Holiday Hucksters: Religious Right Cranks Up Another `War On Christmas'

[meegbear]

Your kids are queasy from eating too much candy, there's a decomposing jack o'lantern on your front stoop and the trees in your back yard are rapidly shedding leaves. Sounds like the time is right for another "War on Christmas" brought to you by the Religious Right!

That's right. These days, the Religious Right doesn't even have the decency to wait until Thanksgiving to start whining about what terms people use to describe the December holidays.

Liberty Counsel, a Religious Right legal group associated with the late Jerry Falwell, issued an alert Oct. 30 vowing to slap retailers with either a "Friend" or "Foe" label this year based on whether the word "Christmas" appears in their ads, in catalogs and on Web sites.

Focus on the Family, in an effort to be hip and trendy, has a new video short out featuring Stuart Shepard, one of its faux reporters. The cheeky Shepard explains how this year he's celebrating "Tossmass" by discarding all of the catalogs that fail to use religiously correct terminology.

Not to be outdone, the folks at World Net Daily are hawking "Christmas Defense Kits" featuring a bumper sticker that reads, "This is America! And I'm going to say it: `Merry Christmas!'"

How charming. There's nothing like being an obnoxious prig for the holidays.

Lately I've been researching this whole "War on Christmas" thing for a story I'm writing for December's Church & State, and I've noticed a few things. For starters, promoting the "War on Christmas" has become a cottage industry for the Religious Right. These groups make tons of money selling pro-Christmas stuff: buttons, stickers, memos that purport to explain your rights, etc. Keeping the "war" alive is crucial to the Religious Right's bottom line.

Secondly, over the past year, the Religious Right has shifted the discussion from things like battles over Nativity scenes on public property to the language, decorations and even in-store greetings offered by retailers.

Why are the legal eagles of the Religious Right focusing on what stores do instead of government? Simple. The number of battles over holiday symbols is decreasing. The courts have ruled on this matter ad nauseum, and guidelines are in place. Retailers are the new big, fat target for the Religious Right's whiny campaign. The Religious Right needs a new enemy to attack to ensure those dollars flow in and to keep its followers in a constant state of agitation and mock outrage over the latest assaults by the anti-religious fanatics who support church-state separation.

But it's the usual Religious Right con. Most advocates of church-state separation don't spend much time obsessing over what stores are doing or saying in December. When a unit of government takes it upon itself to celebrate the religious aspects of a holiday on everyone's behalf, we have to speak out. But the shops down at the mall aren't part of that. They aren't arms of the government. Some say "Christmas" in their ads and some don't. Who cares? The holiday will come either way. (Remember, the Grinch even stole the last can of Who Hash - yet Christmas still came.)

In fact, one could argue that all of the brouhaha at the mall is a distraction from the central message of Christmas. Does the fact that a giant corporation uses the word "Christmas" in its ads truly mean it is interested in marking the birth of Jesus? Chances are, its real goal is persuading you to bust out the credit cards and spend, spend, spend.

It's sad, really. The Religious Right's holier-than-thou brigade claims to treasure Christmas - and then drafts it as cannon fodder in its culture war, spending three months hawking offensive, in-your-face buttons and stickers that make a mockery of a season that is supposed to be dedicated to peace and love. Is that really what Jesus would do?

For those in the Religious Right who genuinely are offended because the newspaper ad from Best Buy fails to include the word "Christmas" and the temporary clerk at the Sears dares to say "Happy Holidays," I have some advice: This Christmas, ask Santa Claus to bring you a life.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/11/6/122654/257

[sutz12]

1. Gee, can I get ahold of his list?

I'd like to be sure and patronize all of the "Foes." :)

[China_cat]

9. That goes for a lot of us, I'm sure.

I need to do the holiday splash page for the union. I need to make sure it's as all encompassing as possible. Merry christmas will get in there somewhere but so will every other December holiday.

[lips]

2. Thanks religious Right

:sarcasm:

[Ishoutandscream2]

3. LOL, I dig that picture

Bring it on!

[NanceGreggs]

4. Perfect!

"This Christmas, ask Santa Claus to bring you a life."


:applause:

[BrklynLib at work]

5. Is this brought to you by the same people who were upset that TinkyWink was purple and carried a

pocketbook.
There must be ALOT of lead in their water!!!!

[sinkingfeeling]

6. And for only $25, you can get a 'Help Save Christmas Action Pack' from

Liberty Counsel! https://www.liberty.edu/libertycounsel/index.cfm?PID=10769&event=item&dept=288&cat=306&itemID=1283

I also like that they've trademarked their "I heart Christmas' buttons!


What a hoot!! Truly these people understand the meaning of Christmas and the teachings of Christ!

[chelsea0011]

7. There is a War on Xmas. And Bush is responsible for being very

Jesus-like by killing off thousands upon thousands in the Mid-East and ruining the economy and making us all that more broke. Let me be the first to say it.... Merry Xmas!

[Strawman]

8. Someone made the mistake of forwarding a War on Xmas email to me today

They got a rant from hell in return.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

10. What better way to celebrate the birth of Christ than with blackmail

buncha Pharisees. :grr: :