Last War on Xmas post

I am literally laughing out loud at this blog post by Bryan Fischer, AFA Director of Issues Analysis titled, "Nazis Started War Against Christmas" in which Gap (the company who *gasp* compared Christmas to the solstice, how dare they!) and anyone who does not specifically acknowledge Christmas during the month of December is compared to anti-semites and Nazis.

You're just going to have to read it:

While the left tries to perpetuate the myth that the Nazis were right wing Christians, nothing could be further from the truth. Hitler was steeped in the occult, and even introduced a calendar late in the war that replaced every single Christian holiday with a pagan alternative.

Really, nothing could be further from the truth?

The Nazi's were clearly Christians, who hated Jews because they believed the Jews murdered Jesus. They hated Jews because the Jews rejected Jesus. They believed Jesus was Aryan. This is unambiguously clear. Hitler's hatred of Jews was not new. He learned to hate Jews due to Catholic and Protestant preaching at the pulpit. I know it's fun to try to rewrite history to make your religion look as wonderful as possible, but denying that the holocaust was perpetuated by Christians is nearly as bad as denying the holocaust occurred at all.

In 200 years, when homosexuals have the same civil rights as everyone else, the AFA will probably be insisting that "the left tries to perpetuate the myth that right wing Christians opposed gay rights".

Mr. Fischer. You are claiming historical "facts". Where are your citations? Why do you provide no evidence? I can provide evidence that Hitler was a Christian. It's not hard.  Here's more.   Here's some more.

Especially important in the Hitler/Christian controversy is the unreliability of Hitler's Table Talk, a source referenced by Christians to prove that Hitler was against Christianity, but the source is unreliable.

So what's up with this calendar?

Rosenberg, the guy who created the calendar, rejected parts of Christianity, and helped develop positive Christianity, the model of Christianity adopted by Nazi's. Positive Christianity rejected the Old Testament, insisted that Jesus was Aryan and non-Jewish, and had a goal of uniting Catholicism and Protestantism into one united Christian church.

It seems pretty clear to me that all of the sources of this calendar paint it in such a light as to ignore the positive Christianity aspects and play up the nationalistic, propagandic aspects.

When it came to Christmas, the Nazis urged Germans to celebrate the holy day (excuse me, "holiday") by using ornaments on their trees in the shape of swastikas and the Iron Cross, baking cookies using swastika-shaped cookie cutters, replacing St. Nicholas with an image of the Norse god Odin, and burning candles set on swastika-shaped holders.

You realize, Mr Fischer, that "holiday" is a contraction of Holy Day, right?

You didn't provide a source again for your cookie and ornament comment, but I can. Yes, they did have Swastika ornaments. They also seem to have a baby-Jesus shaped cookie:

The source I cited also refers to the Nazis as "atheist". So I have to wonder about the accuracy of the way the historical documents in this museum are presented. One of the women who set up the museum of See-How-Anti-Christian-Nazis-Were had this to say:

'Christmas was a provocation for the Nazis - after all, the baby Jesus was a Jewish child,' Judith Breuer told the German newspaper Spiegel. 'The most important celebration in the year didn't fit with their racist beliefs so they had to react, by trying to make it less Christian.'

Yes, but documents are extremely clear – the Nazis were Christian and believed Jesus was an Aryan, not a "Jewish child". This quote makes me think that this whole museum may be about as historically accurate as the Creation Museum.

Nazis also specifically perpetuated violent acts during Jewish holidays.

Believe it or not, Germans produced ornaments in the shape of bombs and hand grenades. And no, I am not making that up. Not much "Peace on Earth" in that, is there?

They, like many Christians, probably believed that one had to war for peace. They just had a funky way of expressing it. 

In something emblematic of the German church's craven capitulation to the Nazi regime, German churches put up little opposition to the Nazification of Christmas. Why? Says a student of the time, "[T]hey largely kept quiet, out of fear."

Or out of agreement. 

The Daily Mail story refers to "the atheist Nazis, who tried to turn (Christmas) into a pagan winter solstice celebration."

