Santa Claus shrugged

It's that time of year again. The weather becomes nippier, the holiday specials invade our television sets, and the sounds of sleigh bells and political rhetoric dance like sugar plums in our heads.

On ABC Family, you watch the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, and on FOX News, you watch the right wing political machine spew mindless dribble about a cultural war on Christmas being led by a so-called liberal conspiracy.

This year, Texan soothsayer Rick Perry sounded the rallying cry in his latest campaign ad for the Iowa Caucus. The setting for the ad seems like something taken out of a Better Homes and Gardens Magazine as Perry portrays himself as a moral politician who seeks to cleanse the secular blight on American traditionalism. Perry starts off boldly by stating, "you know there's something wrong with this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school."

Perry then proceeds to attack Obama's "war on religion," despite the fact that the president thoroughly discussed the birth of Christ in his holiday address to the nation. On the other hand, Fox News was quick to point out the fact that Obama failed to mention God in his YouTube Thanksgiving address.

This certainly isn't the first time Mr. Obama's religious beliefs have been in question. In fact, religious accusations made against Obama seem to be forever in flux. Is Obama a godless secularist or a fanatical Muslim? If these nuts want to design political propaganda against the president, they should at least make it consistent.

Truthfully, President Obama is a more vocal protestant than our philosopher president Thomas Jefferson or Glenn Beck favorite Thomas Paine who once made the claim that "priests and conjurors are of the same trade."

Members of the Republican Party are not immune from these attacks in this artificially created culture war. Mitt Romney, arguably the GOP's strongest candidate, has been targeted for his Mormon faith and membership in the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Aides and supporters of both the Perry and Gingrich campaigns have accused Romney of belonging to a cult and that he shouldn't be considered as Christian.

While Mormonism may have its peculiarities, Romney, along with Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, have not indicated that religion has a place in their decision making process. In fact, they have both avoided use of religious rhetoric in their campaigns unlike Perry and GOP hopefuls Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachmann.

What happened to freedom of religion and thought in this country?

America is not a nation of religious fundamentalists. This religious warfare is dangerous to our values, a secular government and a diverse civil society. A candidate's religious beliefs shouldn't be made an issue unless the candidate makes it an issue.

This talk of culture war brings with it a sobering truth. Popularity in religious beliefs institutionalizes tyranny of the majority. While evangelicals like Bachmann and Perry can politically afford to attack homosexuals, Mormons and atheists, Romney and Obama have to either hide their religious identity or constantly reaffirm their beliefs to the Grand Inquisitor that is the right wing political machine.

It's telling that less than half of American voters would accept an atheist as president. Does such animosity towards minority beliefs reflect the features of a nation that truly values freedom of thought, civil exchange and religious liberty?

Let me put on my Rick Perry mask for a minute: you know there's something wrong with this country when Mormons can't run for president without fear mongering, the first black president is the also the first president accused of being a secret Muslim, and Christmas can't be celebrated without discussion of its demise by liberals, gays and atheists.

However, since the topic of the demise of Christmas has been breached, I'll entertain the idea. In the modern era, there has been an assault on Christmas but not by secularism. If anything is destroying the traditional message of Christmas, it's consumerism. Despite the dire straits of our economy, the horror stories of this year's Black Friday tumbled through the national media like an avalanche.

Christmas should be a time of celebration, of harmony and goodwill between people, of community solidarity. Today it's about waiting hours in freezing temperatures to get the new iPad. I'm sorry, but the way I learned it, Christ's message wasn't to "useth thy pepper spray upon thy neighbor for the last Xbox on the shelf." Perhaps Perry is right; maybe we should all reassess our country's priorities this holiday season.

This Christmas, I hope you all enjoy the holiday for what it truly means – a time with your family and friends free from polarized pundits and politicians. If you have some free time on Dec. 25, honor Christ by doing as he would do: Give hope to those who need it at a local shelter.

We need this message of unity in a time when many of us are unemployed, in debt, alone or fighting in unjust wars.

We need this message to reach our Congress, which continues to exhibit the harsh reality of a divided nation.

We need this message outside Wall Street where citizens continue to challenge blind acceptance in the dogma of the global church of corporate capitalism.

We need this message to echo in the protests being held around the world in opposition to corruption, tyranny, voter fraud and injustice.