As recounted by John O'Sullivan in National Review, "the Spirit of Scrooge is abroad in the land seeking a hostile takeover of the Christmas message." And the anti-Christmas discrimination virus is spreading to the secular workplace as well.

The high priests of political correctness are ready to offer professional advice and consultation on how to avoid offending anyone during the holidays. A Minneapolis-based firm known as ProGroup offers advice to Fortune 500 companies on diversity issues. As reported in the Salt Lake Tribune, ProGroup is highly sensitive to the "December dilemma." ProGroup president Myrna Marofsky insists that all celebrations must be inclusive. Christmas music must be replaced with "seasonal" music. The prevailing decorations should symbolize winter, not any specific holiday. Santa Claus is banned as overtly Christian, and Christmas carols are completely out of bounds.

Fraser Nelson, executive director of the Disability Law Center in Salt Lake City said that a Christmas tree is symbolically equivalent to a cross. "When I walk in the door of the Utah State Capitol and I see a Christmas tree in the rotunda, I am personally offended...It doesn't belong in the workplace and it doesn't belong in public buildings."

The end of the year will be celebrated by the ProGroup staff with an Italian dinner. Of course, participants might well complain that this is nation-specific and exclusionary in its ethnic identification. Why not Chinese? What about those offended by pasta?

Paganism Returns

In an effort to distance December celebrations from Christmas, overtly pagan symbols and references have been brought back into the picture. The presence of "Grandfather Frost" and references to the holiday as a "winter festival," have been joined to a New Age embrace of the winter solstice as the heart of seasonal celebration. This re-paganization is, of course, what partially fills the vacuum when the secularist agenda has pushed Christmas out of the picture. This effort is not likely to succeed across the culture, but it is a powerful symbol of secular forces at work. As John O'Sullivan argues: "Attempts to make [Christmas] a celebration of season or snow or mere meteorology will fail--but there is a danger that they will succeed in annoying most Americans to the point where they will wish others a Merry Christmas not from merriment and kindness but as an act of irritation, defiance and aggression."

Cultural opposition to Christmas is but one representation of a fundamental shift in American society. This shift has not occurred on its own. A secular elite, fueled by hostility to historic Christianity, now insists that America surrender Christmas as a public celebration.

We have reached a truly remarkable moment when wishing someone "Merry Christmas" constitutes a bold act of Christian witness.

Albert Mohler is an author, speaker and President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. This article first appeared on Crosswalk.com's Weblog page.