A Bah Humbug on Both Their Houses

The “war on Christmas” has ballooned out of control this year, and boy is it annoying. First off, the freedom-from-religion types raising their hackles over every mention of the word “Christmas” are making a mockery of political correctness (as if that was necessary!). It’s hardly offensive to hear someone say “Merry Christmas” if you’re not a Christian – in our culture it’s generally accepted as just being a friendly greeting, rather than an endorsement of any specific religion. I’ve never actually heard a non-Christian (i.e. Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc.) complain about someone saying Merry Christmas; it’s the secular left-wing types who are really up in arms about this. Relax, please. It’s a overwhelmingly Christian nation - you might have to hear a few Christian-related phrases.

On the other hand, the portion of the Christian right complaining about Christmas being under siege need to chill out as well (especially Bill O’Reilly…he gets crazier every week). If you expect others to not be offended by a simple “Merry Christmas”, then you can’t coil back in horror when you hear “Season’s Greetings” or Happy Holidays”. Stop being so sensitive! So not every store wishes you a Merry Christmas…get over it. Christmas is in no danger of being eradicated in this country anytime soon. Painting the picture of being an impoverished minority just doesn’t fly when you’ve got 85%+ of the population behind you. O’Reilly’s tack is even more off-kilter: he’s going on the offensive saying that stores should be saying Merry Christmas because Christmas is good for business, with big sales and big profits for America’s corporations. Well that’s certainly getting back to the Christian ideals of Christmas, Bill!

Cathy Young’s pieces on the issue are especially good.