What Would Santa Do?

on December 7, 2013

The following article contains a section that originally appeared on the American Spectator in 2008, and is reproduced with permission.

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus…Oh sorry, it’s not Santa, it’s the American Atheists with yet another attack on Christmas.

The non-believers launched a 40′ x 40′ digital billboard in New York’s Time Square on Tuesday, December 3, 2013, according to their press release. “Who Needs Christ During Christmas?” the billboard demands. Next, a hand appears and draws an “X” through Christ and the billboard purports to answer its own arrogant question, “Nobody.” Then the display advises, “Celebrate the true meaning of Xmas” and offers its own reasons for the season: charity, family, fun, lights, food, hot chocolate, snow, Rockettes, Chinese food.

The American Atheists seem to believe, as did my late father, that using “Xmas” is taking the “Christ” out of Christmas. In reality, the X in “Xmas” comes from the Greek letter Chi, the first letter in the Greek word Χριστός, or Christ. It is combined with P, the Greek letter Rho, as a symbol of Christ both in artistic treasures such as the Book of Kells as well as in the gold glitter-covered Styrofoam Chrismon ornaments for Christmas trees.

But before the Atheists were on billboards urging people not to go to church on Christmas, saying “you hate it, it’s boring; you probably only go because you feel guilty or obligated” (obviously the American Atheists have never visited my church!), the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) and the American Humanist Association were peppering the skies with secular tidings.

In the Christmas season of 2010, the FFRF, more recently known for its atheists “out of the closet” campaign, littered the great Albuquerque area with such pithy sayings as Imagine No Religion, Praise Darwin, Reason’s Greetings, and Yes, Virginia, There is No God.

The year before that, the American Humanist Association (AHA) launched a National Godless Holiday Campaign. Ads that ran in five major American cities declared, “No God? No Problem!” AHA Executive Director Roy Speckhardt explained, “Religion does not have a monopoly on morality–millions of people are good without believing in God.”

The AHA has also maligned Santa. In mid-November 2008, ads began appearing on Washington, D.C. area Metro buses and ran through December. The ads featured a strange Santa-garbed person with Rastafarian braids. They also included the admonition from the familiar Christmas song “Here Comes Santa Claus” to be “good for goodness’ sake.”

The American Humanist Association spokesman, Fred Edwards, said that there were “an awful lot of agnostics, atheists, and other types of non-theists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion.” But while the alternative for Christmas, Xmas, is associated with religion, the “holidays,” that vague, politically correct term, has no association with religion. The secular “holidays” are the perfect purview of agnostics, atheists, and other associated non-theists.

It is Christmas, the holiday that dares not speak its name, that may alienate the AHA. But unlike AHA, somehow thousands of ordinary citizens who are not Christians, and may or may not have their own exclusive holidays to celebrate, managed to slog through the Christmas season with their feelings unscathed.

AHA’s second reason to deck the Metro buses with posters of apostasy was to declare that “humanists have always understood that you don’t need a god to be good.” According to Roy Speckhardt, executive director of AHA, “Morality doesn’t come from religion. It’s a set of values embraced by individuals and society based on empathy, fairness, and experience.”

Morality definitely does not come from religion. In fact, sometimes immorality comes from religion. It all depends upon the object of worship. The Swiss philosopher/poet Henri Frederic Amiel confirmed this when he said, “The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man which it forms. If a system injures the intelligence it is bad. If it injures the character it is vicious. If it injures the conscience it is criminal.”

Mr. Speckhardt did not explain from where the empathy and fairness originate. What is the source of that sense of fairness, the sense of right and wrong? Does it just spring from nowhere? C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity gives a reasonable answer to this question. It begins with a brilliant exposition on “Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe.”

So what would Santa think of AHA’s attempt to identify him with their Advent attack? Even the Santa portrayed in the lyrics of Gene Autry, who is not exactly remembered for his theological prowess, is said to “know that we are all God’s children.”

