Do Christians Own December?
It seems that right after Thanksgiving, the winter holiday season officially begins. These days, the holiday season usually starts before Halloween is even over. The thing is that it seems that fundamentalist Christians and even a growing number of mainstream Christians seem to think that this season is the Christmas only season.
For the last three years, the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia has put up a winter display next to the Crèche and the Menorah in front of the Chester County Courthouse in Pennsylvania. Last year some people on the street were interviewed about the winter display and some claimed that we should have put up our display at another time of year because December is the month of Christmas. Fox News commentator, Father Morris claimed that we were trying to “steal Christmas.”
And just last week, the Washington Post’s ‘On Faith’ section asked if this is another front in the “War on Christmas.” As if there actually is a war on Christmas and as if there was already other fronts in such a war. How ridiculous. The fact is that every time an atheist wants to celebrate the winter season, we are told that December belongs to Christians. The irony is that Christians stole Christmas from the pagans to begin with.
Are Christians really that insecure and arrogant that they feel the need to take over an entire month and to claim that only celebrations of their God are allowed during that month? More importantly, are we going to let them?
Author’s Note: I posted a response to the Washington Post’s ‘On Faith’ question on the Examiner.
Filed under: Christmas, culture war, People of Reason, Religion, Tree of Knowledge
