Count Me A Conscientious Objector In The Christmas Wars (2009 11 29)

It’s Christmastime, the season for urgent cries from Christian groups who want to defend the holiday
from the forces of secularism.

Typical is the press release I got from the American Family Association threatening a boycott of Old
Navy, Gap, and Banana Republic because their holiday advertising wasn’t sufficiently Christmas-y.
When Gap officials said they had advertisements in the works that were Christmas oriented, the AFA
took credit and suspended the boycott.

“As a gesture of our ‘good will to men,’ we have decided to suspend our boycott of Gap and its
divisions until we see the content of this new commercial,” said Bryan Fischer, the AFA's director of
issues analysis. “We firmly believe that Gap is responding to an enormous amount of pressure from the
AFA network. We're happy that they're apparently keeping Christ and Christmas in the Christmas
season.”

I consider myself a “fellow warrior” with some of these folk. By that I mean that we agree on many
things, and I would normally join them in their “culture war” fights. But on this one, please allow me to
offer a dissenting view to the prevailing “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” mentality.

First of all, Jesus is most certainly not the reason for the orgiastic spending spree modern Christmas has
become. I certainly think anyone should be able to say “Merry Christmas” if he wants to. But given
what this holiday has become, there’s a part of me – a big part of me -- that wants to keep the Jesus I
worship as far away from this commercial debauchery as possible.
Secondly, there are the words themselves. “Christmas” is derived from “Christ’s Mass,” an expression
first recorded in the 11th century. “Holiday” is a word derived from “holy day,” an expression that
likely has an even more ancient, and no less religious, derivation. Indeed, the phrase “Merry
Christmas” was unknown until the 16th century, and it connoted the idea of a Christmas that was --
shall we say -- festive. In other words, “Merry Christmas” may have been a medieval euphemism for
“bottoms-up.”
These historical associations may have been why the Puritans banned Christmas. In fact, it is ironic that
many of the defenders of Christmas, who often venerate our founding fathers, forget that one of the
deciding battles of the Revolutionary War took place when George Washington forced his troops
across the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776. He attached Hessian troops at Trenton, routing
them in a battle that lasted only an hour. The myth spread that the Hessian troops were unprepared for
the battle because they were drunk from their celebration of Christmas. It’s likely that this story is not
strictly true, but it caught on because of the American and Puritan disdain for the celebration of
Christmas.
My third reason for sitting out the Christmas Wars is simply the overall shrillness of the conversation.
Several years ago, Tampa pastor Paula White – who has since found herself under investigation by Sen.
Charles Grassley and the Senate Finance Committee – initiated the “To Hell With Happy Holidays”
campaign, an attempt to stamp out the phrase “Happy Holidays.” It seems ironic in the extreme that
anyone would think it shows the love of Christ by saying “To Hell With Happy Holidays.” But these
are the depths to which many have fallen.
With all these reasons not to engage in the Christmas Wars, why do Christian groups insist on this
annual campaign, year after year? I think the answer to that question may be, alas, crass
commercialism. A 2006 story from Religion News Service reported that the American Family
Association sold more than 500,000 buttons and 125,000 bumper stickers bearing the slogan “Merry
Christmas: It’s Worth Saving.” The Alliance Defense Fund sold about 20,000 “Christmas Packs” that
same year. The packs, available for a suggested $29 donation, included a three-page legal memo and
two lapel pins.
The bottom line here is, well, the bottom line: the Christmas Wars are a financial windfall for the
organizations that whip up this frenzy. The Christmas Wars have become, ironically, the ultimate
commercialization of Christmas.
I’m not saying that there are times when we Christians shouldn’t stand up for our rights, but when we
fire all our weapons in such a meaningless skirmish, we alienate potential allies, and we have no
ammunition for the battles that matter.
Huge challenges face our culture and the Christian church. Abortion, pornography, same-sex marriage.
These are battles worth fighting, battles we must win, battles with too few warriors in the fight. And
we’re wasting our time with “Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays”? Our priorities are badly out of
whack.
So when it comes to the culture war over “Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays," count me as a
conscientious objector. I’m not a pacifist. It’s just that I’ve got more important battles to fight.

Warren Cole Smith is the publisher of “The Charlotte World.”