'Tis the Season for Wedge Issues

As if spliting the nation to get their guy in office wasn't enough, the religious right is now going out of its way to turn Christmas into a wedge issue - how low can you go? It's never low enough for James Dobson and Jerry Falwell. I think Anna Quindlen at Newsweek has the best take on the whole "Merry Christmas" nonsense:

So the silly annual examples are trotted out, the schools that censor Christmas carols, the townships that insist that the evergreen decorated with lights is a holiday tree. No one searches his soul about how we came to this pass. It has little to do with separation of church and state or liberal politics and everything to do with the way the blunt cudgel of Christianity has been heedlessly used, the tyranny of the majority. After years of Jewish parents' sitting through school concerts listening to the words "It is the night of our dear savior's birth," maybe oversensitivity was inevitable, since any other kind of sensitivity had been in short supply.

Anna concludes with:

So if people are really worried about keeping Christ in Christmas, they might personally exhibit tolerance and charity, kindness and generosity. It is the ultimate exercise of style over substance to whine about the absence of "O Holy Night" at public events. The real point is in taking the lyrics to heart: "Truly he taught us to love one another/His law is love and his gospel is peace." And if saying "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" offers someone who is not of your faith more comfort and joy—well, 'tis the season for both.

One day the Religious Right may find that it is ACTUALLY being persecuted but after crying wolf and rending their garments while beating up their non-believing neighbors don't expect anyone to shed any tears or lift a finger.