But would the real Santa Claus have a stronger reaction to AHA? (Yes, FFRF, there is a Santa Claus.) St. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra, in 4th century Asia Minor, now Turkey. In addition to being remembered for his generosity and compassion to the poor and to children, Bishop Nicholas was the kind of “muscular Christian” that makes the folks at the National Council of Churches shudder. He was a staunch defender of Christian orthodoxy and would not be too pleased with the “Why believe in a god?” mentality.

During his tenure at bishop, he attended the first ecumenical council of the Church, which had been called to deal with the growing heresy of Arianism. Arianism, named after Arius, a North African priest who was its key proponent, denied the full deity of Jesus Christ and said that he was a created being. Nicholas struck a blow for orthodoxy, slapping Arius in the face after he spoke. My colleague, Bart Gingerich, has written about this, as well.

Nicholas might well deal with the American Humanist Association in the same manner in which he dispatched poor Arius, but probably, being older and wiser, and “good, for goodness sake,” he would refrain from physical violence and just urge those who believe in God to assert their right to believe, and to flaunt their belief as publicly as AHA flaunts its unbelief.

 

 

 

  1. Comment by Gabe on December 7, 2013 at 12:39 pm

    I fully support AHA’s efforts and would like to set up a fundraiser for them to take their activities to Riyadh where they can make big signs and leaflets about taking Allah out of Ramadan.

  2. Comment by Faith McDonnell on December 7, 2013 at 1:05 pm

    Wouldn’t that be sight for sore eyes, Gabe! 😉 Thanks for writing. Faith

  3. Comment by DiidaskalosDidaskalos on December 8, 2013 at 7:59 am

    I promise to send Christmas cards to them as they languish in jail.

  4. Comment by Patricia on December 7, 2013 at 11:46 pm

    Christmas is Christ’s Mass, and no human can take it away from us, or take us away from Him. They have no power to do any such thing.

  5. Comment by Jeremy Long on December 10, 2013 at 9:41 pm

    Out of curiosity, in the past week I asked a handful of Home Depot employees if the corporation had any policy (or “guidelines”) about greetings for customers, and they all said, no, employees could say whatever they like, including “Merry Christmas.” On the other hand, two employees at a store that we’ll call “Richard’s Whole Foods” said they had seen a “suggestion” that greetings be limited to “Happy Holidays,” because “We want to reach out to all our customers.” A postal employee, who obviously wished to remain anonymous, said that for many years they had gotten the word that “Merry Christmas” was a no-no.

    I’m still puzzling over why Merry Christmas would be offensive to anyone, but then, the modern world isn’t keen on logic.

  6. Comment by Faith McDonnell on December 10, 2013 at 9:48 pm

    It is a puzzle, Jeremy. I think that part of it is just pushing the envelope, seeing how much they can get away with under the theme of “offense.” This week I am writing a post featuring IRD’s famous Christmas buttons! Our late president, Diane Knippers, came up with the idea of buttons saying “Merry Christmas” in the language of Christians from a country where Christians are persecuted. They are great conversation starters, and a way to wriggle in that offensive (two) word(s)!

  7. Comment by Gabe on December 11, 2013 at 4:54 pm

    That is an outstanding idea, Faith, and would help us to remember that many Christians in the world face physical danger on a regular basis.

  8. Comment by Faith McDonnell on December 11, 2013 at 5:02 pm

    Thanks, Gabe! Next year we should do a new button. This Christmas we will use up our remaining ones. An end of the year gift to IRD’s RELIGIOUS LIBERTY PROGRAM of any size will get you at least one! 🙂

  9. Comment by Adrian Croft on December 11, 2013 at 10:00 pm

    I don’t know if the IRD moderators will let this stand, but what the heck, here goes:
    In a mall parking lot I saw late-model SUV with this bumper sticker: ATHEISTS SUCK.
    As I walked past the SUV, I realized it had been “keyed” in a big way (i.e., major $$$ at the body shop).
    Coincidence? I hope so. But I don’t think so. I sure wouldn’t put that bumper sticker on my own car.

  10. Comment by Faith McDonnell on December 12, 2013 at 2:52 pm

    I agree, Adrian. There’s no sense in provoking them to hostility deliberately. But that’s different from freely expressing your own faith. (There are better ways to express one’s Christian faith thank say that atheists “suck.”)

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