“The War on Christmas” is a new book by Fox News anchor John Gibson, and, until recently, only a bogeyman of the hysterical Christian Right.
Alarmed at the substitution of “Happy Holidays” for “Merry Christmas” in retail marketing and other threatening portents, these Christians imagine an organized neutering of their holiday by Secular Humanists, Darwin-lovers and the other usual suspects.
This perceived threat to Christianity might provide us with the grim amusement offered by the Flat Earth Society and Nostradamus adherents, if it weren’t for its growing acceptance.
Indeed, the belief in the specter of a determined assault on Christmas has become sufficiently widespread to prompt even some Jews to take up rhetorical arms and ride to the rescue of Christmas.
They include Los Angeles columnist Joel Stein — see his article in the Dec. 11 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — and Toward Tradition’s Rabbi Daniel Lapin.
To most Jews, the prospect of a vast, entrenched Christian majority viewing itself as persecuted victim is comic and implausible. Such perceived threats against American Christians have the same substance as the witchcraft of 1600s Salem, Mass. But it really is no joke.
This paranoid, faux-victim perspective presents a growing menace to all non-Christians. Jews should fight this twisted view with the rapier of logical discourse, not misplaced empathy.
And this effort should begin with a firm reminder that the United States is a country primarily of Christians, not a Christian country.
‘Want of charity’
We need look no further than our Constitution’s promise that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” to appreciate that it is not our government’s job to promote Christian theology.
Ironically, this constraint on government was wrought of the sufferings of Christians. As the Sept. 26, 1787, Independent Gazetteer of Philadelphia observed: “Want of charity of the religious systems of Europe and of justice in their political governments were the principal moving causes which drove the emigrants of various countries to the American continent.”
This history of internecine Christian conflict prompted Thomas Jefferson to espouse his belief that “religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God” and his desire for the “wall of separation between church and State.” This concept, he believed, was embodied in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to our Constitution.
Required governmental neutrality toward religion should not be mistaken for hostility. Yet a growing segment of American Christians views absence of governmental sponsorship as an attack.
Gripped by insecurity as inexhaustible as it is inexplicable, too many Christians feel assaulted if the Ten Commandments are not in courtrooms, prayers are not recited in public schools, tax dollars are not devoted to Christian instruction and crèches fail to decorate lawns of public buildings.
Opposition to governmental sponsorship of Christianity, however, is not the product of an atheistic, socialist or Jewish conspiracy. Such “secularism,” instead, is a cornerstone of our democracy, historically championed by both Christians and non-Christians.
Jews should proudly support such separation, particularly given our unhappy historical experience where it was absent.
This does not require that we become slaves to political correctness. A Christmas tree need not be called a holiday tree for it to lack religious meaning.
Neither the New Testament nor the writings of Christianity’s Church Fathers mention such a totem (or Rudolph or Santa, for that matter). So when the President lights the National Christmas Tree, I say … let it be.
A crèche, in contrast, reflects the substance of Christmas, rather than its trappings.
Accordingly, one does not belong on public property unless it has been transformed into a celebration of our nation’s religious diversity by an accompaniment of other religions’ symbols.
Likewise, if an explicitly religious anthem like Vivaldi’s “Gloria” is included in a public school concert along with others’ religious and secular songs, just sit back and enjoy the music. The Christmas Pageant/Holiday Concert is no government-sponsored evangelical effort.
This leaves us with the issue of the Christmas onslaught brought to us annually by retailers. But this is a celebration of capitalism, not of Christ.
It is no more a directive to accept the divinity of Jesus than the proliferation of Halloween tchochkes is an endorsement of the Wiccans’ Great Goddess.
And even if a retailer did choose to present a substantively religious display, the Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom grants that person, rather than a government, the right to such expression.
And what of Jews who join Christians in defense against a non-existent anti-Christmas war? Such misguided efforts help no one.
Instead, Jews should wean Christians from the notion that government’s failure to support their faith is antagonism rather than a blessing.
And then we can take pleasure in our Christian neighbors’ celebration of their faith for its own sake and our own.
Bradden C. Backer is an attorney who principally represents businesses in employment matters. He is a former board member and officer of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and former president of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations.
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