Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Finally, a voice of sanity from the Christian world regarding the fake "war on Christmas" being hyped for profit by the religious right. Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Faith in Public Life, two Christian non-profit groups, have started a campaign against the nonsense coming from the right and urging them to focus instead on caring for the poor and on socially responsible giving. Full text of their open letter below the fold:
For the past several years some media pundits and "culture warriors" have launched an aggressive campaign against a so-called "War on Christmas."Targeting department stores, local governments and school systems for replacing Merry Christmas with "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings," Bill O'Reilly and John Gibson of Fox News have led the charge against what they call a "secular progressive agenda" determined to drive religion out of the public square. William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights ominously warns of "cultural fascists" taking over Christmas.
It's time for a ceasefire in the Christmas culture wars.
As Americans of faith, we also see a dangerous assault on the true meaning of this sacred day. But our outrage has little to do with a few examples of people saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." We believe the real assault on Christmas is how a season of peace, forgiveness and goodwill has been sidelined by a focus on excessive consumerism.
The powerful message Christ brings to the world is "good news for the poor." Instead, Christmas is being reduced to a corporate-sponsored holiday that idolizes commerce and materialism. Shopping and gift giving are meaningful traditions that can express the season's values, but perspective is lost when relentless advertising and maxed-out credit cards define the holiday. It's time to reclaim the virtue of shared sacrifice for the common good.
To focus on how department stores greet customers at a time when American soldiers are dying in Iraq and 37 million of our neighbors live in poverty is a distraction from the profound moral challenges we face in confronting the real threats to human dignity in our world.
We invite Messrs. O'Reilly, Gibson and Donohue to join us in a new campaign of civility and conscience that restores our focus on the common good during this holy season. Together we can change the culture � not with strident attacks or shouting matches on television -- but with an unwavering commitment to justice and peace for all of God's children.
Sr. Yvette Arnold, RGS
Leadership Teams, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Province of New YorkRev. Dr. Randall Balmer
Professor of American Religious History
Barnard College, Columbia UniversitySr. Barbara Beasley, RGS
Leadership Teams
Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Province of Mid-North AmericaRev. Jennifer Butler
Executive Director
Faith in Public LifeSr. Simone Campbell
Executive Director
Network, A National Catholic Social Justice LobbySr. Patricia Daly, OP
Executive Director
Tri-State Coalition for Responsible InvestmentRev. Derrick Harkins
Senior Pastor, Nineteenth Street Baptist Church
World Relief Board MemberFr. Jim Hug, S.J.
Executive Director
Center of ConcernAlexia Kelley
Executive Director
Catholics in Alliance for the Common GoodChris Korzen
Executive Director
Catholics UnitedSr. Marie Lucey, OSF
Assistant Director for Social Mission
Leadership Conference of Women ReligiousRev. Brian McLaren
Founder, Cedar Ridge Community Church, Spencerville, MDThomas P. Melady
Former U.S. Ambassador to Burundi, Uganda, and the Vatican
President Emeritus, Sacred Heart UniversityVincent J. Miller
Theology Department, Georgetown University
Author of Consuming ReligionSr. Carol Pregno, OLC
North American Union Sisters of Our Lady of CharityDavid Robinson
Executive Director
Pax Christi USAGlen H. Stassen
Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics
Fuller Theological Seminary
Bill Berkowitz at Talk2Action points out one big reason why the "war on Christmas" has become such an obsession on the right - because it makes money:
The "War on Christmas" apparently has been good for the bottom line of several conservative Christian organizations. In 2006, the American Family Association maintained that it sold more than 500,000 buttons and 125,000 bumper stickers bearing the slogan "Merry Christmas: It's Worth Saying." The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal aid group that boasts a network of some 900 lawyers standing ready to "defend Christmas," says it has moved about 20,000 "Christmas packs" - two legal pins and a three-page legal memo given for a $29 donation. And Liberty Counsel, a conservative law firm affiliated with the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, said it distributed for free 16,000 legal memos on celebrating Christmas.
Those free legal memos, naturally, bring in lots of donations from their followers, easily led into false fear by skillful demagogues.
Comments
Yes... yes... the infighting will weaken Christmas's resolve, allowing we, The Secular Progressive Cultural Liberation Front, to finally free December from the jolly grasp of Christianity!
And once we finish off Christmas we can focus on Traditional Marriage and then forcibly convert them to Islam.
Truly we are mightier than God.
Posted by: Frito | December 11, 2007 9:48 AM
Those three will most likely call the groups enemies of Satan and liberal nazis. Then Ann Coulter will step in and ignite a huge explosion of stupid that would rival any nuclear bomb.
Posted by: llDayo | December 11, 2007 9:52 AM
Yes!!! Finally a voice of reason. This is how I feel about Christmas, and a big part of the reason why I truly dread this time of year.
Posted by: Rev. AJB | December 11, 2007 10:11 AM
I accidentally watched a few minutes of O'Reilly the other night and I think I caught a bit of the exchange between nitwit Bill and a woman from this group. I thought I heard him say that they won the War on Christmas (patent pending) and that people like her would have lost it. Anyone know if I heard right? It doesn't seem to be -- if O'Reilly is declaring the War on Christmas (patent pending) over, then why is he still talking about it?
Posted by: Greg | December 11, 2007 10:25 AM
My mom recently told me, quite proudly, that her church had a campaign going which involves saying "Merry Christmas" every time store personnel said "Happy Holidays". My first thought, which I didn't voice, was "So your church is celebrating the birth of your religion's savior by engaging in snarkiness?" I'm going to be forwarding this on to her and the pastor at her church.
