The imaginary war
Every year around this time, the right stokes the culture wars by asserting that progressives have declared war on Christmas. Christmas is openly and freely celebrated by diverse groups all over the country, so there’s obviously no war against it. Putting aside that Christmas is actually pagan in origin and was later co-opted by Christianity as its own, it’s fallacy to think there’s a war on the holiday. Many of us – Christians and non-Christians – acknowledge and enjoy Christmas, although we may not pretend, as the right does, that it originated with the birth of Christ. Now some on the right have expanded this imaginary war on Christmas to include Christianity in its entirety.
A host on Newsmax, a disinformation network, this week dishonestly proclaimed that “this week is about Christmas at the White House. I love Christmas decorations. But this looks a little like a Carnival Cruise, especially from an administration and political party as a whole that has declared war on Christianity for a while now.” If there were a war on Christmas and on Christianity by Democrats, we wouldn’t see the First Family enthusiastically celebrate the holiday. Christians enjoy total freedom to practice their chosen beliefs, and are amongst the most privileged in our society. President Biden is a devout Catholic who certainly isn’t waging war on Christianity.
Yet many right-wing Christians have been at war with the rest of us for quite some time. We see the toxicity of white Christian nationalism daily. This is a group that falsely complains of persecution when it isn’t permitted to impose itself on the rest of us with impunity. There’s no left-wing war on Christianity, but the religious right is waging a very real war on democracy, women, marginalized groups, and progress in general. This is just all the more reason to vote in more Democrats at all levels of government.
