In order, apparently, to have something to complain about during a season that most Americans associate with generosity and love, some of my fellow Christians are perpetuating the idea that the month leading up to Christmas has historically been a sacred time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. That this claim has no basis in Christian tradition or history hasn’t stopped them from fabricating a myth about the season’s Christian origins.
If your goal is to perpetuate a tale of victimization, however, this myth is essential. And it goes something like this: the evil forces of secularism are persecuting faithful believers in a “War on Christmas” designed to draw our attention away from the stable-born child who, we are told, is the “reason for the season.” Claims of religious persecution are all the more bizarre given that seventy-six percent of Americans self-identify as Christians. It takes a real talent for deceptive rhetoric to portray a group that makes up three-fourths of the country as a threatened minority.
The real complaint, however, is not about holiday observances. As Ross Douthat recently noted in the New York Times, this is a “Tough Season for Believers.” While Christianity may continue to enjoy a majority in the U.S., the attitudes and prejudices that some consider inseparable from the tradition are on the wane. Social conservatives and far-right evangelicals are struggling with their increasing irrelevance in twenty-first century America, and the prominence of both pluralistic observances and secular traditions this time of year draw particular attention to that reality.
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