AJC.com > Opinion > Woman to Woman > Archives > 2007 > December > 15
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Is There a War on Christmas?
Andrea Cornell Sarvady, a left-leaning columnist, writes the commentary this week and Shaunti Feldhahn, a right-leaning columnist, responds.
Rebuttal
“Religious music shouldn’t dominate a choral program?” About Christmas? Is it any wonder that Christmas feels under attack?
Every year, more municipalities, companies, shops and schools ban nativity scenes, enforce “Winter Holiday” lingo or — as Fort Collins did recently — create a “Holiday Display Task Force” to ensure there are no public-property displays of traditional Christmas references. Not even colored lights. Isolated instances have become mainstream - and repeated by the thousands. School choir directors from Virginia to Wisconsin don’t want to change the words of Christmas carols, but (incorrectly) feel like they are supposed to, or are told to, “just to be safe.” So “Silent Night” becomes “Cold in the Night.” (“I wish I were happy and warm, safe with my family out of the storm.”) Residents of HUD-subsidized senior homes from Florida to California are told they can no longer invite in carolers or even put up their own religious decorations on their doors. Company employees, shopkeepers, teachers, and parents from Texas to New York are told to remove traditional Christmas references from decorations and “think snowman” instead.
And those beleaguered city Christmas trees feel like the remaining veterans from WWII; we’re glad they’re still around, but is this their last Christmas? For 34 years, Nova Scotia has given a tree to the City of Boston, which is then named the Boston Christmas Tree. Until this year. It’s now the Boston Holiday Tree.
Maybe we should take a cue from England. Trevor Phillips, the Equality and Human Rights Commission Chairman, invited non-Christian leaders to help keep Christmas alive. Shayk Ibrahim Mogra, a Bristish Muslim leader, answered best with, “To suggest celebrating Christmas and having decorations offends Muslims is absurd. Why should Christmas not be celebrated openly and wholeheartedly in our country when a vast majority of people are Christians?”
Silent Night, Holy Night. All is calm, all is bright. Round yon virgin, mother and child. Holy infant, so tender and mild…
Despite increasing concern over the removal of Christ from Christmas, that holy infant came to bring tidings of great joy and love. And in the debate over preserving the reason for the season, we cannot defend love with a lack of it.
Commentary
By Andrea Cornell Sarvady
For the past few years, America has been fighting a difficult war.
No, not that one.
It’s the “war” Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly and his “cultural warriors” battle every December, trying to save Christmas. Frothing at the mouth for hours of air time, O’Reilly extrapolates from church vs. state skirmishes and politically correct marketing efforts a national conspiracy to eradicate Christmas.
It’s ironic, because what this avowed patriot is actually railing against couldn’t be more American: the First Amendment. Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, explains the guiding principle- simply, to “treat people of all faiths or none with fairness and respect.” Therefore, holiday programs “shouldn’t make any students feel excluded or identified with a religion not their own.” Religious music shouldn’t dominate a choral program, but can be included. Public seasonal displays should contain both secular and religious elements.
Some school and city officials choose to excise the holidays completely in order to avoid offense. Haynes, a consultant to school districts, feels that year-round education on various religions is a more effective way to mitigate the “December Dilemma”. Though well versed on all viewpoints of the issue, he still doesn’t understand the attack on more all-encompassing greetings like “Happy Holidays”: “People who use that expression are just trying to be kind.”
One of the more insidious aspects of this trumped-up “war” is an eagerness to blame everything on what Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council calls “over-zealous secularist officials.” Clever indeed. Pretend the separation of church and state only matters to secular leftists and the rabid right won’t sound like they’re trying to propagate a religious crusade.
Plenty of Christians find this annual “campaign” unsavory, with its militaristic lingo and threatening stocking stuffers. A red wristband demanding “Just Say Merry Christmas” begs the question: is this something Jesus would wear?
Still, if I was forced to pick a gift from the Christmas war catalog, I guess I’d go with Bill O’ Reilly’s- I kid you not- “Culture Warrior” doormat. At least that way I could be sure not to track this ugliness into my house, especially during the holidays.