Faith Community Slams Fox News' "War on Christmas" Fear Mongering

Posted by Steven Reynolds, The All Spin Zone at 6:02 AM on December 5, 2007.

This post, written by Steven Reynolds, originally appeared on All Spin Zone

Clergy from the Faith in Public Life group are calling a halt to the "War on Christmas." Now these folks were never the nuts who were fighting this bogus "war," but they're clergy and they're speaking out against the Dobsons and O'Reilly's and Gibsons who whine every holiday season. I applaud, loudly.

John Gibson and Bill O'Reilly, puppets for the religious right in this country, maybe should watch out. There's a new clergy in town, and this set of clergymen and women are Faith in Public Life, a group that's talking back to the way FoxNews, with the help of the Focus on the Family Phonies, among others, has tried to boost their ratings by inventing a "War on Christmas, and thereby trying to pit Americans versus Americans on religious issues. OK, I'm stating the whole thing a whole lot more baldly than does Faith in Public Life, or even Bill Berkowitz, who writes very eloquently on the subject:

A press release issued on Monday, December 3, by Faith in Public Life, a not-for-profit nonpartisan 501(c) (3) communications and organizing resource center "dedicated to reclaiming the values debate in America ... [and] strengthen[ing] and increase[ing] the visibility of faith leaders dedicated to justice and the common good," points out religious leaders "are challenging Bill O'Reilly of Fox News and others who have lashed out against a so-called secular `War on Christmas' to join them in a new campaign that restores a focus on the common good during this holy season."

The group's "Open Letter to Christmas Culture Warriors" is to be published as an advertisement in the December 4 issue of New York Post and Washington Times and in the December 14 issue of the National Catholic Reporter,

Faith in Public Life's press release notes that Fox News commentator John Gibson's 2005 book, The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse Than You Thought, "denounced what he and other pundits describe as a secular agenda intent on destroying Christmas and driving religion from the public square." William Donohue, executive director of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, "has warned of `cultural fascists' taking over Christmas" and Fox's top talking head, Bill O'Reilly, "has made the `War on Christmas' a prominent seasonal feature of his popular Fox broadcast."

. . .

A press release issued on Monday, December 3, by Faith in Public Life, a not-for-profit nonpartisan 501(c) (3) communications and organizing resource center "dedicated to reclaiming the values debate in America ... [and] strengthen[ing] and increase[ing] the visibility of faith leaders dedicated to justice and the common good," points out religious leaders "are challenging Bill O'Reilly of Fox News and others who have lashed out against a so-called secular `War on Christmas' to join them in a new campaign that restores a focus on the common good during this holy season."

The group's "Open Letter to Christmas Culture Warriors" is to be published as an advertisement in the December 4 issue of New York Post and Washington Times and in the December 14 issue of the National Catholic Reporter,

Faith in Public Life's press release notes that Fox News commentator John Gibson's 2005 book, The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse Than You Thought, "denounced what he and other pundits describe as a secular agenda intent on destroying Christmas and driving religion from the public square." William Donohue, executive director of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, "has warned of `cultural fascists' taking over Christmas" and Fox's top talking head, Bill O'Reilly, "has made the `War on Christmas' a prominent seasonal feature of his popular Fox broadcast."

Someone call Keith Olbermann! Bill O'Reilly has taken one across the bow, and he's not likely to take this one sitting down. As I count it, he's got several religous figures for targets now. If Bill goes true to form, he's liable to demonize all the Board members of Faith in Public Life, whether they be evangelical or jewish or mainstream Christain. I'm thinking we've got a hate crime ready to happen, and I'm hoping Keith is on the job to warn all of America about what Bill O'Reilly's actions are bound to be.

I need a category for something like "True and honest religious leaders."

Tagged as: religion, o'reilly, gibson, fox news, christmas, religious left

Steven Reynolds is a regular blogger for the All Spin Zone