Every December a battle ensues over the acknowledgement that the 25th is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It’s called Christmas. Retailers who make a boat load of money during the Christmas season have tried to walk the narrow line of political correctness by using the less religious “Happy Holidays” greeting. They don’t want to offend atheists, New Agers, and Satanists who do not celebrate Christmas.
Long ago, Jews made their peace with Christmas. Where I grew up, there was a Jewish family that lived two doors down from us. They got into the Christmas spirit along with the Protestant and Roman Catholic families on our street. I suspect that there are very few Jews today who are offended by Christmas. Of course, some of it may be due to the fact that they’re not very religious. But then they would be offended because they’re not religious. Even so, I don’t see much criticism coming from the Jewish community.
There are some Muslims who despise Christmas and some who do not. Muslims view Jesus as a prophet, so He is part of their religious tradition. There are a few Muslims out there who are denouncing the greeting “Merry Christmas” and the celebration of the birth of Jesus as the Christ. For these Muslims, God could not have a son. Here’s what London-born Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary has to say on the subject:
The very concept of Christmas contradicts and conflicts with the foundation of Islam. Every Muslim has a responsibility to protect his family from the misguidance of Christmas, because its observance will lead to hellfire.
Politicians have gotten into the dispute. “The most widely-known U.S. attack on Christmas 2011 comes from none other than the governor of Rhode Island, Independent Lincoln Chafee. Sporting his political correctness cap this year, Chafee has renamed the state house Christmas tree a ‘holiday tree.’”
The governor tried to defend his decision by arguing that the founding of Rhode Island was all about keeping government and religion separate. Calling it a “holiday tree” and linking it to the Christmas season do not help his argument since a “holiday” is a holy day. He should have said, “There can’t be any Christmas or holy day celebration anymore, so you will not longer be getting December 25th off as a paid holiday.” Now that would be consistency.
The war on Christmas is mostly a war on religion. Atheists see it this way, and so do politicians. Atheists we know about. But what about politicians? They don’t like the idea that they have to answer to a higher power. They are in good company. Consider this from the article “Hitler’s Christmas Party”:
The Nazi Christmas was far from traditional. Hitler believed religion had no place in his 1,000-year Reich, so he replaced the Christian figure of Saint Nicholas with the Norse god Odin and urged Germans to celebrate the season as a holiday of the “winter solstice,” rather than Christmas. Out of site at the top of the tree behind Hitler [at his 1941 Christmas party] was a swastika instead of an angel, and many of the baubles carried runic symbols and iron cross motifs.
Today’s atheists are pushing the “winter solstice” concept in some of their anti-Christmas advertising campaigns. I found the following on the website of the American Atheists:
It’s a time of year that is no longer just for Christians and the religious rituals of Christmas. Millions of Atheists, Freethinkers and other Americans are taking time to celebrate a natural holiday, the Winter Solstice.
They’re hypocrites. Like Lincoln Chafee, they want the fruit of Christianity but not the root.