Pope Francis kisses a child as he arrives for his
general audience at St Peter's square on
December 11, 2013 at the Vatican
December 24, 2013
Ah, 'tis the season for family, friends, eggnog, chipmunks singing
Christmas carols -- and all-out, no-mercy, blow-'em-all-to-hell WAR.
Not
war like in Afghanistan. No, no -- this is the far-right's God-awful
"War on the War on Christmas." In this season of Peace on Earth, a
delusional faction of rightist has cooked up a hokey "cultural crisis"
to foment hatred of ... well, of whom? Blasphemist-liberal-Democrat-
atheist-humanists, they shout!
The
infidels are not accused of lobbing actual bombs in this "war," but
Words of Mass Destruction. Specifically, wail the purists, unholy
left-wingers go around saying "Happy Holidays," rather than "Merry
Christmas," as Jesus taught us to say. Or was it Constantine the Great
in the Fourth Century who came up with that?
Never mind, the
rightists' point is that diabolical lefties -- ie, Marxists -- are out
to ban Christmas entirely. No less of a heroic defender of the faith
than Sarah Palin has even written a thin book about this devious plot,
revealing that "Happy Holidays" is merely "The tip of the spear in a
larger battle to ... make true religious freedom a thing of America's
past." Luckily, note the Merry Christmas crusaders, such bright lights
as Gov. Rick Perry of Texas are pushing state laws to bypass the silly
U.S. Constitution and allow Christian icons and ceremonies into our
schools. "A creche in every public space," is their cry, "a cross on
every city hall." To hell with Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the winter solstice,
etc. -- this is war!
No, this is hokem, flimflammery, hoodoo,
camel dung. It's also insulting that they would attempt to try to
generate a major social conflict over the fiction that "Happy Holidays"
constitutes religious discrimination, whine that they are a repressed
minority, and equate it with war. First, Jews, Muslims and others don't
get to brand public spaces as their religious property. Second, about
three-fourths of Americans are Christian, so drop the put-upon martyr
pose. And third, war really is hell, with blood, lifelong trauma and
death -- so stop pretending you're in one.
But rationality doesn't
seem to be included in the liturgy of their political church. Indeed,
some of its acolytes have added a twist on Christmas that would make
Jesus weep.
Indeed, they have launched a war against Jesus! How
twisted is that? They say no one should mess with the word "Christmas,"
yet they're messing with the guy Christmas is supposed to be about.
Okay,
technically they're not going directly at Jesus, but at a key part of
his message -- and, in particular, a key messenger of Christianity: Pope
Francis! They've decided that the Pope is a "Marxist," pointing out
that Francis speaks often about "the structural causes of poverty," the
"idolatry of money" and the "new tyranny" of unfettered capitalism.
Obviously, say the Pontiff's pious critics, that's commie talk.
The
clincher for them was when Francis wrote an exhortation in which he
asked in outrage: "How can it be that it is not a news item when an
elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock
market loses two points?" See, cried the carpers, that's proof that
Francis is the Red Pope!
But wait -- that was a very good question
he asked, one ripe with the moral wrath that Jesus himself frequently
showed toward the callous rich and their "love of money." Indeed, the
Pope's words ring with the deep ethics you find in Jesus' Sermon on the
Mount and in his admonitions to serve the poor. Was he a commie, too?
To
find out more about Jim Hightower, and read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at
www.creators.com.
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