Black Friday - Let the "War on Christmas" begin!

Well Thanksgiving has passed, and Black Friday is upon us. The official hyper-commercialized Christmas shopping season has officially kicked off, where in the next 30 days or so, Americans will spend about $66 Billion on Christmas gifts (more than the GDP of 130 countries on this planet). And the focus on Christmas shopping has crept all the way back to Halloween now (and prior), with radio stations playing 24 hours of Christmas music in October and stores stocking Christmas decorations right next to ghost and ghoul costumes. All of this in an effort to get Americans to spend, spend, spend more money, sooner, sooner, sooner. It's good for the economy right? Another advancing army in the broadening War on Christmas.

But there's another aspect of this "War on Christmas" that is getting a lot of national press and endless hours of debate on the trash cable channels: it's the growing effort to have religious symbols (mainly Christian nativity scenes) removed from public property. Many of these symbols have adorned local courthouse lawns or public parks for decades. A quick google search pulls up over 1 Million hits of stories of nativity scenes being removed. The outrage! We're a Christian nation right? We were founded on Christian principles right? Why should we let those liberal tyrants dictate to us what we have been doing for years! You would think that I, being a Christian (Catholic), would wholeheartedly back these arguments and defend these nativity scenes. You'd be wrong. :)

Here are the common arguments made by Christians, and my take:

) "Christmas is a Christian holiday, and it is being destroyed"

Not true actually. Christmas was a pagan winter holiday celebrated in Europe on December 25th long before Christians did. Even the Catholic Encyclopedia lists numerous versions of Christmas going back to the Egyptians in 200Ad. Scholars debate this today, but many say it was Pope Julius 1 around 350AD who moved the celebration of the birth of Christ to December 25th, essentially in an attempt to overshadow and do away with the pagan holiday. In fact, did you know observance of Christmas was OUTLAWED by Puritans in the U.S. back in the 1600's?? That's right, CHRISTmas was banned by Christians! Christians started altering the original Christmas long, long ago.

) "We've been putting a nativity scene on that public property for decades, why change it now?"

The United States is a constantly evolving organism. Millions of Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants over the last 20 - 30 years have brought a much more diverse collection of religious observances. Despite the fact that "Christians" of hundreds of different denominations still make up the biggest block of religion in this country, that number is shrinking. Not only are there more and more non-Christian religions in this country, fewer and fewer Americans are identifying themselves with any religion. So despite being the largest, Christians' influence is shrinking. Besides, none of us will get a chance to vote on religious symbols on public property, because it's already covered in the U.S. Constitution, so size doesn't matter.

) "The Separation of Church and State is being abused"

This is the meat of my passion on this subject. I don't want "The State" meddling in religion, ever; in my religion or anyone else's. By allowing religious symbols on publicly (government) owned property, we are allowing the government into our personal religious lives. If we allow nativity scenes, then laws will be needed to give equal time for other religions. Can't happen: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.... So as our country continues to evolve to make room for additional religious observances, our forefathers had the foresight to make this aspect of the Constitution foolproof and relevant for many years to come. Don't mess with it!

So to all my fellow Christians out there constantly lamenting this loss of Christian symbols on public property, get over it. In fact, embrace it. People like me and others who believe they have no place on public property are doing it for you, not against you. Your religious beliefs are YOUR business, not the State's.

Now if they start outlawing religious symbols on private property (arbitrarily on religious grounds), then I'll be getting upset.

So enjoy your Christmas and your winter holidays, however you do in your particular ways. Our commonalities in this country far outweigh our differences, so let's put the swords and AK-47s away and end this talk of a "War on Christmas."