Last night, in what is becoming a bit of a tradition, the Grillmaster and friends got an early jump on the Christmas season by stuffing ourselves with ham and egg nog, watching 'Charlie Brown Christmas' and 'The Grinch,' and trying to convince ourselves that the wintry mix falling from the sky was actually proper snow. I hope everyone gets the chance to have such moments of joy, friendship, and fullness as the holiday season progresses.
There is yet another rite of the season kicking off as well: the radical right's shrill cries that the evil, baby Jesus-hating liberals are trying to take the Christ out of Christmas. Bill O'Reilly makes it a particular interest of his, which clearly indicates how seriously one ought to take it. Evangelicals target Target, Catholics watch Wal-Mart, and Speaker Hastert takes the firm stand that the blue spruce in the Capitol ain't no damn Holiday Tree. It's a Christmas tree, just like the one that Jesus was born under!
Now PC can obviously go too far. It's just plain silly to deny the fact that the tree in the Capitol is only there because of Christmas. Call a spade a spade, and let's go sing carols. Or even better, let's talk about how Christ might spend the government's money during the season of his birth, rather than what he would call the odd tree that for some reason has come to mark it. John Podesta hits this point out of the park in a very succinct way here.
The whole Christ in Christmas bruhaha is most interesting as a perfect type-case of what the radical right does best: drum up fear and cultivate unrealistic feelings of victimization. God is under attack! The gays will destroy marriage! The evolution will destroy our children's minds! And the taxes will destroy our ability to buy REALLY BIG inflatable Santa's! Funny how that last one always manages to find its way into the mix.
The message of the birth of Christ is a powerful one. Anybody who watches Linus, trusty blanket in hand, recite the Gospel passages from memory knows that. Wal-Mart's marketing strategy has absolutely no impact on the reality and power of that message! Hell, I might even feel a little better about myself if Christmas were entirely distinct from megastores and elected officials of any sort.
