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atheism, Christianity, Christmas, Media, Pundits, Right Wing Politics, Santa Clause, Secularism, War on Christmas
Got this here: http://savannahchristian.com/blog/christmas-with-a-capital-c
If I was to list the things I hate about Christmas, that list might well include Black Friday, bland food, and blander music. Jesus isn’t on that list. Oh, I know that I’m supposed to be working hard to get the Christ out of Christmas, at least according to certain talking heads, because that’s just what atheists do. But seriously, it would never occur to me to try and scratch Baby Jesus out of this holiday.
…mainly, because Jesus isn’t a big part of Christmas to begin with.
Yes, I understand American Atheists did a snarky Billboard. With that and a pickle, they’d still be one sandwich short of a lunch plate. Some of us will laugh (I know I did), but this is hardly a credible threat to the Prince of Peace. And seriously, atheist kids can’t be the only ones hoping to skip church for Christmas.
Schaedenfreude for All!
…if you think about it, they probably aren’t all that worried about it.
The annual fake war on Christmas is always entertaining. When folks find ‘Happy Holidays’ offensive or suspect an entire agenda behind use of the infamous X in ‘Xmas’, I can’t help but laugh. But I like to remind myself when the explicit reasoning people use makes no sense whatsoever, that’s usually because it isn’t the one guiding their actual thought process.
I figure the war on Christmas is primarily good marketing for right wing pundits, and apparently for Kirk Cameron. Near as I can tell, Cameron has never really outgrown his character on Growing Pains, but the culture wars certain do provide him with plenty of grist for the still-vapid mill. This yearm he’s workig the Christmas angle. …meh! Anyway, the war on Christmas does two things near as I can tell; it helps Christian conservatives misrepresent the battle over civic religious pronouncements, and it helps those same Christians rally the faithful by wagging the dog, so to speak.
I know, I’m mixing my metaphors, yes, but what the Hell do you expect from a Godless bastard?
The battle over civil religion has been driven by concerns about the entanglement of religion in public institutions. This is not an effort to drive God entirely from the public sphere, nor is it an effort to enshrine atheism in that sphere. The question is simply whether or not government facilities ought to be making any kind of explicit religious expressions, whether it be a copy of the Ten Commandments or a Manger scene.
Now I’m not entirely sold on the value of opposing every cross, prayer, or hand-made sign with religious sentiments that makes an appearance on public property, but every time I’m tempted to support a compromise on these issues, some joker from the religious right (or ten of them) makes it a point to suggest those reflect the true Christian nature of this country. …and what seemed possibly harmless then becomes a great big slap in the face. In any event, those defending use of public institutions for explicitly religious expressions have some real questions to answer about how this squares with the establishment clause, and near as I can tell most of the culture warriors are too busy generating narratives that bypass the whole problem. The War on Christmas is just such a narrative. As long as every challenge to a public display of Jesus in the manger is really part of an effort to crush the joy of Christmas, the Christian right will never have to address the constitutionality of its public agenda. People will be too busy saving Christmas from godless grinches.
…just like in a television sitcom.
Vintage Christmas
The larger and deeper misdirection here is also simpler. (It’s a multi-lered misdirection, really it is!) Jesus has been a rather minor theme in the actual celebration of Christmas for most of modern history. Sure, children sing the occasional Silent Night in a Christmas pageant, but they also sing Jingle Bells. Were I a believer, I wouldn’t want to take bets on which one gets a bigger round of applause from the audience. But that’s just the tip of the pagan pine bough. The fact is that Christ is always playing catch-up with his own holiday, and last I checked, he was well behind the marketing professionals on this one.
These days I hear a lot of people talking about putting the Christ back in Christmas, as if simply saying the phrase ‘Merry Christmas’ would provide them with a real victory. The fact of the matter is, though, that people have been saying ‘Merry Christmas’ for generations without meaning much more than ‘Yippee, presents!’ or ‘Hope you get a good bonus.’ Hell, even the more profound messages of giving and family togetherness are as easily embraced in secular circles as those of the truest of the True Christians™. The right wing culture warriors know this and they want to change it, or at least they want to be seen trying to change it.
Whatever else the war on the ‘war on Christmas’ is, it’s also a means of investing the phrase ‘Merry Christmas’ with a new and more political meaning. It effects that investment by conjuring an enemy, so when you say ‘Merry Christmas’ now, you aren’t just wishing people a nice glass of egg-nog. Hell, you aren’t even just telling them to celebrate the birth of Jesus or wishing them all the blessings the Prince of Peace could possibly bring. When you say it now, you’re pissing off an atheist, and nothing says you love Jesus more than pissing off an atheist!
Good fun for all!
Only, most of us aren’t all that bothered by the phrase. Hell I say ‘Merry Christmas’ as often as I say ‘Happy Holidays.’ When I did a brief stint at a Jewish private school, i said ‘Happy Holidays’ more, but that certainly wasn’t about pissing off any Christians. Anyway, I don’t think I’m unusual in this regard. The phrase Merry Christmas just isn’t a problem for most unbelievers, at least not when Bill O’Reilly isn’t writing the script.