Can you say "Hello, Gap?" The Gap responded to pressure from the American Family Association about the absence of "Christmas" in their advertising by producing a commercial that does mention Christmas, but then adds "Go Solstice" in the next breath.

Really. The Gap is compared to atheist Nazis who tried to turn Christmas into a pagan solstice celebration. I don't even think I need to present a counter-argument, this can just stand on its own.

The Nazis hated Christmas for one simple reason: it celebrates the birth of a Jew.

The Nazis hated Jews because they killed Jesus. There really isn't evidence that they "hated Christmas", just evidence that they wanted to blend Christmas with nationalism. If anything, Christians should be angry that businesses are exploiting their holiday to make money.

By the way, this suggests a new tack in our discussion about Christmas. The left hates Christmas because it celebrates the birthday of the first Christian. But isn't there something faintly anti-Semitic about that?

No. First of all, the left does not hate Christmas. How many people on the left consider themselves Christian, anyway? There really aren't any good studies on religion vs left-wing and right-wing politics, so I cannot say.

Personally, I just feel as though you should not force people to acknowledge your holiday. If they do – okay. If they don't –okay. It should be our choice, right? But AFA insists that people do not have a choice. Wanting the choice is not "hating Christmas" and certainly is not anti-Semitic. If that were the case, then lobbying to force business to specifically acknowledge Christmas while simultaneously not forcing businesses to specifically acknowledge Hanukkah is anti-Semitic.

After all, Christians can hardly be accused of systemic racism when we believe the Savior of the world lived his life on earth as a Jew.

So? So maybe you're not racist with regard to Jesus. Maybe you still hate other Jews for killing Jesus. Maybe you hate black people, or Muslims. Believing that Jesus was a Jew is not an argument against Christians being racist. It is a red herring.

Even the left tries to protect the celebration of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, which conveniently for Jewish children aced out of the whole Christmas gift thing falls near Christmas most every year. In fact, some schools with left-leaning principals will allow the display of menorahs in school buildings while forbidding nativity scenes.

Citation needed, dude. Here, I did it for you. This has nothing to do with principals as far as I can tell – the whole menorah but not nativity scene is a New York City Public Education policy, which allows religious symbols during holidays so long as they do not depict a specific deity. So go put up a cross.

But wait a minute. All the key players in the nativity scene - father, mother, child, shepherds - were Jewish. That means we can celebrate two Jewish holidays this time of year instead of just one!

This is just underhanded. Mr. Fischer knows that Jewish people do not celebrate the birth of Christ as a Jewish holiday.

I say we start reminding folks that December 25 marks the birth of the greatest Jew who ever lived, and that America is too great a country to allow anti-Semitism to rob us of the recognition of this world-shaping figure given to the world by the Jewish people.

People who wish that the holidays be more inclusive to other religions are not anti-Semitic. Ad hominem much?

What other Jew has had the impact on the world that this figure has had? His influence is pervasive even 2,000 years after his death. One third of the world's population calls itself by his name. If there ever was a Jewish man who deserved his own holiday, Jesus is the one.

So from now on, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. When people question whether we ought to celebrate Christmas, my response will be to express wonder that they nurse such anti-Semitic feelings in their hearts. Why, I will add, with our first post-racial president and all, I thought we were supposed to be way beyond all that racist bigotry.

And I will conclude, "I celebrate Christmas because I'm no anti-Semitic racist bigot. How about you?"

Good for you! Go on celebrating Christmas. But don't force everyone else to do so as well and don't call people anti-Semitic racist bigots for not celebrating Christmas. That's really insulting to Jewish people. I guess people who celebrate Kwanzaa should say that they do so because they're no anti-black racist bigot. I guess people should say they celebrate Hannukah because they're no anti-Semitic racist bigot. I guess people should celebrate nothing at all because they aren't bigoted toward people who aren't religious. I guess people should celebrate Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha because they are no anti-Muslim racist bigot.

Okay, I'm done now.