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Winning the war on Christmas
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We are but weeks away from the winter solstice and, as I sit on my porch in Tampa, while there are pumpkins still around, there is no frost upon them; it is 81° and sunny. Notwithstanding this, it is time for the latest dispatches about the War on Christmas. From the conservative Right, spurred on by Fox News and those who live in caves deep underground, shielded from reality, the anecdotal tales are reported and spread like a California wildfire on the Internet.
I have thoroughly devoured the excellent articles and blogs by Caleb Howe in these pages and elsewhere. From a mostly secular viewpoint, I have read the many comments and writings by my friend and co-strongly opinionated friend, Jeff Musall.
The most recent manifestation of the “War” as reported by David Sugerman, occurred in Portland, Oregon, and involved a protest against a group of atheists, spurred on by Bill O’Reilly. Mr. Sugarman, an attorney in real life, who puts out a literate and focused blog on his firm’s website. and, for his blog, www.pspc.com/blog. (For the record, David wields a sharp, witty and wise pen.)
As I, and many others, have noted, the War on Christmas, as seen by Messrs. Beck, Hannity, Savage, and Hewitt and, of course, Limbaugh and, my favorite spewer of mal-intentioned silliness, Ann Coulter, is one front in a battle involving good people of faith, their faith, and evil secularists. The latter seem to devote all of their energies to see that Christian symbols and traditions are stripped from the public arena; the battle seems to be joined most often in the context of Christmas displays in public buildings and in the issue of prayer in schools.
While the issues are clearly related, they are still distinguishable; this article will discuss my opinion on the basic Christmas issue and later posts will focus on mandatory exposure to and quasi-mandatory participation in public prayer by school children, including Christmas carols and Government erected Nativity scenes and other religious symbols on public property.
The War on Christmas is a device to sustain a fundamentalist view of Christianity, allowing it to solidify its position and electoral potency. It is, also, a quick and easy way to increase the audience of radio and television programs and to sell newspapers.
There are, indeed, a number of common themes argued by those who insist that there is an anti-Christian bias that fuels the disparagement of Christmas. Essentially, much is based on the conflict between the truly religious celebration of he holiday and the counter-point of commercialism.
Christmas is a religious holiday. [It is, also, a secular holiday.]
As a person of faith, although not a Christian, I am able to offer, perhaps, a non-passionate and quieter perspective on what some perceive to be a secular and cultural attack in religion and faith. This belief comes from two main sources.
There are, first, sincere Christians disturbed that their faith is not being sufficiently recognized and celebrated in this pluralistic society. Thus, when Christian ritual and displays are not erected or recognized by Governments or where private merchants attempt to be inclusive of non-Christian customers by offering a wish for a happy holiday, these positions are taken as an attack on the Christian faith. The second source of unhappiness is political conservatives using the alleged disparagement of Christmas as part of an agenda to promote the alleged attackers’ political causes and candidates or, in the case of Fox News to increase ratings
There are, first, sincere Christians disturbed that their faith is not being sufficiently recognized and celebrated in this pluralistic society. Thus, when Christian ritual and displays are not erected or recognized by Governments or where private merchants attempt to be inclusive of non-Christian customers by offering a wish for a happy holiday, these positions are taken as an attack on the Christian faith. The second source of unhappiness is political conservatives using the alleged disparagement of Christmas as part of an agenda to promote the alleged attackers’ political causes and candidates or, in the case of Fox News to increase ratings
One of the basic principles that those with both viewpoints and motivations ignore is that there are two Christmas holidays, each with its own traditions, music and history. Christmas has had a controversial history, often disparaged by religious leaders and manipulated by opportunists.
When some complain that the meaning of Christmas is lost or being threatened, they are not referring to the religious holiday; in fact, Christmas's most vocal defenders are rewriting the holiday's history. They claim the "traditional" American Christmas is under attack by what John Gibson, a Fox anchor, calls "professional atheists" and "Christian haters." But America has a complicated history with Christmas, going back to the Puritans, who despised it. What those who would boycott stores whose employees wish patrons a “Happy Holiday” are doing is not defending America's Christmas traditions, but creating a new version of the holiday.
Ask most people about the origin of Christmas, the answer would be a holiday created to celebrate the Nativity, the birth of Jesus. But that is only a small part of the story.
Virtually all pre-Christian and pre-Judaic cultures, at least in the northern hemisphere, celebrated a holiday at or near the winter solstice. For primitive peoples, the seemingly rebirth of the sun was an occasion for celebration and worship. When Christian leaders convert pagans to Christianity, they told the latter that the old holidays could remain but were assigned new meanings and traditions. There is nothing in the Christian Bible that refers to a date or even season for the birth of Jesus; by the fourth century, the Roman church had adopted December 25th, likely to incorporate the festival of Saturnalia. (As a matter of fact, during the past month or so, a scientist in, I believe, Great Britain was able to recreate the night sky over Jerusalem and came to the conclusion that the “Star” could likely have been two extremely close planets, creating a star image during the summer of 2 BCE.)