Coke, another “reason for the season.”
The real threats to the religious perspectives on Christmas have never been secularists; they have been the myriad pleasures of worldly ways. The threats have been train-sets and iphones, bicycles, and Barbie-dolls, well-spiked punch-bowls at office parties, gaudy lights, and near riots at the local Walmart. It’s these things that compete with Jesus for our attention on December 25th, and quite frankly, it isn’t atheists that are pushing them on people. It’s good-old American capitalism, and let’s be honest, Christian conservatives are hardly interested in fighting a battle against corporate capitalism. So, they’ve conjured up a scape-goat. This way they get to have their stale gingerbread and eat it too. Through the ‘war on Christmas’ Christian conservatives can pretend to fight for the spiritual significance of their holiday all the while going right along with the very practices that keep turning the conveniently imagined birthday of Christ into a hollow and impious event.
Don’t laugh; it works folks!
I can’t be the first or even the thousand and first scaped goat to complain about this little gambit, but well, it’s a white Christmas up here in the arctic, and I’d rather gripe than go outside. Plus, I’m an atheist. I’m supposed to be grumpy and grinchy. Some days I am happy to oblige.
Oh yeah, there’s one more thing.
Merry Christmas everybody!
Reblogged this on SHERRI OF PALM SPRINGS.
That pretty much sums up the way I feel about it. I was an atheist long before I started talking about it, and I’d love to shut up about it, too. After all, I’m talking about nothing. But every time I want to mind my own business, Christianists do something that gets me engaged again.
Multiple levels of misdirection is a good way of summing it up. I still think the “War on Christmas” is an under-the-radar attack on Jews, not atheists. I wrote about that and called it “The War on Pluralism.” After all, Happy Holidays is often used to be inclusive. I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood and people would get mad if you said “Merry Christmas.” Personally, I understand. They were a minority and didn’t like the way it made them feel.
When I listen to my baptist friends and American Family Radio’s offense at how we celebrate Xmas and how the first amendment doesn’t protect freedom from religion or require the separation of church and state, I’ve finally realized I have to agree with them. The federal government needs to force the celebration of Mass on that most holy of days for all churches. Put Mass back into Xmas.
You point of view really resonate with me. At University, I’m in a class called introduction to North America (obviously I’m not American, I actually live in Germany) and our last lesson was about Christmas! (Sounds a bit of a silly subject for University, I suppose, but it’s culture after all.) I was stunned to hear how secular Christmas was in the US, I mean I’ve always assume American being more religious than we are in Europe it would be all about Christ, etc. I was born in France and there I know tons of Atheists and Muslims etc. who celebrate Christmas because the traditional French Christmas isn’t really about Church and the birth of Jesus anymore which is totally fine by me. And I believe this is positive, inclusive even. Don’t get me wrong I’ll be saying “Happy Christmas” (or rather “Joyeux Noël”/”Frohe Weihnachten”) and not “Happy Holiday” because it makes no sense to me, because this Holiday is Christmas after all. But I won’t feel offended because some say to me “Happy Holiday”. And I’ll go to Church I’m not a very religious person but I like it, once a year, so my point is you can celebrate Christmas your way and the fact that some people won’t attend Church won’t prevent you from doing it. For me, even if I was raised Catholic, Christmas is about joy, good food and display of affection to your loved ones. Basically it’s pretty much secular! I think this is great that Christmas is part of a civil religion that include any citizen that feels like it. And I’m tired of the nonsense about the judeo-christian roots of Europe and the US, where big minorities are Muslims or Buddhists, etc. Of course there is judeo-christian roots, they are deep, but there are other roots and it’s time to accept it!
Happy Chistmas to you! xx
“…it isn’t atheists that are pushing them on people. It’s good-old American capitalism, and let’s be honest, Christian conservatives are hardly interested in fighting a battle against corporate capitalism. So, they’ve conjured up a scape-goat.
Couldn’t agree more with this, Daniel. Our pastor has really been making a point of saying “Merry Christmas” the last couple of Sundays and I couldn’t really put a handle on why it kinda pissed me off until you put it into words for me…it’s just one more ‘us vs. them’. Needlessly. Pointlessly.
It makes me think of a meme I saw the other day, a graphic that said, “If someone says to you…” and then a whole list of holiday greetings including Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and so on. It all pointed back to “your response should be….”Thank you, and to you as well”.” Exactly. But then, that would be way too ‘inclusive’ and ‘accepting’ and Jesus was never about anything so gooshy as ‘love your neighbor’.
Great post. As an atheist, I am pretty much of the same mindset. The only thing I really object to is other people trying to force their religion on me (and I don’t like the idea of using taxes to pay to support any religion either).
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Yeah, I’m an atheist as well, but I can’t say I understand that billboard. What’s so special about not going somewhere I never go anyway except for weddings and funerals?