A War Not Just about Christmas

U.S. Christians feel forced to take a stand against growing secularization.

Once united by the Christian legacy bequeathed to it by the Founding Fathers, over the past few years America has spent every Christmas divided into two camps: Those who back the militant liberals, who ban children from singing carols in the name of promoting diversity and invent secular names for Christmas symbols, and supporters of the conservative element, who argue for the need to defend the festival’s Christian character.

This year, the so-called war on Christmas was launched from Rhode Island. The state’s governor, Lincoln Chafee, one of a rare breed of liberal Republicans, referred to the Christmas tree outside the State House as a “holiday tree.” This semantic change sparked protests from thousands of residents who called up the governor’s office to protest against attempts to secularize Christmas. “He is trying to suppress our religion,” Ken Schiano told reporters from the AP agency during the switch-on of the Christmas tree lights.

Mr. Chafee explained that his decision had been based on a desire to promote religious tolerance, which, he believes, requires the separation of church and state. “At home, it’s a Christmas tree, but as the representative of the whole of Rhode Island I have to respect all the state’s citizens,” stressed the governor. The state has one of the largest proportions of Roman Catholics anywhere in the United States. Timothy Reilly, a representative of the local diocese, said that the true meaning of the Christmas festival is becoming ever more forgotten, particularly the most important thing of all, the birth of Jesus.

Last week, Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly revealed that, this year, congressmen wishing to send cards to voters to boast about their achievements can do so for free, i.e. at the taxpayer’s expense, provided that they wish them a happy festive period and not a Merry Christmas.

Catholics risk being seen as racist

The dispute between secular liberals and Christians, however, goes some way beyond a simple disagreement over what to call a Christmas tree or Christmas per se. “This is war,” said 63-year-old Cardinal Raymond Burke, the former Archbishop of St. Louis and now Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, drawing the lines of battle between “a culture of secularization, which is considerably strong in our country,” and “the Christian culture, which played a key role during the first 200 years of the United States.”

A few weeks ago, Cardinal Burke told the Catholic News Agency (CNA) that he could envisage a situation in the future in which Christians in the U.S. are arrested for defending their faith. He believes that the Church in the U.S. may well end up being accused of conducting “illegal activities” such as “preaching Catholic doctrine on human sexuality.” He is therefore urging Christians to defend their inherent moral rights, particularly in matters relating to the defense of life and family.

Prison for the religious?

Professor Robert George from Princeton University told Rzeczpospolita: “The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution explicitly defends the right to ‘free speech’ and the ‘free exercise of religion.’ These rules ensure a certain degree of protection, but it is limited: nobody will be thrown into prison for preaching their moral or religious beliefs. However, Cardinal Burke is right to be concerned that, should the advocates of sexual liberalism gain full legal and political backing, then the Church, Catholics and followers of other religions may suffer, with their views on marriage and sexual morality leading to their rights being restricted.” He says that the liberals are keen to portray the proclamation of Judeo-Christian views on sex and marriage as “hate speech” and are comparing them to racist views.

If this perception becomes the officially accepted view, Catholic organizations (and those of other religions) may find themselves subjected to various restrictions in matters such as educational accreditation. “What’s more, we have now seen cases of people losing their jobs, both in the public and private sector, for having publicly expressed their opposition to views promoting sexual liberalism with regard to marriage or homosexual behavior,” explains Professor George, a respected expert on constitutional law, civil liberties and the philosophy of law and one of the most influential Christian thinkers in the U.S.