The other night on TV, I watched a liberal talking head go
ballistic in a discussion of the “war on Christmas.” He ranted
that there is no such war, and even if there were, it’s those on
the right, like Fox News, who are fanning the flames. He noted that
in 1929 Henry Ford wrote that the Jews were behind such attacks and
that the John Birch Society made similar claims against secularists
in 1959.
It all sounded too familiar. So I consulted my email and
discovered this from a letter I received in reference to my column
of last week on the lack of religious Christmas
programming on TV and in film: “The same fight has been waged at
least since 1959, when the John Birch Society accused the
communists among us (RIP Joe McCarthy) of secretly trying to
eliminate Christ from Christmas.”
My correspondent also went on to point out that there is no
plot, but if there were, it’s being waged by Republican owners of
major media like Fox’s Rupert Murdoch. So, much like the narrator
in a famous Yuletide poem, in an effort to root out this
like-minded chatter, I went to the web to see what was the
matter.
These talking points apparently stem from a Salon.com article by Michelle Goldberg titled, “How the
Secular Humanist Grinch Didn’t Steal Christmas.” In it, the author
details the infamous words of Ford and the John Birchers, all
evidently well documented.
SO DOES PROVING that there were previous charges of a war on
Christmas mean that current charges are untrue? That view is as
illogical as saying that the current War on Terror doesn’t have
merit since there have been complaints about radical Islam since
the Seventh Century.
The fact is that there have been a number of battles waged, but
the whole issue is more of a cold, than a hot war. And, like the
decades-long big one with the Soviet Union, the conflict is between
two different ways of life. One side champions belief in limited
government and the notion that our rights are God-given, while the
other believes that nearly all power should emanate from
government.
What’s heated up the hostilities lately is the blurring of the
clear language of the First Amendment by our judicial system.
Courts have misconstrued the meaning of an “establishment of
religion” by the government, to mean nearly anything and
everything; from mentioning the name of Jesus in a valedictory
address, to a football team praying before a high school game.
Given the multitude of different churches that make up this
country, for the government to actually establish a national
religion, it would not only be undesirable but next to impossible.
The idea that some kind of Christian theocracy is in the making is
laughable to anyone who has ever debated the articles of their
faith with those of another; see the term, sola scriptura,
for instance.
That said, what does unite many of the 88 percent of this
country who are Christian is the feeling that although they are in
the great majority, those on the secular left treat them as if they
were the minuscule minority they are alleged to offend. Though
liberal judges have not yet discovered the source of the right not
to be offended, this has not stopped them from proceeding as if
they have.
The new twist on all of this is that Christians who are finally
making a case for their formerly constitutional rights are now
portrayed as being on the attack. Ms. Goldberg closes her piece
with, “The war on Christmas trope lets the right pretend to be
playing defense when it’s really on the offensive — against the
ACLU, separation of church and state, and pluralism, to name just a
few targets.”
The truth is, it is the American way of life that has been
hammered away at for decades by the three “targets” named above.
One is the creation of communists; the next, the invention of a
judge and the last, so much socialist psychobabble.
A war on Christmas? Perhaps. But as those on the left contend,
it’s really nothing new: “If the world hates you, know that it has
hated me before you.” John 15:18
Lisa
Fabrizio is a columnist who hails from Connecticut. You may
write her at mailbox@lisafab.com.
