WWJD

…and what would Jesus have to say about this letter?  It doesn’t really deserve a response, but the tone is so militant and intolerant, that we had to talk about it here.  We would mention one thing, however, with reference to this comment: “But the offended are extremely vocal and sometimes backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and powerful lawyers.”

You mean like the powerful Republican politicians, many of whom are lawyers, who are your elected representatives on the state and federal level?  Yeah, too bad they’re not on your side.  Oh wait, they are.

To answer our rhetorical question from above, we’d imagine that Jesus would be far less worried with how we celebrate one arbitrary day, and more concerned with how we live the other 364 days.  But, unlike Mr. Jackson, we don’t purport to speak for every Christian in the world, and we certainly don’t claim to speak for Jesus Christ.

People like Phil Jackson (who we’re sure is a pretty nice guy otherwise) and all of the other folks who are fighting the war against political correctness ought to be a little ashamed of themselves for their histrionic response to a crisis that doesn’t exist.  Don’t worry, y’all.  Fact is, you are free to say “Merry Christmas” as much as you like, anytime you like.  The First Amendment says you can, and rest assured, if any government entity tried to say you couldn’t, you might be surprised at who would suddenly be on your side – for instance, the ACLU.

The thing is, people like Phil Jackson have willingly allowed themselves to play the part of Chicken Little in a story written by the steely-eyed conservative zealots that have taken over the Republican Party.  The people who call the political shots have essentially invented a controversy that doesn’t exist for crass political gain.  The moneymen in the GOP don’t care about saying “Merry Christmas,” except to the extent that it’s another (nonexistent) issue that they can use to get more votes in November.

ABH Executive Editor Jason Winders has a few things to say about this whole (nonexistent) issue as well, especially in regards to the hypocrisy exhibited by the Republican leadership.

We’ll close by saying this.  We personally wish that instead of wasting time writing letters about the nonexistent battle to save Christmas, people would be writing letters about the economy, or the more than 40 million American citizens who cannot afford to go to the doctor when they’re sick, or the need to do something about public education.  Those are real controversies, and they play a much larger role in the future of America.