December 12, 2007 News+Opinion » Jack Hunter

The War on Christmas is but a symptom of a much larger fight 

Identity Crisis

by Jack Hunter
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For a few years now, various pundits have chronicled the War on Christmas, a phrase used to describe the continuing secularization of Christianity's holiest day, with John Gibson and Bill O'Reilly of Fox News being perhaps the most vocal pro-Christmas warriors. This season there also appears to be a backlash, or a War on the War on Christmas, where pundits like MSNBC's Keith Olbermann or even WTMA's Richard Todd have accused Gibson, O'Reilly, and others of making much ado about nothing.

Both sides have a point. Men like Gibson or even Mr. "No Spin" himself who shamelessly use their own influence to shill for their corporate masters come off as cheap and exploitative when they bash other corporations for employing the same type of manipulation. That stores like Wal-Mart and Target have banned employees from using the phrase "Merry Christmas" in the past, no doubt represents a triumph of political correctness over American values.

But despite the duplicity of some, there exists not only a war on Christmas, but more importantly, American culture as a whole.

There was a time in this country when American identity was unassailable, when holidays like Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July, or Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter didn't cause controversy. A Jewish man like Irving Berlin wrote songs like "White Christmas" along with "God Bless America" not as an affirmation of Christ, but as a patriot who understood that celebrating the holiday was as American as it was Christian. This was no different from Southerners who had never been to Plymouth Rock celebrating Thanksgiving or black Americans celebrating the Fourth of July. Collectively, these religious and historic holidays represent our national cultural fabric.

The so-called War on Christmas is but one battlefront on the overall war on America itself. Whether in the guise of political correctness, or multiculturalism, or diversity — all under the auspices of fairness — every aspect of traditional American identity can now be challenged and discarded using criteria without parallel in history. Those who denounce Christmas celebrations as religious chauvinism will readily celebrate the "diversity" represented by American Islam. Those who consider Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims genocidal murderers will readily celebrate the cultural achievements and positive symbolism of Africa, a continent soaked in the blood of tribal warfare. And those who consider our Founding Fathers racist slave-owners and imperialists will never measure non-Western cultures by their own histories of migration, conquest, and subjugation.

As poet Robert Frost once said, "A liberal is a man too broad-minded to take his own side in a quarrel," and this is exactly where America is today. That it is now controversial to merely say "Christmas" or to display nativity scenes, whether public or private, or even to display religious symbols associated with the yuletide season is not the cause but merely a symptom of a country that has begun to lose its identity. Irving Berlin, hardly a right-wing fanatic, wouldn't know what to make of an America that would reject the most crucial portions of its heritage — particularly Christmas and Christianity — in the name of broad-mindedness. And normal, patriotic Americans, those who rightly take offense to attacks on Christmas or any of the other traditions they grew up with, are looked down upon as not being "progressive" enough for refusing to hasten their cultural demise.

As Olbermann and Todd have pointed out, the actual degree to which the War on Christmas actually exists is arguable, and make no doubt, some overstate the problem for dubious reasons. However, that the War on Christmas exists at all is disheartening.

It was T.S. Eliot who believed that culture is that "which makes life worth living." As with Christmas and our entire American heritage, what kind of nation we live in will be decided by whether we continue to accept and protect the gifts of our ancestors — or take the advice of those who hate them.

Catch Southern Avenger commentaries every Tuesday and Friday at 7:50 a.m. on the "Morning Buzz with Richard Todd" on 1250 AM WTMA.

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>The War on Christmas is but a symptom of a much larger fight< Absolutely... http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/12/national/main3609322.shtml

Posted by militarywife on December 15, 2007 at 9:42 AM | Report this comment

Interesting read... http://www.thisisby.us/index.php/content/christmas_wasn__t_always_like_this_it_used_to_be_much_worse

Posted by militarywife on December 15, 2007 at 9:18 AM | Report this comment

I'm with you SA!! It used to bother me when sales people would greet me with a "Season's Greetings" or something other than "Merry Christmas" but then when I started hearing how companies were actually instructing their employees not to say Merry Christmas, really pissed me off. Is that not infringing on one's rights???? When I get a greeting other than Merry Christmas, I will say back to that person loudly, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!!"

Posted by proud2bme on December 15, 2007 at 8:31 AM | Report this comment

I haven't read most of this column. I assume it contains many, many statements one can take issue with. I pretty much stopped at the first sentence. Christmas is "Christianity's holiest day?" Are you actually a Christian? Why don't you call up five or six local pastors and priests and see how many of them regard Christmas as Christianity's holiest day? I object to this twaddle not only on religious grounds, but on journalistic ones. Ever hear of "fact checking?"

Posted by Metapen on December 13, 2007 at 9:39 AM | Report this comment

Jack, As hard as you try to frame this debate in a way that makes you comfortable, it doesn't change the fact that my point is not about religion. The culture of this country is changing and tradition will change with it. I know you don't like it but American culture will continue to evolve. "Happy Holidays" at the target is a prime example. The powers that made the decision to have the employees say that don't care about your values or traditions. And these days it is those powers that decide our culture. In a world of media conglomerates (which your article shows you are attentive to...)it is the media that shapes our culture. The media will continue to appeal to as many people as it can to make a buck. ALL RELIGIONS ARE WELCOME! Whatever it takes to get a HDTV,Ipod and Blackberry in every home. We are constantly bombarded by stimuli. We choose to be bombarded by comercial interests shaping the must buy items, who and what is cool, etc. Irving Berlin made a buck. You make a buck for your contribution. The bottom line is, you are facing a tide that is coming in. You are powerless to change it. The war on Christmas is not disheartening to me because unlike you I see it for what it is and has always been. There is no political correctness about it. It's about money. It always has been. WAKE UP! Turn off O'Reilly! The fact that I am not a Christian has very little to do with it. I don't believe in virgin births or people rising from the dead. I don't believe in alien abductions either. But that has about as much to do with Christmas as a tree with lights on it or an ipod. Why is it so important to you that everything stay exactly the same in this country as your traditions dictate? What is it about change that makes you so uncomfortable? Are your beliefs so weak that you are afraid of others questioning them? Has O'Reilly filled you with fear of something? American culture will exist as long as there are Americans to have a culture. Of course it will continue to be shaped by the media and people like yourself who look to O'Reilly to decide your opinions for you. That was my point. Quit trying to ignore it. And in response to your Merry Christmas...Bah Humbug! Ha Ha

Posted by jazzjames on December 13, 2007 at 1:08 AM | Report this comment

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