... and Christmas is still here and in no need of protecting.

I remember hearing "Happy Holidays" from folks when I was a child in the 50's.

There was no Blowhard O'Reilly and a self-appointed konservative news network sputtering and fuming about protecting Christmas back then. That was sixty years ago

... and Christmas is still here and in no need of protecting.

The Real War on Christmas ... by Fox News | Jim Wallis | God's Politics Blog | Sojourners

Each Advent in recent years, around the time when those prefab, do-it-yourself gingerbread house kits appear on supermarket shelves, Fox News launches its (allegedly) defensive campaign commonly known as the “War on Christmas.”

Fox News’ “war” is designed to criticize the “secularization” of our culture wrought by atheists, agnostics, liberals, leftists, progressives, and separation of church and state zealots— i.e. Democrats. This irreligious coalition force is allegedly waging a strategic offensive on Christmas, trying to banish the sacred symbols of the season, denying our religious heritage, and even undermining the spiritual rubrics upon which our great nation is built.

Fox News positions itself as the defender of the faith and all things sacred. And Bill O’Reilly fancies himself the “watchdog” of Christmas.

Fox News’ usual targets include shopping malls and stores that replace their “Merry Christmas” greetings with “Happy Holidays,” and state governments that no longer call their official "Christmas" trees by their rightful name, or municipalities that ban any depictions of, or references to, the Christmas season in public places. Those who are attacked defend themselves, often claim that they are really religious too, and the perennial war is on.

But what we actually have here is a theological problem, where cultural and commercial symbols are confused with truly Christian ones, and the meaning of the holy season is missed all together.

The war on Christmas is really about what brand of “civil religion” America should have. The particular (read: biblical) meaning of Christmas, for Christians, has almost nothing to do with the media war.

 It was the Puritans (extremely devout and fanatic Christians) who launched the first War on Christmas in America by outlawing it.

And yes, Virginia, there is a popular Christmas song that has been around forever entitled "Happy Holidays."

So when will Mr. Belch-in-the-Wind O'Reilly starting hammering that ungodly Xmas music?

And when will I stop receiving childish chain letters whining about straw-man (fictional or pretend) villains forbidding us from saying "Merry Christmas?"