Atheist Herman Mehta has insisted that “Christians don’t own December.” In fact, we do. Just as blacks own February—it is Black History Month—Christians own December. Atheists own nothing, which is consistent, of course, with what they believe.
This has to be said given all the forlorn stories generated by the media in 2015 about all the hapless atheists at Christmastime. Take CNN.
CNN’s iReport had a story, “Holiday, Minus God,” that recorded the “thoughtful, heartwarming, engaging and, above all, cheerful” comments made by atheists about Christmas. It listed, for example, a remark by David Fibush from California, who said, “We strongly believe that religion is the cause of many of the world’s problems, but like bad weather and taxes we accept the situation as it exists.” So cheerful.
CNN also had a neat article on “5 Things You Didn’t Know about Satanists.” Point #2 was, “They are OK with Celebrating Christmas.” As proof, it quoted Satanists saying, “Christians stole this holiday from the pagans—Santa Claus has come to signify indulgence….” So thoughtful.
CNN also wanted us to read its piece, “How Do Atheists Celebrate Christmas?” We learned that “the holiday season—even calling it a ‘holiday season’—can be problematic for atheists.” How engaging.
For some strange reason, CNN was lax in reporting how atheist organizations were taking out newspaper ads denigrating Christmas, posting billboards that urged a church boycott, erecting anti-Christmas displays next to nativity scenes, banning religious songs from Christmas school concerts, and the like. How heartwarming.
Atheists are lucky to live in a nation that was founded by Christians imbued with the Judeo-Christian ethos. It’s why we typically afford them more tolerance than its activists show us.
