The 'War on Christmas' Comes Under Attack

(Dec. 18) -- Only 7 culture-war-fighting days left until Dec. 25. The annual conflict over the season of peace is raging again -- but lately, with an added twist.

As predictably as Santa appearing at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and other conservative pundits have been cranking out War on Christmas reports. A few dispatches from the battlefront: "Why do they loathe the Baby Jesus?"; The Christmas Atheists Are Back; Why the Left Hates Christmas.

Do the clerks say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" where you shop? Focus on the Family's Stand for Christmas site lets customers rank retailers. It has Gap and Best Buy listed as the most offensive and Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's the most Christmas-friendly. The American Family Association's Naughty or Nice list is color-coded -- with green for stores deemed to be "for Christmas," yellow for those "marginalizing Christmas" and red for those "against Christmas."

Just as predictable is the backlash -- the War on the War on Christmas.

"To me, nothing invokes the Christmas spirit better than war -- the culture war, that is. What would Advent be without some good ol' fashioned us against them?" wrote True/Slant's E.D. Kain. The irony, he said, is that "the same sorts who are fighting the culture war on behalf of Christmas, are the sort of Christians who would have fit in quite well with the Puritans" -- those dour folks who actually managed to outlaw Christmas celebrations in England and the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the mid-17th century.

Tina Dupuy, another True/Slant contributor, noted that commerce, not faith, seems to be the focus of the Christmas warriors.

"The War on Christmas is a weird hybrid of requesting only the proper kind of exploitation of a sacred holy day. The threat of not adhering to the request isn't one of spiritual punishment, it's of economic condemnation," Dupuy said.

BeliefNet's Idol Chatter blog made the same point: "The question is why the typical Christmas scene is taking place in a store in the first place. Why is it so important what incantation is uttered over a retail counter?" The answer: Christmas = shopping.

That is what has sparked a different kind of war on Christmas. Time magazine reported this week on the Advent Conspiracy movement, which aims to reduce commercialism and encourage charity at Christmastime.

"Christians get all bent out of shape over the fact that someone didn't say 'Merry Christmas' when I walked into the store. But why are we expecting the store to tell our story? That's just ridiculous," Portland, Ore., pastor Rick McKinley, one of the movement's founders, told the magazine.

Frustrated at having to compete with the Christmas shopping frenzy, McKinley and his fellow ministers started urging congregants a few years ago to spend less on presents and donate some of what they saved to a worthy cause.

With the help of viral YouTube videos (click here to watch) and a Facebook page, the Advent Conspiracy has spread to hundreds of churches in 17 countries and has raised millions of dollars to dig wells to provide clean water in developing countries. (The Philanthropy Project site, which is hosted by AOL, is another place to find charities that match your specific interests.)

War and Peace and Christmas

During the Vietnam War, the pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in West Chester, Pa., sometimes told a story about "Silent Night" at the end of Christmas Eve candlelight services.

Dr. Bob Young reminded the congregation that the carol "Stille Nacht" was originally written in German in the early 1800s, then translated into English a few decades later. In 1914, during the first Christmas Eve of World War I, the guns on both sides of the Western Front in Belgium fell miraculously silent. The Germans decorated trees with candles and sang a song the British troops knew well. The Brits responded in kind. In English and German, the Christmas carol echoed across the battlefield.

Stille nacht, heilige nacht ...

Silent night, holy night ...

The soldiers took time out from trying to kill each other, exchanged gifts, shared drinks and retrieved bodies from the "no man's land" to give fallen comrades proper burials. In some places, the Christmas Truce lasted a week. Then everyone went back to fighting "the war to end all wars."

At the end of the story, Dr. Young lit a candle and started passing the flame to worshippers, all holding their own small candles, as he led them in singing "Silent Night." When everyone lifted their candles, a radiant, golden light filled the old sanctuary. It was heavenly.

Sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace.

The War on Christmas is a promotional slogan. People are dying in real wars this Christmas season.

War is hell. Peace is heavenly.