Money and politics cloud but must not conquer the meaning of a profound holy day

and so Christmas is a season of generosity and giving, is certainly not contrary to Christianity. But it is weak tea compared to the entire range of meanings associated with Christmas in the Christian tradition. And when Christmas becomes yet another excuse to overspend and overconsume, it looks more like an offering to the great god Mammon then any kind

of celebration of Jesus.

But even that is better than the recent transformation of Christmas into yet another battle front in the culture wars. The current idea is that American Christians have been suffering under the effects of a “War on Christmas” and must now exert pressure to put Christmas back into what has come to be called “the holiday season.” Of course, the reason many Americans now greet one another with “happy holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas” is because only about half of us now celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, and some Americans are actually celebrating a different religious holiday altogether. (See Hanukkah, Jewish.) Genericizing Christmas to “the holiday season” is best viewed as a quintessentially American effort to live together amid our very real religious (and irreligious) diversity. But Fox News, notably former hosts John Gibson and Bill O’Reilly, turned this marker of polite toleration into a rallying point for a conservative Christian organizing campaign. Its presupposition is that this is a Christian country, by God, and we are not going to allow the forces of liberalism, secularism, and political correctness to drive “Merry Christmas” signs out of the stores and off the lips of those underpaid, overworked cashiers. So it’s time to go to war for Jesus, once again. Christianity remains the single most dominant religion in the United States, but its hold on the American population is slipping. Adherence to Christianity is not being replaced by a rise in other religions but instead by a loss of religious affiliation altogether. The trend is especially visible among the young. It is a powerful enough, obvious enough trend that those attempting to relate to the whole culture as it now is, as opposed to the American culture of the eulogized past, must respond accordingly. Yet it is by now a well-established trend, especially on the Protestant Christian right, to respond to this trend neither by redoubling evangelistic efforts nor by adjusting to cultural realities but instead by waging a counterattack led by pugnacious culture warriors.

We may not be able to get most Americans to go to church or follow Christian values, but we can follow the example of do like Alabama Judge Roy Moore and install granite 10 Commandments monuments and refuse to move them when ordered.

We may not be able to get most Americans to want to practice a truly Christian Christmas, but we can pressure consumer-sensitive retailers to be “ChristmasFriendly” as we understand it.

We may not be able to make President Trump actually go to church or exhibit the Christian graces like forgiveness and humility, but we can view him as God’s man in the White House if he defends Christianity in ways like joining our crusade against the War on Christmas.

The sad irony of this deterioration of the meaning of Christmas must not be lost.

There was (and is) Christmas as a theologically rich set of feast days, Advent weeks, and spiritual reflections on salvation history, the birth of Jesus, and one’s own Christian faithfulness.

There was and is Christmas as a season of heightened charitable giving to nonprofit organizations that do good in the world.

There was and is Christmas as a time of consumer spending for gifts and a major stimulus for the U.S. economy.

Now there is Christmas as the latest totem of fading but still weaponizable Christian cultural power – crudely and effectively seized upon by our sometimes crudely effective “Christian” president, telling us that “Christmas is back, better and bigger than ever before … and we say it with pride.”

And there are visible “Christian leaders” who consider both the crusade and the president truly great developments in Christian witness in America.

This year, it is not a coincidence that I have felt compelled to try to practice the most serious version of Advent observance that I have ever undertaken in my life. As Christmas – and weaponized, Trumpified Fox Evangelicalism – gets ever more corrupted, thoughtful Christians need to return to the church’s most profound traditions. David Gushee is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University in Georgia.