constitution prohibits government sponsored displays of religion.

Christians, and many of them were “Chino”s (Christians in name only), let’s be honest, for a long time enjoyed special status in the U.S. Public displays of their religion were the norm, Bible readings and state sponsored prayers in schools were common. But this has never been a “Christian nation”; at best, it has been a nation populated with a majority of people who identified with Christianity or had a Christian world view. As we became more and more diverse, conflicts arose between Americans who were not Christians and those who were. The courts looked to the Constitution for solutions; what they found there was pretty clear: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” (this Amendment, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights, later applied to the individual states, not just congress).

In other words, you are free as a bird to worship, put on displays of your religiosity, including greeting people with whatever words you choose, whether you mean them or not, erecting creches in your front yard with real people and live barnyard animals, or putting up elaborate, garish displays of lights, lasers, and speakers blaring carols (I absolutely adore them, by the way…); BUT…the government, whether it is your city council or Congress, cannot allow preference to be shown to any religion; either allow all to be recognized or none, and many municipalities have chosen to just not bother. Imagine the howling, moaning, weeping, and gnashing of teeth that would issue forth from conservatives if a majority Muslim town chose to begin every school day with salat and a reading from the Quran! FOX would go ballistic! So why do so many Christians think it’s okay to institute their form of sharia law?

There is a separate issue for businesses, however. Although they have the same rights as individuals, they also have a diverse customer base, so, since there are many holidays of different faiths around the same time as Christmas, it would be wise for them to not alienate non-Christians; hence, “Happy Holidays!” or some such. again, the choice is up to them. It is also up to you whether you shop there or not, so if you are so offended because Store X is “bowing” to secularism, don’t shop there.