Editorial
As we limp to 2005’s finish, the yuletide discord is reaching a fever pitch, what with all the certifiable fruitcakes offering their latest recipes for saving not just Christmas, but Christianity itself. “We need to understand this war, fight it and win it,” one particularly histrionic columnist recently wrote on the Agape Press website (“reliable news from a Christian source”). “We need to do something to stem this tide toward a totally Christ-less holiday.” As they see it, the secularists have taken on Jesus, dammit, and they’re all worked up about it.
Yeah, well, never mind that the enemy is just a handful of inconsolable ACLU mouthpieces in comfortable shoes who want to spare the feelings of Jews, Muslims and Pagans alike—and several million shoppers looking for some bargains on iPods and DVD players.
Nashville isn’t immune to this so-called culture war over Christmas, as city leaders are being criticized for characterizing that big, lighted thing downtown as Metro’s “holiday tree.” Never did a knotty pine wreak such unholy havoc. All of a sudden, Christians are oppressed and fighting against an admittedly shameless PC movement that wants to sanitize the moniker of a Christian symbol—the Christmas tree—so as not to offend anyone.
We agree that this “holiday tree” garbage is insulting and stupid. Trees were originally a pagan symbol, but Christians long ago adopted them as their own. Today, no other religious tradition calls for folks to erect dead Fraser firs in their living rooms, where the trees are decorated with lights, bobbles and candy canes. Only those who celebrate Christmas—most of America, by the way—adhere to this annual ritual, so there’s no need to contrive some broad, antiseptic name. As one Scene writer recently remarked, no one would ever feel compelled to call a menorah a “candelabra.” Let’s call it what it is: a Christmas tree.
But that’s where we part with the arm-waving fundamentalist Christians who represent perhaps the least afflicted constituency in the history of religious or social movements. These people would have us believe that Christians are somehow being persecuted just because some folks in interfaith marriages and Birkenstocks want to say “happy holidays”—and because Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn want to publicize their “sales of the season” or whatever. That would be like saying Microsoft is a victim because 10 percent of Americans prefer to use Apple computers.
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There’s no war on Christmas, people. We can’t go to Sonic for a slushy without seeing a nativity scene. Midnight mass is always standing-room-only. Goodwill and philanthropy in America thrive this time of year. And we see more preachers than booze-makers advertising on TV. So what if someone wants to say “happy holidays” or immerse himself in the high-inducing commercialism of the season with Xbox, Game Cube or that beautiful $300 KitchenAid mixer at Williams-Sonoma?
Jesus and cashmere aren’t mutually exclusive. Nor are Jesus and broadly worded seasonal salutations.
What’s more, Merry Christmas.