By the third century, there were many religions and spiritual mysteries being followed within the Roman Empire. Many, if not most, celebrated the birth of their primary Deity near the time of the solstice. Emperor Aurelian (270 to 275) blended a number of pagan solstice celebrations of the nativity of such god-men/saviors as Apollo, Baal, Dionysus, Helios, Hercules, Horus, Mithra, Osiris and into a single festival called the "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun" on December 25th. At the time, Mithraism and Christianity were fierce competitors. Aurelian had even declared Mithraism the official religion of the Roman Empire in 274; Christianity won out by becoming the new official religion in the fourth century.
Christmas, as a religious holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus was not always accepted. The Puritans, in Great Britain and, later, in the United States rejected the holiday, primarily because of its pagan origins. In fact, in my home state of Massachusetts, Christmas was totally banned!
The Puritans who immigrated to Massachusetts to build a new life had several reasons for disliking Christmas. First of all, it reminded them of the Church of England and the old-world customs, which they were trying to escape. Second, they didn't consider the holiday a truly religious day. December 25th wasn't selected as the birth date of Christ until several centuries after his death. Third, the holiday celebration usually included drinking, feasting, and playing games - all things which the Puritans frowned upon. One such tradition, "wassailing" occasionally turned violent. The older custom entailed people of lower economic class visiting wealthier community members and begging, or demanding, food and drink in return for toasts to their hosts' health. If a host refused, there was the threat of retribution. (This sounds mightily like “Trick or Treat” during Halloween.) Fourth, the British had been applying pressure on the Puritans for a while to conform to English customs. The ban was probably as much a political choice as it was a religious one for many.
The law, enacted in 1659, provided:
"For preventing disorders, arising in several places within this jurisdiction by reason of some still observing such festivals as were superstitiously kept in other communities, to the great dishonor of God and offense of others: it is therefore ordered by this court and the authority thereof that whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other way, upon any such account as aforesaid, every such person so offending shall pay for every such offence five shilling as a fine to the county."
Today, religious Christians celebrate Christmas openly as a celebration of Jesus’ birth. However, the so-called War on Christmas is simply an unwillingness to appreciate the second type of the holiday, one that is secular and general. The celebration of the “secular Christmas” has an equally long tradition in this country.
Christmas is, also, a secular holiday.
The roots of the secular side of Christmas go deep. In 1780, the “Twelve Days of Christmas” was written, extolling the idea of gift-giving and, later, going to the Mall. According to recent polls, about 96 % of Americans celebrate Christmas to some extent and 14 % are non-Christians.
Christmas has become, in the United States certainly, a secular holiday.
Throughout the 20th century, the United States experienced much anguish over the nature of the day, and its dual status as a religious holy day and a cultural holiday of the same name. The importance of the economic impact of the secular Christmas holiday was reinforced in the 1930s when President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed moving the Thanksgiving holiday date to extend the Christmas shopping season and boost the economy during the Depression. Religious leaders and social conservatives protested this move, warning of the dangers of an increasingly commercial Christmas.
Commercial, secular Christmas achieved a an overwhelming popularity when it was transformed into a domestic celebration, after the publication Moore's "Visit from St. Nicholas" and Thomas Nast's Harper's Weekly drawings, which created the image of a white-bearded Santa who gave gifts to children. Some say the popular image of a red-suited Santa is a gift of Coca-Cola! The new emphasis lessened religious leaders' worries that the holiday would be given over to drinking and swearing, but it introduced another concern: commercialism.
By the 1920's, the retail industry had adopted Christmas as its own, sponsoring annual ceremonies to kick off the "Christmas shopping season." Religious leaders objected strongly over what was a rush to commercialism. In the 1965 TV special, Charlie Brown ignores Lucy's advice to "get the biggest aluminum tree you can find" and her assertion that Christmas is "a big commercial racket," and finds a more spiritual way to observe the day. Overall, however, Lucy’s opinions have taken over!
Notwithstanding this opposition and the objections of civil liberties group, the Federal government has designated Christmas Day as a secular national holiday. The Supreme Court has allowed public displays of “holiday” images, sometimes drawing an almost invisible boundary between that which is sacred to Christianity and that having a secular atmosphere.
The social conservatives, and Fox News, have gladly adopted the alleged outrage over the commercialization of Christmas to promote their political agenda, to energize the G.O.P. base. The horror of a commercial business wishing customers “Season Greetings” or “Happy Holiday” is not an assault on Christians or Christianity; it is an attempt to welcome all of its patrons. The stories of merchants refusing to allow its employees to wish customers, “Merry Christmas” are often misread and anecdotal. The excellent Urban Legends site, www.snopes.com is a good source of information. Two months ago, for example, the American Family Association named Home Depot as a company failing to mention “Christmas” in its catalogue. The Association later apologized as the allegation was simply untrue. Other merchants, in an attempt to make all of their customers feel welcome and appreciated. Among these are Target, WalMart and several others.
And inclusion and acceptance of all people is what Christmas is supposed to be about, isn’t it?
We have, now, ten more months before Messrs. O’Reilly, Beck, Gibson and their cohorts again raise the banners for a phony war.
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War on Christmas
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