I personally don’t mind seeing religious symbolism in public places (from any tradition), but I can see why some do, especially those on the wrong side of power. Surely it is fair to protect some public space from evangelism. Even a cursory reading of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution undermines the Right's annual, manufactured whine-fest.
What I do resent is the perversion of those traditions through commercialization ruthlessly injected into our lives by way of unrelenting corporate advertising, product placement all over the public square, and the consumerism-driven cultural amnesia of our time. I’m certainly not moved by the crocodile tears of the likes of Fox News. Cynically trafficking in fear and resentment in the name of Jesus sounds pretty close to genuine blasphemy.
It is the market that is attacking Christmas. Indeed, the market has all but conquered Christmas. If Christmas has switched loyalties, it is at the behest of its new master that it has become imperial in its ambitions.
There is not a War on Christmas, it might be said, but a War of Christmas.
Jon Stewart says Christmas has laid siege to other holidays. Black Friday started a day earlier this year (on what used to be known as Thanksgiving) and lasted a week. Christmas trappings now go on sale well before Halloween. The cultural imperative to find the next cool thing — advanced by many on the Web — becomes focused during this season: find the best trappings (on Thanksgiving Day, if necessary), find the hottest gift (fight for it if it is the last one on the shelf), and find the best price.
There is a war under way. But it is not about whether a Christmas tree can be mounted here or there. It is about whether the market will define the sacred.
Advent invites Christians to do exactly the opposite of what the Christmas shopping season urges: slow down, get ready for something out of the ordinary, look to the most important promises of God and neighbor, and ponder what gifts we have to offer.
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