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16 December 2005

Not-So-Happy Holidays

Religion and politics became ever more entangled this month as the religious right attacked political leaders for anti-Christmas sentiments. President Bush felt the heat as well; he was widely criticized for sending "Holiday Cards" rather than "Christmas Cards" to thousands of supporters this season. The President and First Lady explained that the cards were an attempt to express good cheer to people of all faiths; the religious right saw the cards as further evidence of Bush's bowing to leftist secularism. As Bill O'Reilly, host of the O'Reilly Factor, says, "This Christmas madness will not stop until traditional Americans hold the anti-Christmas forces accountable. If you do that, Christmas will return to the marketplace and to the public square. If you do nothing, the Christmas tradition will diminish to be replaced by the winter holiday tradition."

This story is interesting not for its ridiculousness but for the fact that politicians and businesses are responding to the pressure. Many retailers are putting "Christmas" back into their advertisements and some communities are reaffirming that their tree really is a "Christmas" tree. Has the Christian right gone too far? Have we crossed the line set out by the First Amendment more than 200 years ago? According to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in Lynch v. Donnely (1984), "The Establishment Clause prohibits government from making adherence to a religion relevant in any way to a person's standing in the political community." Are Christians, by demanding that governments and government officials celebrate their holiday, also demanding special standing in the political community?

The quotation from Bill O'Reilly can be found at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,177145,00.html.

Posted by Traci Burch at December 16, 2005 4:43 PM