Posted by: Jason I. | December 11, 2007 10:44 AM
I wonder if Bill O. sings this in church.
"And they'll know we are Christians by our hate, by our hate ...."
Posted by: Jim Ramsey | December 11, 2007 10:47 AM
Bunch'a commies ...
Posted by: Ericb | December 11, 2007 10:59 AM
Jason I-I told my church I'd rather hear a heartfelt "Happy Holidays" from someone than a fake "Merry Christmas." And I'll respond with a "Merry Christmas," not to be snarkey, but just because that is what I say at this time of the year.
Posted by: Rev. AJB | December 11, 2007 11:07 AM
Splitters!!! We of the Peoples' Front for Secular Progressivism Are the "True" warriors against Christian Seasonal Jolliness!
'Scuse me. One of PZ's posts has me in a bit of a Pythonesque mood.
Posted by: Chuck C | December 11, 2007 11:43 AM
Posted by: Taz | December 11, 2007 2:52 PM
Fake? Fake?
Blast you man, are you a Canadian or a Draft Dodger or something? Fake war on Christmas indeed.
Sincerely,
Corporal Jimmy James Bettencourt
Footsoldier in the War on Christmas
Posted by: JJ Bettencourt | December 11, 2007 3:04 PM
I was aghast yesterday as I listened to the people ahead of me in line at the post office discuss the war on Xmas.
The post office had a Christmas tree with white bows an lights and Christmas stockings up. White lights elsewhere. These idiots decided the fact that there was no red/green motif was a sign of the war on Christmas taken to the postal service level.
Really? There's a CHRISTMAS tree for crying out loud. I'm so sick of the "we're the oppressed majority" meme I could puke. If I eat enough cookies ahead of time, they may just get their red and green motif after all.
Posted by: gex | December 11, 2007 3:35 PM
I just can't imagine being so thin-skinned as to take offense at any greeting or good wishes, let alone thinking that not being greeted in EXACTLY the right way somehow constitutes persecution. I mean, grow up a little!
Posted by: MS | December 11, 2007 5:36 PM
Without a trace of irony, I might add.
Posted by: Turcano | December 11, 2007 6:14 PM
Why should anyone be concerned about what Bill O'Reilly, John Gibson, or William Donhue think about anything? On his radio show, O'Reilly invited Al-Qaeda to attack San Francisco (why he was not fired from his radio show for this "invitation" is beyond me). John Gibson believes there is a "liberal plot to ban Christmas." When Mark Foley told the media that as a teenager, he was molested by a priest, Donohue put out a press release that implied Foley enjoyed the molestation. These three men are clowns and creeps.
Posted by: daniel rotter | December 11, 2007 8:35 PM
There is no war on Christmas. There is a right-wing war on inclusiveness, which they like to spin as a war on Christmas.
ISTM that Christians would be the most vocal critics of Christmas, given that it means spending a quarter of every year celebrating Mammon.
Posted by: Bobby | December 11, 2007 9:25 PM
I can't take anything that Bill O'Reilly says seriously. My prediction is that when this whole "War on Christmas" nonsense runs out of steam.......Bill's next topic......"The War on Easter".
Posted by: Cheddar | December 11, 2007 9:51 PM
"We invite Messrs. O'Reilly, Gibson and Donohue to join us in a new campaign of civility and conscience that restores our focus on the common good during this holy season."
Yeah. Good luck with that.
Posted by: Gerry L | December 12, 2007 12:08 AM
Hmm, now, those are Christians I can relate to!
Posted by: Christophe Thill | December 12, 2007 4:46 AM
It's all just so stupid.
Back when I was an uncritical thinking christian (I got better) I use to say "Happy Holidays" because I was aware that there were people different than me. AND THAT WAS OK. There were Jews and I wanted them to enjoy their holidays as well. I felt absolutly no need to make them worship my way.
I also knew that just a few days later was New Years Day and in school we were off for teh whole duration. So there were TWO HOLIDAYS in that span of time. So it made total sense to wish somebody Happy HOlidays since there were two of them.
But among the stupidity of this whole thing is that the whole "War on Christmas" idiocy is based on the fallacy that you're belief system is being attacked by the mere fact that some people exist who don't agree with you. It's as if they think that the very existance of jews, atheist, muslims, and anyone non-christian is a frontal attack on them. "Oh let's not say 'Happy Holidays', that would acknowledge the existance of somebody different than me."
Posted by: Greg B | December 12, 2007 4:56 PM
Argh, there's another city hall - manger scene controversy. This time it's in WI, in my backyard.
The city council president and VP, as well as the mayor, erected a manger scene over the entrance to city hall.
The CC pres is making asinine comments, too - local media is referring to him "poking atheists with a stick" and how his motivation is to pay all of them back for causing trouble in a smaller town this year over a similar manger scene. It's crazy. The guy needs to be smacked in the head with the Constitution, and maybe a few court rulings too...
http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=7489125
Posted by: Ms. S | December 12, 2007 10:34 PM
Interestingly, there have been some historical attempts to ban Christmas in the US, and one over here in England (This was pre-UK). The motivation was indeed religious, but Christians. Here, the protestant Cromwell banned Christmas because he thought it too Catholic in origin and without biblical backing. In the US, it was the puritans - again because of a lack of biblical backing, combined with a view that the correct way to celebrate Christ was by quiet prayer and fasting rather than by tarnishing his name with an annual party.
Posted by: Suricou Raven | December 13, 2007 3:50 AM