Posted on 12/08/2005 6:53:39 AM PST by SJackson
American liberals should listen to conservative whining about the 'war on Christmas'.
Whenever the calendar turns to December, the air usually becomes thick with the sound of American Jews whining about the holiday season.
For some of us, this is the time of year when we are forced to confront the reality that, despite living in a country where Jews are free not only to assertively practice (or not practice) their faith, we are still a small minority.
That means wherever we move about this free land, we are subjected to the ever-present sight of Christmas trees and Santas while our ears are assaulted by the non-stop playing of saccharin carols. Though such displays are a manifestation of the desire of merchants to move consumers to buy things, rather than any lurking conversionary agenda, that hasn't prevented the "December dilemma" industry from making a meal out of any real or perceived slight to Jewish sensibilities.
Those Jews who are secure in their faith and identity aren't threatened by Christmas. But since insecurity always trumps common sense, the "dilemma" continues to generate angst.
But recently the sound of Jewish complaining has been drowned out by another contingent of malcontents: Christians who claim that church-state separation mania has transformed the celebration of Christmas into a forbidden activity.
Conservative pundits have united to seize upon the trend of calling Christmas shindigs "holiday" parties as proof that the ACL has outlawed the biggest Christian holiday of the year.While some might consider this merely a polite way of including the non-Christian minority in what has become a largely secular celebration, the conservatives do have a couple of points.
Calling symbols that are clearly associated with Christmas anything but that is simply stupid. You can call these trees and all the rest that goes with them anything you like, but they are about Christmas, not anything else. Removing the name doesn't make them less Christian and only offends believers.
Moreover, Christianity is not America's problem. The freedoms that all Americans enjoy here do not exist in spite of a Bible-based Christianity, but to no small extent because of the faith and values of Christian Americans.
Part of the problem is that the courts have struck some odd compromises over the years about Christian symbols. While banning the establishment of a particular faith, judges have rightly perceived that the First Amendment was not a mandate to cleanse the public square of religious symbols. Nor could any court in its right mind expunge Dec. 25 from the list of federal holidays.
But rather than admit that the day off postal workers get for Christmas is to honor what more than 90 percent of Americans believe is the birthday of their Messiah, our robed judicial masters like to pretend it isn't a religious holiday. That's why Christmas symbols such as trees and Santas are considered secular and entitled to place on public property.
Yet when a city like Boston officially refrains from calling the massive tree on Boston Common a Christmas tree, it justifiably provokes derision. So, too, would any attempt to ban the word Christmas from displays in a misguided effort to make non-Christians feel better. It's especially dumb when you consider that no one tries to rename the Hanukka menorahs that are often placed besides the trees in public spaces.
BUT TO listen to all of the screaming about "de-Christmasing Christmas," you have to wonder what's really going on? Amid the avalanche of Santas, trees, creches and other yuletide icons, you'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to know that you are living in a Christian country, if not by law, but by custom.
My advice to those Christians who are feeling threatened is to put themselves in the place of a non-Christian toddler this time of year. Mind you, my four-year-old and her parents are just fine celebrating our own holidays and have no problems with some of our friends knocking themselves out for Christmas. But as my daughter could tell you, most of the people she sees on television or elsewhere aren't getting ready for Hanukka.
So what's really causing people like Fox News personality John Gibson to write a book claiming there is a "Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday?" Do Gibson and fellow Fox provocateur Bill O'Reilly really think Target, Sears and Costco are trying to undermine faith when their ads wish customers "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas?" Maybe. Or have they just spent so much time listening to Jewish whining about December that they've started to copy it? It seems that Rev. Jerry Falwell and O'Reilly are just aping the "dilemma" paranoia routine that liberal Jews have perfected.
But as easy as it is to make fun of all of their carping, something real lies behind it. Ironically, just at the moment when Anti-Defamation League director Abe Foxman accused Christian conservatives of plotting to extinguish religious liberty, the same people that he (and most other liberals) wrongly believe are on the verge of overthrowing the Constitution, think they are the ones whose liberties are on the chopping block.
To listen to Christian conservatives these days is to hear the cries of a segment of the population that believes they are being thoroughly marginalized.
Despite their numbers and political strength, the Christian right's self image is that of a group that has been stymied on social issues and being driven out of the mainstream. Anyone in America who reads daily newspapers or watches television or the majority of film releases could confirm that their views on issues such as gay rights and abortion have been treated that way.
Thus while, the notion of a "war against Christmas" is farcical, the insecurity that drives such foolishness is not. It is based on the same sort of reasoning that drives their opponents on the other end of the ideological spectrum. That ought to give liberal activists pause.
Perhaps what this country really needs at the end of the calendar year is not so much a holiday season as a cease-fire. Instead of using each other as bogeymen to rally the troops for the culture wars, maybe both extreme separationists and hard-core conservative Christians should realize that the fears and insecurity felt by the other side are real.
Rather than being so quick to go to the barricades against their fellow citizens, true believers of all creeds (both religious and secular) must understand that the public square of our heaven-blessed republic is big enough to hold us all.
The writer is executive editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia. jtobin@jewishexponent.com
That's alright, Mr Tobin. You may belittle the fact that we think they are trying to stamp-out Christmas, but this same group isn't aimed at Hanukkah but at the Jews themselves.
LOL! Great point!
