In Tuesday’s report RNS offers three stories about the growing conflict over the religious expression-or in some cases lack of expression-of Christmas in the public square.
Associate Editor Kevin Ecktrom updates us on a story we published one year ago about a boycott launched against Macy’s for refusing to allow its employees to say “Merry Christmas.” Macy’s has given in: About this time last year, Manuel Zamorano was making his list, checking it twice, and Macy’s department stores came up as naughty, not nice. This year, the Folsom, Calif., grandfather is singing a different tune, something more like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Angry that the venerable department store refused to use “Merry Christmas” in its advertising or among its sales clerks, Zamorano launched a boycott, which Macy’s officials quickly dismissed out of hand last year. But as increasing numbers of retailers face pressure from conservative Christians to ditch the more generic “holidays” for more explicit references to Christmas, Macy’s relented and Zamorano called off the boycott. The difference this year, Zamorano and other activists say, is that their complaints are starting to have an effect. The U.S. Capitol Holiday Tree has been renamed the Capitol Christmas Tree, and rank-and-file people are growing tired of what Zamorano calls “political correctness run amok.”
Andrea Useem writes about the the unexpected support coming from Jews and Muslims to acknowledge Christmas as a Christian holiday: The movement defending Christmas as a Christian holiday has attracted some unlikely allies: religiously observant Jews and Muslims. Their support bucks the assumption that religious minorities prefer a neutral approach to the season, desiring “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” at retail checkout lines or “Frosty the Snowman” over “O Holy Night” at public school concerts. Motivations differ, with Jewish leaders calling retailers’ omission of “Christmas” an ominous sign for a country that used to consider itself “Judeo-Christian.” Muslim leaders offer a more strategic reason: establishing firm ground on which to make their own holiday demands. Scholars say the ballooning controversy and the unusual alliances taking shape illustrate the challenge an increasingly multicultural society faces trying to accommodate many religious expressions.
And Bobby Ross looks at how a town in Oklahoma solved the “December Dilemma”: When the superintendent in this Bible Belt town yanked baby Jesus from a fifth-grade school play-but left in symbols of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, not to mention Santa Claus-a small army of parents erupted in protest. Some even blamed the defeat of a $12.9 million school bond election on voters irked by Superintendent Karl Springer’s exclusion of the nativity scene. But in the months after last year’s controversy, school officials, religious leaders and parents came together to develop a religious liberties policy that has helped mend, if not heal completely, the strained relations, observers say. As school districts nationwide grapple with the “December Dilemma” of how to mark the holidays, some see this Oklahoma City suburb’s experience offers a case study in what can go wrong-and right.
