The truth about the 'war on Christmas'
Here it's only Nov. 14, and we already have the first skirmish in the phony "War on Christmas" supposedly being mounted by liberals everywhere.
One2Believe, an evangelical Christian group in Los Angeles, offered to donate 4,000 talking plastic Jesus action figures to the Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program. The plastic Jesus figures recite Bible verses, including some particularly dear to evangelicals such as the warning to Christians that they must be born again to enter Heaven. Toys for Tots, headquartered in Quantico, Va., thought about it for a long time and decided to turn them down. The reason? They don't have any way of knowing whether the children who receive them are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or atheist. Toys for Tots understands that America is now and probably always has been a land of many faiths.
Anyone who believes that the offer of the talking plastic Jesuses was an innocent gesture by One2Believe should go to the group's website, where you will see their proud goal of telling 50 Bible stories to 10 million children by the end of 2007. I don't have a problem with that, but I do have a problem with aggressive, in-your-face proselytizing, especially to impressionable children.
Some evangelicals say that such proselytizing is an integral part of their faith, and any attempt by schools, businesses, or government to place reasonable limits violates their freedom of religion. In a few cases, evangelical groups have argued that public school efforts to end gay bashing through tolerance codes violates their "right" to preach that being gay is an abomination to the Lord. The same goes for businesses or government agencies which try to protect the privacy rights of non-believers or even other Christians who simply don't buy the extreme beliefs of the evangelicals, there being a wide spectrum of Christian belief.
There was a time when a line existed that evangelicals didn't cross. They might hand out tracts but they didn't use a bullhorn. Some still observe that zone of privacy, but too many now see such niceties as surrender to the Devil.
Liberals can at least be thankful it was the Marine Corps Reserve and not Americans for Democratic Action that rejected the plastic Jesuses. But expect Fox News commentators Bill O'Reilly and John Gibson to take up the cry that Christmas is "under siege" once again. Happy holidays to all.