It is said that on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington inspected his troops and remarked, "I don't know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they frighten me." The incessant and increasingly unhinged "War on Christmas" campaign is finally starting to scare the non-wingnut conservative movement.
Cal Thomas, a columnist who says that secretly buying favorable Iraqi press coverage is just dandy, is now wondering whether this whole "War on Christmas" nonsense is, well, nonsense. While not mentioning the culprits of this fear campaign by name, he opines that "the effort by some cable TV hosts and ministers to force commercial establishments into wishing everyone a 'Merry Christmas' might be more objectionable to the One who is the reason for the season than the 'Happy Holidays' mantra required by some store managers."
In other words, "cool it."
While I normally agree with Thomas on virtually nothing, I have to applaud his comments. It is gratifying to note that the campaign to push one particular version of Christmas on everyone else is rankling mainstream conservatives. Fox News (on which Thomas is a regular commentator) shamelessly incorporates "War on Christmas" rhetoric into more and more of its shows. Jerry Falwell unveiled a "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign" to drag into court anyone who dares disagree with them on any matter Christmas-y.
Even the Bush Administration is set upon by these self-anointed holy warriors. Some of the wiggier denizens of the right wing attacked the White House for sending out 1.4 million "Happy Holiday" cards instead of "Merry Christmas" cards. (Note to these holier-than-thou types: There are many millions of non-Christian Americans, even non-Christian Republicans. It's our country too, you know.)
It's about time that other American conservatives tell their ever more rabid compatriots to knock it off.
One can't help wondering if God really cares whether the cashier at Home Depot says "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays." One would think He cares more about keeping people fed, clothed and housed rather than wasting time and energy on this non-issue. I'm also fairly sure there's nothing in the Bible, Jewish or Christian, that says "thou shalt shove thy religious values down everyone else's throats and loudly threaten everyone who worships in their own way."
WWJD, indeed.
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