I was doing some research into calendars and timekeeping recently. Calendars can be really complex beasts, especially when attempting to use them to determine precise dates in the distant past. One of the things I found most amusing was the discussions of the terms "BCE" and "CE". I think it is rediculous in the extreme to claim that this is the year 2005 C.E. especially when you consider the question, "what is it that makes that point in time a little over two thousand years ago special enough to claim it as an epochal dividing point in time".
If you are going to do away with the terms, "Before Christ", "Anno Domine", then you really need to pick some other dividing point to mark your base year.
How is it that Lowes was selling Christmas trees in its lot, called them Christmas trees en espanol but called them Holiday trees in English? What caused some executive to make that decision?
You are correct that there has been an assault on conservatism, capitalism, and Christianity. Of course, in this country it is not a physical assault, and Christians are not being beheaded here as they are in other countries. But it is an assault, nonetheless.
We have seen it in all aspects of our lives. It is the tyranny of the minority. As silly as a grievance may be, if someone feigns offense, a practice or tradition has to be changed to accommodate that person.
Culture, language, and traditions are what hold societies together. The assault by the left has been insidious and steady. A Christmas tree in a school offended someone. Okay, they called it a Holiday tree. That offended someone. Okay, they called it a Wishing tree. In one recent example, there was a wishing tree at a school. Wishing trees are used to help the less fortunate. Every year at the local mall, we choose a kid's name from the wishing tree and get him a gift. At a school in the state of Washington, one parent was offended by the wishing tree. So the wishing tree came down.
A business owner cannot allow his customers to smoke in his bar, even if they have always done that and the customers want to continue doing it.
A large city votes to ban guns and ammunition, and it demands that handguns be turned in.
It used to be that someone had to have some knowledge of our Constitution and speak English to take the oath of citizenship. In Los Angeles schools, there are over a hundred languages used. Ballots are printed in multiple languages at great expense. English, the language that has held us together, becomes less and less important.
Conservatives tend to think that homosexuality is wrong. But most also believe, live and let live. Do not parade naked doing disgusting things in front of our kids, and just go lead your lives. God will ultimately make a decision. But tolerance is not good enough. Homosexuals demand marriage. They demand adoption rights. They demand that we accept having two dads is just as good as having a mom and a dad.
It will cost the County of Los Angeles a great deal of money to remove a very small cross from the seal that is on vehicles, stationery, etc. Some people were offended. So a cross, which clearly has historical significance in the settling of California, had to be removed.
Looked at in isolation, Happy Holidays rather than Merry Christmas may not be the end of the world. It is a battle that some think is meaningless. But it can't be looked at in isolation. It permeates our society. And the left keeps pushing. Some of us think it is time to take a stand. We grew up with great memories and traditions of Christmas and Christmas spirit.
I will make some phone calls to let merchants know what I think and that I may no longer be a customer. They may or may not care. That's fine. But on this issue, it is time to make a stand. Lowes made a change. Sears made a change. Unless we make our voices heard, the insidious leftist slide will continue.
I need that extension :)
Would like to see a list of public and private entities that eschew Christmas this year but will embrace Kwaanza.
First of all I want to say to every Christian "HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
I am Jewish, and I wish all my Christian friends a very Merry Christmas! I am not in the least offended by Christmas cards, music, celebration of Christmas etc... I have even had Christian friends give me Christmas ornaments and I am happy to recieve them as presents.
I think it is right, proper and good to have Christmas in every store, every city square, and Christmas music on the radio and being played in public and private places.
I live in a rural area in Montana. Several years ago the local mayor was wondering what I thought about having Christmas items in the village displayed (the village I live in has 1200 people). I told him I would love to see such items up and every year.
It is the liberals: the liberal Jews, Christians, and atheists who are against Christmas - not the conservative Jews. Many conservative Jews find what is taking place with political correctness wrong. One of the first supporters of the Judge Roy Moore in Alabama was an Orthodox rabbi, not a liberal! Michael Savage is a Jew, just like Jackie Mason, (spelling) the comedian, who are leading the fight to KEEP Christmas celebrations going.
Hey today I even bought some candy canes and egg nog today! I even got my dog (she is a wolf/husky) a Christmas sock with presents for dogs today!
It is time that God fearing celebrated this time of year, welcoming the love and beauty of the season, let the atheists and liberals moan as they have no fun -- they never seem to want to have fun. We have enough enemies with the muslims wanting to kill every Christian and Jew for us to be fighting – instead we should unite!
The word "candelabra" brings up images of Liberace..
I don't watch television, but it appears from written news that a few opinion makers on television are disseminating propaganda stating that there is some kind of Jewish war against Christian symbols (whether they say it all or infer it, as usual). That's no new propaganda tactic. It's been recycled many times over the past 1700 years or so.
Meanwhile, there are pentagrams and illuminated, plastic idols all over the peaks up here, and the few neo-Nazi neighbors are looking forward to burning their yule logs and speaking occasionally and freely of their wishes for a "race war" (although their obesity would prevent them from waging war on anything more than fatty meats and pastries).
...point is that there is nothing to get excited about. If someone who owns a store wants to try to please customers of all religions with generalities, this is truly a country with freedom of religious expression. Store owners have the right to express what they wish (even generalizations). Property owners of all kinds should demand constitutional respect for their right to express religious celebrations as they wish.
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