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So, with the regularity of the tides, Bill O'Reilly began his whining about the terrible "War on Christmas" a few weeks ago. He rails about salespeople saying "Happy Holidays" and the lack of Nativity scenes in public areas and Xmas trees becoming Holiday trees. He spews and foams at the mouth about how atheists and humanists and pagans (oh my!) are trying to take Christmas away from the poor, besieged Fox Noise viewers. Oh, what a show he puts on! But who is really waging war on Christmas?
Follow me below the orange ooh-la-la and I'll tell you.....
Jim Wallis wrote an interesting article on HuffPo Thursday called The Real War On Christmas and I think he has it pegged.
Fox News’ “war” is designed to criticize the “secularization” of our culture wrought by atheists, agnostics, liberals, leftists, progressives, and separation of church and state zealots — i.e. Democrats.
Yes, it's yet another way to attack the filthy, eeeeevul Libruls! To make their viewers feel justified in despising their fellow man.... well, they aren't really fellow men because those damned Lefties don't believe what they do.
But, Wallis writes, we have a completely different problem:
... what we actually have here is a theological problem, where cultural and commercial symbols are confused with truly Christian ones, and the meaning of the holy season is missed all together.... The particular (read: biblical) meaning of Christmas, for Christians, has almost nothing to do with the media war.
Oh, I get it. This isn't really about saying "Happy Holidays" or Yule trees or reading Luke at a school pageant. Maybe it's about what the holiday should mean to those who celebrate it.
What is Christmas? It is the celebration of the Incarnation, God’s becoming flesh — human — and entering into history in the form of a vulnerable baby born to a poor, teenage mother in a dirty animal stall.... God became like us to bring us back to God and show us what it means to be truly human.
That is the meaning of the Incarnation. That is the reason for the season.
In Jesus Christ, God hits the streets.
Now, I'm not Christian but I think Wallis is on to something here. The meaning of this holiday is very deep and profound. It is the very basis of this religion. Christmas should be a celebration of this miracle. But instead, what do we see around us? What does Bill-o focus his ire on?
Making sure that shopping malls and stores greet their customers with “Merry Christmas” is entirely irrelevant to the meaning of the Incarnation. In reality it is the consumer frenzy of Christmas shopping that is the real affront and threat to the season. Last year, Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas. Clean water for the whole world, including every poor person on the planet, would cost about $20 billion. Let’s just call that what it is: A material blasphemy of the Christmas season.
It's one thing to celebrate the season with gifts and decorations but can't we be a bit more... I dunno... less conspicuous? Do we really need to have lights on every inch of the house with 20 foot rubber snowglobes and Santa on the roof? Do we need to have a dozen gifts for each family member? Do we have to be so... greedy?
Imagine Jesus walking into the mall, seeing the Merry Christmas signs, and expressing his humble thanks for how the pre- and post-Christmas sales are honoring to him. How about credit cards for Christ?
Jesus was a poor man. He ministered to the poor. He loved the poor, the sick, the elderly and the young. I think He would be appalled at how his birth has become a wallowing in materialism. I think He would be heartbroken.
And that's just one aspect of this trumped-up War on Christmas. It's interesting to me that some of the traditions that Bill-o and his minions get so worked up over are ones that were....stolen is such a harsh word.... how about co-opted.... from Pagans.
The Christmas tree? It has roots (heh) as far back as the Romans, who decorated the trees in the Sacred Grove of Diana during Saturnalia. Germanic Pagans venerated evergreen because they did not "die" over the winter. Druids and Vikings alike would bring evergreen boughs into the house during Yuletide.
The date of Christmas itself is Pagan in origin. The 25th of December was a Roman holiday, Dies Natales Solis Invectus, the Birth of the Unconquerable Sun. The Persian god Mithra was born on that date, too. Most biblical scholars agree that Jesus had to have been born in the Spring but the Pagans celebrated the birth of many gods around the date of the Winter Solstice. The date was adopted by the Church in the 4th century as a way of making the transition from Pagan holidays to the Christian one.
There are many other traditions that were adopted by the early Christian Church. But, at this point, it's pretty unimportant. All of the traditions and stories and foods and festivity have been homogenized into a secular holiday. And most of us are pretty okay with that, whatever our religion.
Back to Wallis, who has a pretty kick-ass point to make:
The real Christmas announces the birth of Jesus to a world of poverty, pain, and sin, and offers the hope of salvation and justice.
The Fox News Christmas heralds the steady promotion of consumerism, the defense of wealth and power, the adulation of money and markets, and the regular belittling or attacking of efforts to overcome poverty.
The real Christmas offers the joyful promise of peace and the hope of reconciliation with God and between humankind.
The Fox News Christmas proffers the constant drumbeat of war, the reliance on military solutions to every conflict, the demonizing of our enemies, and the gospel of American dominance.
The real Christmas lifts up the Virgin Mary’s song of praise for her baby boy: “He has brought the mighty down from their thrones, and lifted the lowly, he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich empty away.”
The Fox News Christmas would label Mary’s Magnificat as “class warfare.”
So if there is a war on Christmas it's the one being waged by Fox News.
I couldn't agree more! So Happy Holidays and God/dess bless us every one!
So, the floor is open: what's YOUR f##king problem?