When did it become wrong to respect the fact that we are a diverse nation with many, many religions, traditions and beliefs?

Why do religious conservatives have a persistent victim complex when they wield unprecedented power in virtually every facet of life?

What harm is done by respecting the fact that I and millions of other citizens don't celebrate Christmas, never have and never will?

My family is Jewish, though that is more of a cultural identity for me now. I am *gasp* an atheist. My birthday also happens to be December 24 (I'm a size small and prefer anything cashmere, FYI). So I have a little experience in feeling marginalized by Christmas.

I remember as a lad in growing up in my small suburbab/rural town in New Jersey how every December the postmaster would put up a giant "Merry Christmas" sign in front of the town post office and how every December my parents would go and complain to the postmaster, the mayor, the council. It wasn't until that postmaster retired and a new one was brough in that the sign was changed to say "Happy Holidays."

It's not a matter of trying to remove Christ from Christmas. It's about trying to broaden the scope of American values and learn from each other about what makes this country and her people so great. We are stronger when we can live with and respect each others' differences than when we try to make everyone conform.

My mom used to go into my siblings' and my elementary school classrooms every year and read the book "A Hannukah Fable for Christmas" to our classmates. It was one of her many small ways of giving back to the community by preparing our peers for a world outside hicksville where not everyone is homogenous and where you have to get along with lots of people who aren't like you or believe in the same things as you.

There is no war on Christmas. It's patently absurd to suggest there is. There is also no war on Christianity. There is a desire to be respected and included though. But the religious right can't abide that. Oh no. All non-believers are going to hell, whether we believe in hell or not.

Bill O'Reilly and his not-all-there cronies at Focus on the Family just don't care about anyone but themselves. That's what this whine-fest about. Do they really believe that all the world's problems would just melt away if every last one of us praised Jesus once a week in church? I mean, are they really that naive? Are they really that sheltered?

I'm holding back my anger A LOT in this post. When, for example, the chairman of the American Family Association says things like

"Tough luck...This is an overwhelmingly Christian country."

to Jews, Muslims, atheists and others who object the ubiquity of Christmas, it tends to piss me off. I suppose that may be part of their strategy, but it's still just divisive, rude and unnecessary. It also misleadingly leads one to believe that most or even many Christians feel threatened by the words "happy holidays." Most of the Christians I know, even the religious ones, aren't bothered at all by seeing "Happy Holidays" on store signs instead of "Merry Christmas." They tend to have more important (or at least more interesting) things to busy themselves with.

And I'm not unreasonable about this. I do think it's silly for Lowe's to sell "holiday trees" instead of "Christmas trees." Non-Christians don't celebrate Christmas and so the vast majority don't see a need to buy plastic evergreens this time of year (or chop down real ones). Many of us find the tradition a little silly, but can respect it for what it is and for what it means to those who are different from us.

And it's not like Christmas is the only holiday that gets celebrated this time of year. Chanukah is actually a very minor Jewish holiday that celebrates a military victory, but it receives tremendous attention simply by virtue of its proximity to Christmas. There's the winter solstice for the pagans. There's Eid for our Muslim countrymen and women. There's Kwanzaa in the African American community. And there are a whole bunch more that I'm leaving out or forgetting (or mangling the spelling of).

The bottom line is that self-absorbed Christian right actually believes the preposterous and offensive bill of goods they've been trying to sell that the United States is a Christian nation AND they're so self-centered that they hate to recognize anyone who worships or has faith in a different way.

There is likely one other point in that bottom line, which is the bottom line itself. Reverend Barry Lynn of Americans United for the Seperation of Church and State, sums it up best:

"Jerry Falwell has found that this war on Christmas is a very good, healthy, fundraising mechanism...And that's just about all this is. This is a war without any generals."

Amen, brother Barry, amen.