Here We Go Again!

It’s Christmas time and here we go again with the conspiratorial versions of the “War on Christmas.” Former Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly ignited the age-old conspiracy in 2004.  Donald Trump used it, promising during the 2016 campaign to “bring back” the holiday greeting “Merry Christmas”—which, he seemed to think had been outlawed by the forces of political correctness.  As president, Trump proclaimed in October 2017, “We’re saying, ‘Merry Christmas’ again.”  Then just last month, Trump told a Missouri rally of his base, “I told you that we would be saying, ‘Merry Christmas’ again, right?”  When did our right to say, “Merry Christmas” stop?  When was it outlawed?  Chuck Todd on MTP Daily (MSNBC) responded to Trump’s Missouri comment by showing one clip after another of the Obama family saying, “Merry Christmas” to the nation over an eight-year span.  Saying, “Merry Christmas” is not novel (in spite of Mr. Trump’s attempt to make it sound so)—most of us have been saying it all our lives.

This so-called “War on Christmas” is not really about Christmas.  It goes much deeper than that.  It has to do with whether the United States of America is a secular or a Christian nation. It has to do with whether or not we will honor diversity in our society.  O’Reilly and Trump are not the first to suggest that some malignant social force (political correctness, progressives, Democrats, Muslims, Jews, Sharia Law, or something) is destroying Christianity (which for some means, America itself) by attempting to undermine Christmas.  (Just as a footnote, Protestants in 18th century America thought Christmas was a ploy of the devil—a papal holiday—not to be tolerated).

The real war being waged since the very first Christmas is about whether we can learn to live together in harmony (that is, in diversity).  When the FBI director is questioned by the congressional judicial committee about the political opinions of his subordinates—and implies that if they are not in line with the predominant “party” they cannot adequately serve—we are at war with Christmas.  When any religious, racial or cultural group, is marginalized, castigated, and put down—we are at war with Christmas.  

The wolf shall live with sheep,

The leopard shall lie down with the kid

The calf and young lion shall grow up together

The cow and the bear shall be friends

And their young shall lie down together.

In a "Christmas" World no one is left outside in the cold.
"Still through the cloven skies they come,"..and still the angels'
"heavenly music floats o'er all the weary world;
above its sad and lowly plains, they bend on hovering
wing, and ever o'er its Babel sounds the blessed angels sing."