Christian Leaders Call for Ceasefire in Christmas Culture Wars
Open Letter Urges Bill O’Reilly, Bill Donohue and John Gibson to Join a Campaign that focuses on the Common Good
Monday, December 03, 2007
Washington, DC – Catholic social justice leaders, priests, religious sisters and evangelical Christians want a “ceasefire in the Christmas culture wars.” These leaders are challenging Bill O’Reilly of Fox News and others who have lashed out against a so-called secular “War on Christmas” to join them in a new campaign that restores a focus on the common good during this holy season.
In an “Open Letter to Christmas Culture Warriors” (link to pdf: http://www.christmascampaign.org/ad-wt.pdf) to be published as an advertisement in the New York Post, Washington Times and National Catholic Reporter, the group says that outrage over some department stores using “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” fails to address the profound moral challenges we face in confronting the threats to human dignity in our world.
“We believe the real assault on Christmas is how a season of peace, forgiveness and goodwill has been sidelined by a focus on excessive consumerism,” the letter states. “The powerful message Christ brings to the world is ‘good news for the poor.’ Instead, Christmas is being reduced to a corporate-sponsored holiday that idolizes commerce and materialism.”
The letter asks all readers to join the group’s new campaign at www.ChristmasCampaign.org, a website that not only promotes the letter, but also alternative Christmas giving programs. The open letter will be published in the Dec. 4 issue of the Washington Times and New York Post and in the Dec. 14 issue of the National Catholic Reporter.
Fox News commentator John Gibson’s 2005 book, The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse Than You Thought, denounced what he and other pundits describe as a secular agenda intent on destroying Christmas and driving religion from the public square. William Donohue, executive director of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, has warned of “cultural fascists” taking over Christmas. Bill O’Reilly has made the “War on Christmas” a prominent seasonal feature of his popular Fox broadcast.
“Christmas marks a season of hope, peace and the light of justice illuminating the dark corners of our world,” said Alexia Kelley, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. “At a time when soldiers and innocent civilians are dying in a real war in Iraq and 37 million Americans live still in poverty we should be focusing on those moral scandals not having petty shouting matches on television about a supposed ‘secular conspiracy’ to subvert Christmas.”
"When we consider the true meaning of Christmas, its sacredness is not validated by prescribed greetings or slogans in department stores," said Rev. Derrick Harkins, Senior Pastor of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and a Board member of the evangelical humanitarian relief agency World Relief, "If we are truly serious about the importance of Christmas, we will remember that its message of love and hope was shared with disenfranchised shepherds first, which should prompt us to be far more concerned with how the season is shared in word and deed with the poor and hurting among us."
CONTACT: Katie Barge 202-481-8147 or 202-243-8289 or kbarge@faithinpubliclife.org
