Salon.com: 'How the secular humanist grinch didn't steal Christmas'

[checks-n-balances]

An informative article, just in time to give some historical perspective & background to the "They're against Christmas" machine that's already been cranking up for a few months now...

How the secular humanist grinch didn't steal Christmas

The right-wing crusade against the liberal "war on Christmas" is great for rallying the troops. Too bad the war doesn't exist.

By Michelle Goldberg

Nov. 21, 2005 | In 1959, the recently formed John Birch Society issued an urgent alert: Christmas was under attack. In a JBS pamphlet titled "There Goes Christmas?!" a writer named Hubert Kregeloh warned, "One of the techniques now being applied by the Reds to weaken the pillar of religion in our country is the drive to take Christ out of Christmas -- to denude the event of its religious meaning." The central front in this perfidious assault was American department stores, where the "Godless UN" was scheming to replace religious decorations with internationalist celebrations of universal brotherhood. (snip)

At the time, the campaign to save Christmas was not widely treated as a matter of great national import. The John Birch Society was generally regarded as a crank, far-right outfit whose paranoid conspiracy theories (it believed fluoridated water was part of an evil communist plot to poison America's brains) put it outside the pale of reasonable discourse. Staffers on the ultra-right 1964 Barry Goldwater campaign tried to prevent Birchers from volunteering because they carried the taint of extremism. The John Birch Society didn't have access to a major television network. But a lot has changed since then. (snip)

Claims that Wal-Mart, of all places, is trying to ban Christmas resonate with some segments of the right because they're part of a larger, older story line about a giant, diabolical plot to rob God-fearing Americans of their traditions and erode their very identity. "The wagers of this war on Christmas are a cabal of secularists, so-called humanists, trial lawyers, cultural relativists, and liberal, guilt-wracked Christians -- not just Jewish people," (Fox News' John) Gibson writes. Also involved are mainline churches whose congregants "vote for John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, and Barney Frank. They are liberal by definition, and they proclaim their liberal values; I began to connect the dots and discerned the outlines of the conspiracy."

Gibson, of course, is not the first to connect the dots. The John Birch Society wasn't, either. As the Web site News Hounds pointed out last year, Henry Ford was sounding the alarm about the war on Christmas in his notorious 1921 tract "The International Jew." "The whole record of the Jewish opposition to Christmas, Easter and other Christian festivals, and their opposition to certain patriotic songs, shows the venom and directness of attack," Ford wrote. He listed local outrages: "Christmas celebrations or carols in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Paul and New York met with strong Jewish opposition ... Local Council of Jewish Women of Baltimore petitions school board to prohibit Christmas exercises ... The Council of the University Settlement, at the request of the New York Kehillah , adopts this resolution: 'That in the holiday celebrations held annually by the Kindergarten Association at the University Settlement every feature of any sectarian character, including Christmas trees, Christmas programs and Christmas songs, shall be eliminated.'"

More at
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/11/21/christmas/print.html

[BJW]

1. No more special rights for Christians--eom

[Raine]

2. Interesting article

I guess the 'war' on Christmas charge is an annual event now, has become part of the holiday itself. :eyes:

[Maat]

3. Hey, my dad was a John Bircher (hate to admit it) and ..

these guys are way more paranoid than my dad ever was!

HeeHee.

:rofl:

It's funny. I'm a Religious Scientist (very progressive-universalist, like UU), and I've told my Southern Baptist in-laws that I feel very bullied when the GOVERNMENT SPONSORS religious symbols, which are almost always Christian.

I also tell them that my liberal Christian friends don't want ONLY Christian symbols sponsored; in fact, they respect the separation between church and state.

At the same time, I have a law degree, and I respect the right of private organizations to put religious symbols up. I appreciate it greatly, however, when a store greeter (or other staff) says, "Happy Holidays," instead of "Merry Christmas," because they are respecting a diversity of faiths. And when a store generalizes like that, I patronize that store. If it is owned by progressives, or pays a decent wage like Costco, then I really patronize that store.

Obviously, said in-laws don't like that attitude.

[Canuckistanian]

4. I find this fascinating

The RWers were all in a lather about this last year - and I thought they had quit, having gotten nowhere with their campaign.

But this year, they're even more strident. They've even got the "Liberty Counsel" lawyers on full alert, searching for any mention of the dreaded "Happy Holidays" phrase.

The thing I find so funny is that Liberals and Progressives have no dog in this fight, other that official state sponsorship of only one religion on public land.

They insist that we "libruls" and the ACLU are in cahoots to destroy Christmas and bring in our own version which somehow includes dancing naked in the streets and sacrificing chickens.

As for myself, I love Christmas. It's a magical time of year that never loses it's special significance of family, children and festive celebration. My childhood Christmases are some of my most cherished memories.

It's amusing to see fundamentalists fight so hard for what what was only invented during the last 150 years, claiming Biblical significance. Almost all of it has been made up or misrepresented from historical events.

Christmas is a celebration. And I intend to keep it that way.