One More Comment on the “Christmas Wars”

Perhaps we've all heard enough by now about the ongoing effort to erase the notion of Christmas as a public observance in the Western world. But there are plenty of encouraging indications that this effort will fail. I was struck by this almost casual invocation of "Christmas" coming from a Norwegian UN official, upbraiding the United States and other Western countries for their "stinginess" in offering aid for the relief of the Southeast Asian tsunami victims. This guy is really a piece of work, a Scandinavian social democrat from Central Casting—not only does he offer this criticism, unseemly more for its timing than its content, but he uses it as an occasion to bash the Bush administration's tax cuts! One would have thought his mind would be on other things at such a moment; it's rather like hearing a cop at the scene of an auto wreck deliver a disquisition about the need for mandatory air bags and alternative forms of transportion before calling the ambulance. Read the whole thing. But note particularly these words:

"It is beyond me why are we so stingy, really," the Norwegian-born U.N. official told reporters. "Christmastime should remind many Western countries at least, [of] how rich we have become."

How true. And yet, how interesting to hear "Christmas" invoked in this context by this man. It would be nice if this gentleman were to explain to us precisely why Christmastime should remind us of our wealth. But in doing so, he would have to mention the name of Christ, something he would do with only the greatest reluctance. Is it not revealing, however, that even this bureaucrat feels it appropriate to draw on the moral capital of Christianity, in a moment of moral urgency. Imagine the difference if he had said, "The time of Winter Festival should remind us...." All it would remind us of is what we had lost. 

The difference, then, is no small matter. It goes to the very source of the moral dispositions planted deeply in our civilization, the dispositions that lead us to feel obliged to help the suffering people of Southeast Asia. The UN bureaucrats will not be able to draw on that moral capital forever, unless they acknowledge and protect and replenish its sources. In this little episode is written the dilemma of all secularizing reform movements, including the Democratic Party.