Certain factions on the right are bent on reducing the meaning of this holiday season (which, to me, encompasses Xmas, Chanukah, et al.) to partisan political symbolism. This year, especially when Christmas and Chanukah fall at the same time, it seems particularly ludicrous for Jerry Fallwell to threaten lawsuits in order to ensure that consumer stores like Target and Lands End greet customers with "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays."
House "religious conservatives" yesterday wasted precious time introducing a resolution "Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the symbols and traditions of Christmas should be protected." Hypocritically, the same group of lawmakers helped push through $50 billion in cuts for programs that provide vital assistance to the poor, including Medicare and food stamps, and passed over $90 billion in tax cuts, mostly for the wealthy.
The Bible cautions Christians not to do as their leaders do, "for they do not practice what they preach." Following the teachings of Jesus, who condemned the actions of those who put public piety before care for the poor, a group of over 200 religious leaders came to Washington yesterday to protest the House budget, which they called "the real Christmas scandal." The Washington Post reports, "Outside in the frigid cold for several hours, more than 200 demonstrators sang religious and holiday songs, prayed aloud and chanted, 'Stop the cuts.'" 114 religious leaders were arrested, exercising civil disobedience, when they refused to leave the steps of the Cannon House Office Building.
Sojourners founder, Jim Wallis, who was arrested at the protest, said, "Poverty is a moral issue, it's a faith issue, it's a religious issue." Other Christian religious bodies have weighed in against budget cuts to programs that serve the poor-- including the Catholic Church, the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ -- representing more than 86 million Americans.
A small radical right contigent of "groups such as Focus on the Family say it is a matter of priorities," -- opposing abortion, opposing same-sex marriage, and seating judges who will back its position against those practices. Wallis describes this approach as "trading the lives of poor people for their agenda. They're being, and this is the worst insult, unbiblical."
READ MORE: More Than 100 Arrested in Capitol Protest - By Elizabeth White - Washington Post
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