Christmas is at the center of controversy once again as school boards, municipal governments, and shopping malls become arenas for battle in what has emerged as one of the most active fronts in the Culture War.
Writing in The Christian Science Monitor, Sara B. Miller underlines the urgency of this issue. "Across the country, a battle for the soul of the public square is being waged this holiday season. The question: Has the quest for inclusiveness gone so far down the road of sensitivity that children might be forgiven for not knowing what holiday many Americans will celebrate on Dec. 25?"
By now, most Christians have noticed the marginalization of Christmas during the commercial holiday season. Just a few years ago, the concern of many Christians was expressed in the motto, "Keep Christ in Christmas." These days, Christmas has itself become the issue, as some public schools have been purged of all Christmas symbols and the words "Merry Christmas" are now characterized as discriminatory and intolerant.
In some locales, Christmas has become front-page news. In Denver, Mayor John Hickenlooper decided to remove the lighted phrase "Merry Christmas" from the roof of the city's downtown City and County Building. The mayor had intended to replace the Christmas greeting with a more generic "Happy Holidays," but was forced to reverse course when his office was flooded with complaints and constituent calls.
"I didn't even think twice about it, and it's perhaps my inexperience as an elected official," Hickenlooper told the Associated Press. "To have it veer off in this other direction, where so many people felt being deprived of this tradition, was certainly not what we intended. It was so far from any of my intentions that it's easy for me to apologize."
The mayor's reversal of course stood in stark contrast to the decision of the Downtown Denver Partnership to prevent the Faith Bible Chapel from sponsoring a Christmas-themed float in the city's annual "Parade of Lights." According to the organization, the Parade of Lights is a strictly secular affair, and any religious message--including "Merry Christmas"--is out of bounds.
Pastor George Morrison explained that Faith Bible Chapel, one of the region's largest congregations, had intended to enter a float featuring multicultural Christian themes and a Merry Christmas message. The Downtown Denver Partnership, which organizes the thirty-year-old parade, told the church that its Christmas message might offend others in the community. DDP Vice President Susan Rogers Kark told the Rocky Mountain News, "Many things have changed as we look back 30 years, in terms of being sensitive to the fact that there are other traditions" that now may appear offensive.
It seems that the DDP has a rather eccentric definition of "religion," however. The group did allow floats from the "Two Spirits Society," honoring the spirits of gay American Indians, and an Asian group was allowed to sponsor a float that featured dancers performing traditional Chinese dances to ward off evil spirits. Nevertheless, Kark insisted that these two groups and their floats were not expressing religious messages. Evidently, the religious inclusion kicks in only when Christianity is involved.
Nevertheless, the two nights of the parade became the occasion for a significant Christian revolt against the secularist regime. Hundreds of Denver-area Christians attended the parade and responded to the rejection of the church's float by singing Christmas carols, handing out hot chocolate, and inviting persons to church.
The parade organizers just didn't get it. Jim Basey, DDP President, told The New York Times, "This was always just supposed to be a cutesy parade, for the kids," adding "The purpose was to get bodies downtown." Those last words are very revealing, for the DDP's main concern in the whole event is to get persons downtown in order to go shopping. Commercialism is driving their ambition, not a celebration of Christmas.
