The 'War For Christmas' Is Really A Conditional Surrender

[Plaid Adder]

My partner brought up a good question regarding all this "war on Christmas" bullshit the other day: Why should religious groups care what the stores are doing? The stores are not churches; they're not the government; they're not even public spaces. So why should the religious right care what Target tells their clerks to tell their customers?

For those of you who responded "because they just can't stand the thought that some other religion is being accomodated on American soil even for an instant," well, that's true, but there's also another answer, which is more complicated and in some ways more depressing.

Liza and I both grew up Catholic. Liza still practices; I don't. But both of us share a number of Catholic values that were impressed upon us, including the idea that we are responsible for the sufferings of others, that we have an obligation to help the poor, and that commercialism is destructive of that which has real value. For us, "keeping Christ in Christmas" always meant focusing on the religious meaning of the holiday--as a time of renewal, as a celebration of God's love for us, as an opportunity to do something for others--INSTEAD of being overwhelmed by the vast amount of buying of crap that is expected of us by the retail industry. And I still think that for actual Christians, making more of an effort to do all of that couldn't hurt. In general, I would be thrilled if fundamentalist Christians(TM) actually tried to follow the teachings of Christ. It could only be an improvement over whatever the fuck it is that they're following now.

Anyway. The point is that for most of our lives, the True Meaning of Christmas (hereafter TMOC) and the Shop Till You're Insolvent Commercialist Orgy (hereafter STYICO) have always been considered by most Christian organizations as incompatible, and the objective for Christ-keeping-in Christians was to spend less time in stores and more time either in church or doing good in the world.

By launching a war to try to get the stores to start saying "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays," the Christian right is conceding that Christianity has already lost the battle. TMOC has fought STYICO until it can fight no more. Just as Christianity, while worming its way into Europe, co-opted pagan traditions for its own winter celebration, the Christian right is admitting that commercialism cannot be beaten, and so it must be assmilated. The attempt to force the stores to 'acknowledge' that STYICO is nominally organized around a Christian holiday is simply the last condition that the Christian right is trying to impose before they cede the battle altogether.

In other words, what the 'war on Christmas' crap really means is that the religious right is recognizing that capitalism is now the national religion. They have stopped trying to displace it, and all they figure they can do now is try to slap their own label on it.

Next time someone is ranting to you about the "Happy Holidays" bullshit, just ask him two questions:

1) Are you a Christian yourself?
2) In that case, why are you worshipping at the mall?

Let me know what happens. I would love to hear the answers.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Bluzmann57]

1. I was raised by two very religious people

Not the rw bullshit religion, but real religious people who help people who are less fortunate, etc. and they have both been bemoaning the loss of Christ in Christmas for years. They, and my sister and I still buy stuff for each other, but it is probably more understated than a lot of other people's stuff. In other words, our family still celebrates Christmas commercialism, but have not forgotten about the "true meaning" of the holiday. We also recognize other religions holidays, such as Hannukah, although we do not celebrate them. We are not of that faith, we are not black so we don't celebrate Kwanzaa, etc. etc.
So in my opinion, the so called "war on Christmas" is all just so much crap. I don't care what one calls it, I am going to say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays", and I mean nothing nasty by it. But if one wants to wish me "Happy Holidays", that will be taken as a friendly gesture on my part and will be treated as such. So Merry Christmas everyone. Don't let the alleged religious people get you down. Just enjoy this time of year and peace to all.

[Burning Water]

2. Ya know,

I talked to a conservative acquaintance about that. His answer was that they were disturbed about the fact that it was only Christmas that was being targeted. Hanukkah, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, all were plainly visible.

He felt that Christians shouldn't have to give up their own traditions and greetings in order to make others feels 'included'. He didn't give a rat's ass (his words) if others wanted to celebrate their holidays publicly, but he wanted to, also.

Finally, he said, that the stores had the right to do whatever they wanted to, and those that got offended about it had the right to say so, and organize boycotts, just like anybody else that got offended about something.

Now whether he's right about the facts, or not, I'm pretty sure i n my own mind that he has the conservative mind-set down accurately. And he's right, anybody in America has the right to be offended about anything, and take steps to correct what they see as injustice. Boycotts, lawsuits, we're going to see more and more of them as the fundies strike back.

[Plaid Adder]

4. Well, maybe you can make a labor activist out of him.

After all, why should a corporation get to dictate to its employees what they can and cannot say to customers, just because they pay those employees an hourly wage?

The Plaid Adder

[Burning Water]

5. Well, I think they

can. It's the money. On the other hand, when we see how the lawsuit some colleges have against the military come out, we may have a better idea if the payer of the piper can still call the tunes.

or maybe there will be a lawsuit. Who knows?

[Bridget Burke]

9. Here's one of the opening vollies in the WAR....

And it wasn't started by the Secular Liberals.

www.cwfa.org/articles/5040/CFI/misc/

Ask him if he agrees with everything else on the Concerned Women for America site. If he does, be glad that he's an "acquaintance"--not a friend. Here's People for the American Way's take on the group:

www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=3151

[Beelzebud]

3. Well these "christians" worpship greed.

So it's no suprise they act like a department store is hallowed ground...

[Beer Snob-50]

6. I believe the "War on Christmas"

is simply a way for the Christian Right to have a boogey man in which to hit up the sheeple with,

[Hamlette]

7. it's the unholy alliance which is the GOP today, wall street and the churc

and they haven't quite figured out how to deal with it. My guess is the religious nuts will have to back down on this one. Shame. For the first time in my life I'd be on the side of the big corporations. Yikes.

I say let 'em win. Have the clerks say Merry Christmas. Let non-christians give up the commercialism of christmas and let the fundies explain THAT to their flocks!

[triguy46]

8. You hit the nail on the head...

It is only with the unholy alliance of the right/fundies that rampant retail shopping is considered a holy act of faith.