War on Christmas nothing but a sham

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Editor, Register-Mail: I feel that I need to respond to the three women who wrote last week, and everyone else who feels the need to repeat the latest Bill O'Reilly/AFA talking points:

NOBODY is trying to take Christmas away. Nobody is persecuting anyone for celebrating Christmas. The so-called "war" on Christmas is nothing but an invention of people who need to feed their obnoxious persecution complex; in this case as in so many others, it's the so-called "Christians" who are being just plain nasty and, again, giving Christianity a bad name.

And the latest salvo from this group is against retailers who, desiring the business also of the 25 percent of the population that is not Christian, decided not to exclude them. Apparently, we haven't made Christmas greedy and commercial enough yet, because the AFA crowd is demanding - demanding! - that retailers shill Christ himself by name.

I especially liked the last of the three letters, where the writer lamented that her children "know the story of Santa better than they know the story of Jesus' birth." Whose fault is that? I am quite certain it is not the fault of the stores.

She further insinuates that her religious freedom is being infringed, as if it's her First Amendment right to not have to know other religions exist; as if letting people practice their own religions is some sort of "loss" of freedom for her. I don't think so. When you're flogged and deported for attending church services, as in Saudi Arabia, or thrown in jail for practicing non-government-controlled Christianity, as in China, THAT is a lack of religious freedom. Little danger of that here (at least, not for the Christians).

If we want to take this from a religious angle, hey, it's not even Christmas yet. It's Advent. The liturgical calendar doesn't bill this as a time to go buy things, and it doesn't even bill it as a time of happiness. It is a time of penance, and reflection, and hope. Go ahead and practice your faith, witness for your faith even, but don't pretend that corporate retailers have a faith, that they have a duty to cater only to Christians, or that they'd be doing anyone any favors by making Christmas even more venal and shallow than it already is.

And for those who find these sentiments anti-religous or un-American, let me direct you to the Pilgrims, far from secularists and iconically American. They didn't celebrate Christmas - they found it unseemly. These days, I'm almost inclined to agree. - Don Blaheta, Galesburg