Bill O'Reilly Attacks Christians Who Aren't Freaking Out About Non-Existent War on Christmas

From AlterNet:

An unlikely enemy in the War on Christmas emerged last night when four-star general Bill O’Reilly expanded the battleground into new territory: the churches of the “wimpy” pastors who haven’t stepped up to defend the holy holiday.  

That’s right--O’Reilly has turned his attention away from the immoral (a.k.a. atheist) liberal media and is now attacking members of his own camp for not taking the war seriously enough. 

On his Fox News show last night, O’Reilly spoke with pastor Robert Jeffress, one of the few Christmas-warmongering pastors in what they say is a sea of reformist religious leaders. 

When O’Reilly asked Jeffress why so few pastors have voiced the appropriate outrage at this war on the holiday, Jeffress replied: “Wimpy pastors produce wimpy Christians, and that is why we are losing this culture war and I believe it’s time for pastors to say, you know, ‘I don’t care about controversy, I don’t care whether I’m going to lose church members, I don’t care about building a big church, I’m going to stand for truth regardless of what happens.’” 

More here, with video.

It's probably very likely that these "wimpy" pastors are remaining silent about the so-called "War on Christmas" because they have the good sense to know that there's not one.  It is interesting to note, however, that this latest O'Reilly stunt is well within the recent trend of conservatives, who have come very close to wearing out their relentless rhetorical attacks on liberals over the years, turning on themselves, purging those who aren't doctrinaire enough to suit their mob mentality.  That is, attacking Christian ministers who don't get in line is simply another manifestation of the same phenomenon that has had even far right-wing Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah fighting for his life in the recent GOP primaries.

But, more generally, this "War on Christmas" thing continues to be just weird.

I'm a liberal, as many of you know.  I'm so liberal that I think Obama is conservative.  So when I tell you that there's no liberal "War on Christmas," I'm telling you as somebody who knows.  I know because I totally LOVE Christmas.  I know because none of my liberal friends have ever said anything even remotely resembling anti-Christmas sentiment.  I know because I've widely read liberal and progressive writers for many years now, and none of them have ever expressed ill will toward Christmas ever, at all.  I know because I follow the liberal blogs and websites, and all they have to say about the issue is to express their puzzlement over how they're being attacked for an idea that isn't theirs.  There's just nothing.  Nothing at all.  Not a single event or statement that says to me there is such a thing as a liberal "War on Christmas."  I mean, if I'm missing something here, let me know.  I want to call all these liberal anti-Christmas people grinches.

(Slightly off topic, but worth mentioning: this is also how I knew there was something a bit off about the Kony 2012 campaign; there was almost nothing about it happening on the left at the time, and human rights, war criminals, all that's traditional progressive territory.)

Sure, some people say "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas," but as far as I've ever been able to tell, it's a capitalist thing.  Seriously.  Retailers wishing to avoid offending people who don't celebrate Christmas decades ago coined the phrase in an attempt to be more inclusive.  You know, so they can sell more stuff.  And yeah, the ACLU, which also supports the rights of Nazis, and the notion that corporate money is protected as free speech by the first amendment, while opposing gun control, all positions that cannot in any way be described as liberal, has numerous times sued government institutions displaying blatantly religious symbols in December, but that's always struck me as being a separation of church and state thing, a constitutional thing, rather than being a massive assault in the "War on Christmas"--that is, there's a legitimate argument there which has nothing to do with how liberals feel about the biggest holiday of the year.

So I'm still not entirely sure what O'Reilly's up to with this schtick.  There's no such thing as a "War on Christmas."  But he goes on and on about it, year after year.  Either he's crazy, which he may very well be, or this is nothing but a cynical ratings stunt.  Maybe a mix of both.  Hard to say.

I hope he gets coal in his stocking.

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