I love this story by Joe Garofali in the Christmas Eve edition of the SF Chronicle:
Gift rift: Evangelicals split over plan to ban presents
Conservative religious leaders are so pleased with their campaign against the “war on Christmas” that they’re going to rev it up next year.
Look for more lawyers ready to pounce on Christmas disses, they say, more teachers ready to tattle on silencings of “Silent Night” and more boycotts of stores for yanking the “Christmas” out of the season.
The whole thing is nothing but a Weapon of Mass Distraction hatched by the paid liars at Fox News to keep the mindless base enraged while the kleptocrats continue their mission of stealing America from its citizens.
Now the dreaded American Family Association wants to get a good deal more literal about this religious holiday:
The American Family Association is suggesting that adults buy nothing from stores for each other next year. Sliding an Xbox 360 to a child would be OK, said association president Tim Wildmon, but adults should funnel their consumer cash to a charity that helps the poor — preferably one friendly to “Christian values” such as the Salvation Army.
Good luck with that, Tim. You are going to run smack into the true religion of mainstream America: materialism.
I’m really glad to see these guys put their money where their moralistic mouths are (although I’d be interested in seeing how much Tim Wildmon and dad Donald give to the poor from their own personal fortunes), but what I’m really glad to see is another rift in the unholy alliance of corporatists and religionists that has taken my beloved country do far down the ugly, toxic and inhuman path we’ve been on for most of my lifetime.
Update 12/26/05: “War on Christmas” quarterback (and, it must be noted, profiteering author) John Gibson engages in an epistolary debate on beliefnet with Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. An excerpt from one of Lynn’s letters:
America contains 2,000 different faiths and 20 million freethinkers, a rich biodiversity of theological and philosophical viewpoints. Unfortunately, a relatively small band of members of the Christian faith seem insistent on being officially, and always, on the top of the hill. We might call them “Christian Holiday Triumphalists.” They are not about to ever let another faith even come close to getting the acknowledgment their faith receives. If it is December, this is the time to celebrate “Christmas,” not anything else. They know that they are in the majority, and whoever dares to mess with them will feel their wrath.