ICC Note: The following opinion piece by the president of the American Family Association provides an insightful look into the debate over a “war on Christmas” in the United States. President Tim Wildmon responds to comments made by leading Christians that belittle complaints of a war on Christmas, pointing out evidence of the cultural battle taking place and concluding firmly that a war is taking place to marginalize Christmas and Christian teachings in society. 
12/10/2014 United States (Charisma) – Christmas is the most notable day on the calendar where the general American public is reminded of the life of Jesus Christ. That is why some want to do away with it.
Someone sent me an article from USA Today that has this headline: “Not All Christians Believe There Is a ‘War on Christmas.'” The article quotes Christian leaders and authors saying they disagree with those of us who believe there is a war on Christmas.
I could give a litany of examples of exactly how the war on Christmas has manifested itself the last decade or so. From nativity scenes no longer being allowed on the courthouse square to schools changing Christmas break to “winter” break, from Christmas parades being changed to “winter” parades to children being told they can no longer sing carols during their “winter” program, etc. There is an intentional effort by some secularists to purge the word Christmas from our culture. Whether it will be successful or not remains to be seen. But it’s discouraging to see some fellow Christians say, “Who cares?”
The very word itself—Christmas—is a reminder that this particular holiday is the celebration of Jesus Christ. Those who promote political correctness and extreme multiculturalism resent this because it is exclusionary in their view.
Some Christians are willing to go along with that line of thinking. For example, USA Today quoted Dan Scott, senior pastor of Christ Church in Nashville, who said this: “We really need a way to treat the public square as the public square and private realms as private realms and not feel demonized because we come from a different perspective.” In other words, Christians should keep Christmas in our homes and churches—the “private realms”—but we can’t expect the general public to be accepting of Christmas any longer because it promotes Christianity.
Christmas is the exaltation of one particular religion that makes a claim of being the only true religion, and that is unacceptable to the movers and shakers of contemporary American popular culture, elitist academia and many in the mainstream media, news and entertainment. Therefore, Christmas must be replaced with words and ideas that are broad and general so as to knock Christmas from its traditional place in America’s public life. It is an attempt to define Christianity as no more important to the history and fabric of America than is, say, Hinduism.
This is what these people (often called secular progressives) believe, and evidently a number of Christians agree with that position. Subsequently, these Christians find more fault with their fellow believers—those of us who want to keep Christ in Christmas and Christmas in America—than they do with those who want to eradicate Christmas.
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The war on Christmas is really part of the larger war on Christianity, and it concerns me that smart people like Rev. Scott and Evans don’t seem to get that.
Then there was the quote from Daniel Darling, vice president of communications for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. The article said this about his position: “He [Darling] said on Friday that some media outlets are overstating the war on Christmas debate, and very few Christians actually engage in it. ‘We advise people that, rather than trying to force that weary Wal-Mart worker to say “Merry Christmas” against company policy, how about we be the bearers of joy. Instead of taking offense, say, “Here’s the story, we’re the joyful ones. We’re the ones that have the greatest story.”‘”
Darling, like Evans, has created a false caricature of his fellow Christians who want to keep Christmas alive in the public square. The image Darling creates is one of a Christian bully. Who does this browbeating of store employees? No one I know. (By the way, Wal-Mart does not forbid its employees from wishing customers a “Merry Christmas.”)
What the American Family Association (AFA) and some other groups do is produce a Naughty & Nice list of companies that do or don’t allow Christmas in their stores. Due to the efforts of AFA, many household name corporations have put Christmas back in their promotions, advertisements and stores over the last few years. The Gap was the latest store to write AFA about how they were doing this. This is a good thing. Christians should applaud Gap and others when they refuse to yield to political correctness and recognize that if not for the Christmas gift-buying season, many of them would not be in business.
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