The Holly and the Oy Veh

I can't tell you how many times I've started a post on the current Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays "controversy" -- as contrived a thing as ever there was --then stopped in frustration because it was just making me too furious to write a coherent sentence.

I am angry at Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, the American Family Association and the other Usual Suspects -- some of the cheapest media whores ever to parade their sorry booty in the public square -- who prove time and again that they will do and say absolutely anything to push their political agendas, including betray the Christ they claim to defend, in shameful ways that make Judas Iscariot look positively saintly in comparison. I am angry at the media; why is it that, for instance, whenever the television news or a talking-head public affairs program wants to explore some aspect of "Whither Christianity?" they interview a Usual Suspect? Who died and made these people spokespeople for all of Christianity? It's because a lot of journalists today are lazy, and uninformed about religious matters in general, and employed by profit-driven conglomerates that push sensationalism and simple-mindedness because that's cheaper to produce and more popular with the great unwashed. And about them...the Usual Suspects' mindless zombies, able to be whipped into a froth by hysterical, the-sky-is-falling/the-heathen-are-coming direct mail and Kristian broadcasting. It's enough to make a person want to walk away and become a proponent of Seinfeld's Festivus...not to mention making rude suggestions about new, painful uses for the Festivus pole.

And I'm not alone. Usually when I find myself agreeing with a Cal Thomas column, I have to glance outside and make sure that the stars aren't falling from the heavens and that four spectral horsemen aren't galloping over the horizon. But today in his column, even he takes issue with his coreligionists' goofy and cognitively dissonant fixation on the "Merry Christmas" issue in light of the real Christmas story -- albeit in his own sneery, let's-leave-the-pagans-to-their-vile-ways manner.

But today I found one of the best responses to the Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays public discussion. And it was in a letter to the editor in one of the northern-Lower-Peninsulan Michigan newspapers that I glance at from time to time. You can read it here . Thank you, Pastor, for providing a sane and theologically sound voice to this conversation.

Postscript: Today our Legislature -- you know, the guys and gals entrusted with promoting the public good, facing just about the worst economic crisis to hit Michigan since The Great Fire as well as a host of other crucial issues that speak to future quality of life here -- passed a "symbolic" bill declaring that, from henceforth, any decorated tree placed outside the Capitol Building will be officially designated a Christmas tree, not a holiday tree. Well, I know I'll sleep more soundly now. Sigh.