Putting the X Back in Xmas
The American Family Association, Alliance Defense Fund, and Liberty Counsel are not groups to sit idly by while secularists commodify, denigrate, and otherwise trivialize Christmas. And what better way to fight back than with pre-made gift packs?
The Mississippi-based American Family Association says it has sold more than 500,000 buttons and 125,000 bumper stickers bearing the slogan "Merry Christmas: It's Worth Saying."
The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal aid group that boasts a network of some 900 lawyers standing ready to "defend Christmas," says it has moved about 20,000 "Christmas packs." The packs, available for a suggested $29 donation, include a three-page legal memo and two lapel pins.
And Liberty Counsel, a conservative law firm affiliated with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, says it has sold 12,500 legal memos on celebrating Christmas and 8,000 of its own buttons and bumper stickers.
Leaders say demand for the goods -- which are pitched online and through e-mail to supporters -- is driven by what they view as a coordinated effort to secularize Christmas.
Gift pack buyers are participants in a longstanding tradition of anti-consumerist consumerism; the larger War on Xmas movement has always been about self-promotion and ratings. And surely something is right with the world when people express their disgust with spiritual drift by purchasing thousands upon thousands of lapel pins.
Elsewhere in Reason: Back in 2003, proud Christianist Jeremy Lott celebrated the Christian culture industry. And in 2004, Contributing Editor Julian Sanchez grokked "the true spirit of Xmas."
