The sound of angry Christians railing against the marginalization of Christmas has become the new tune of this holiday season. Across the country, from department stores to town halls, battle lines have been drawn over how to mark the winter holidays.
Led by evangelical groups, who say the holiday’s religious significance is being ignored, some Christians are fighting back. They’re threatening to sue schools districts that have banned the singing of Christmas carols and other places where “Happy Holidays” has replaced “Merry Christmas” as the preferred greeting of the season.
Evagelical leaders don’t cast the Jewish community as the Scrooge, yet efforts to highlight Christian themes and celebrations at Christmas historically have come at the expense of religious diversity and tolerance — and Jewish leaders fear that stressing Christmas’ religious significance could highlight Jews’ minority status in the United States.
“It is not a movement prompted by an animus against Jews or the Jewish community,” said Abraham Foxman, THE national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who in recent months has taken the lead in warning about growing evangelical influence in the United States. “But the unintended consequence is that Jews may be blamed for it.”
Much of what evangelicals criticize consists of efforts to include religious minorities in holiday celebrations, say Jewish community leaders, who fear that adding more religious expression in schools and government could make Jews feel like second-class citizens.
Rabbi Leah Richman of Pottsville, Pa., received angry letters and phone calls when she called for the removal of a nativity scene in her town square.
“The non-Jewish people in the area are very interested in promoting Christmas and they believe that church and state should be more mingled,” Richman said. “They’re taking my stand as being anti-tolerance and anti-diversity, because I’m not tolerant of their nativity scene.”
Instead of opposing the nativity scene, some respondents said Richman should place a menorah nearby. Indeed, much of the evangelical community’s argument has rested on a call for more celebrations of both Christmas and Chanukah, part of a call for a return to “Judeo-Christian values.”
“It just seems to me that what we ought to be aiming for in America is recognizing everyone’s traditions, rather than melding traditions into a homogenized whatever,” Gary Bauer, the president of American Values, told JTA.
Richman declined to help the local library put up a menorah display, instead suggesting an educational program on different holidays.
The onslaught of Christmas decorations and programming for years has been a source of quiet frustration for American Jews, but decisions about how to handle it have varied. Some Jewish groups have worked to ensure that religious Christmas displays don’t enter the public square, while others — predominantly the Chabad movement — sought equal treatment for menorahs and other Chanukah decorations.
The inclusion of Chanukah, and then the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa, has forced retailers and municipalities to seek more generic and inclusive ways of acknowledging all faiths. That has led to claims that Christianity has been taken out of Christmas celebrations.
The city of Boston renamed a tree in Boston Common a “holiday tree.” Target, the giant retailer, was criticized for airing commercials in December that did not specifically mention Christmas.
Even Pope Benedict XVI has weighed in, declaring Sunday that a “commercial pollution” of Christmas could alter the holiday’s true meaning. He suggested families erect nativity scenes in their homes.
The pro-Christmas movement comes at a time of growing evangelical political strength, giving their message increased weight and attention. Evangelicals have fought this year against efforts to remove proselytizing from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., and for the teaching of “intelligent design” in public schools. Nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court have been weighed in part on their church attendance and their public proclamations of faith.
“They’ve come to feel a certain strength in their position in America and in the public that they didn’t feel under President Clinton,” said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and chairman of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. “They feel the can flex their muscles more if their rights as a majority are being abridged for the sake of political correctness.”
Even the White House has been chastised this year for writing “Best wishes for the holiday season” on its annual Christmas cards. Last year’s cards also referred to the “holiday season” rather than Christmas, and both years’ cards included a quote from Psalms.
Those who see a decrease in Christmas observance, including media figures like Bill O’Reilly and John Gibson, both of the Fox News Channel, claim Christmas is being excluded from seasonal decorations in an attempt to be sensitive to minorities.
“It’s mostly guilt-ridden Christians,” Gibson, the author of “The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse Than You Thought,” told JTA.
Self-styled defenders of the faith refer darkly to “militant secularists.”
“The Jews I know are not offended by the words, ‘Merry Christmas,’ ” Bauer said. “The controversy doesn’t seem to be coming from believing Jews.”
But Christian leaders often accuse Hollywood, the media and the American Civil Liberties Union of taking the religion out of Christmas — and all three groups are seen as run by Jews, Foxman said.
Eckstein warned of a backlash if Jews are perceived as being on the front lines of the fight.
In Coatesville, Pa., city councilman William Chertok was accused by a colleague of voting against an increase in the city’s Christmas parade budget because he was Jewish.
“I understand, Mr. Chertok, that Jews don’t celebrate Christmas,” councilwoman-elect Patsy Ray said in a meeting in November. Her comments prompted a rebuke from the council and the local media.
Chertok said he voted against the increase for budgetary reasons.
Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, has been cast as the lead opponent of Christmas celebrations. He said evangelical leaders are trying to place Christmas and Christianity above other religions.
“There’s a kind of Christian triumphalism; a feeling that Christians have to win every battle,” said Lynn, who spoke to JTA by telephone while shopping for Christmas presents. “There is a fear that other religions are going to be treated the same as Christmas, and that means Christmas won’t have its special place five weeks of the year.”
Foxman called a meeting last week of American Jewish leaders to gauge common ground on the fight against Christian influence. Many observant Jews support public proclamations of faith, believing religion in the public square will boost observance in general. Yet the Jewish leaders who attended Foxman’s meeting were united in opposing overt proselytizing of the sort reported at the Air Force Academy.
“What we’re seeing in America today, with the evangelical emphasis, will be looked back on as the last gasp to hold onto an America that is Christian,” said Jonathan Sarna, A professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University.
Supporters of interfaith dialogue say that as the majority religion in the United States, Christians have a right to see more expressions of their faith.
“It’s a legitimate feeling when 90 percent of the country is for it,” Eckstein said. “I am not threatened by someone who affirms his faith.”
Foxman said he believes retailers especially will continue to present a more inclusive vision of the holiday season — because it allows them to reach the widest possible audience.
“Jews will not go and demand that Target have a menorah,” he said. “But they will have one — and if they have three Christmas trees and one menorah, so what?”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
