Is Secular Utopianism in America Hollowing Out Christmas?

In many minds, Cinco de Mayo is a vague “holiday” celebrating something to do with Mexico, though it’s not about Independence Day as such.  Who cares?  It’s really an excuse to party in bars or at home.  Prepare the way for Big Spectator Sports and Liquor Industry Wealth.

     Isn’t the same hollowing out of hallowed Christmas well underway in America, even among nominal Christians?  Getting Christianity entirely out of the public sphere has been the agenda of secular liberals in government for some time now.  Isn’t Christmas really about the economy these days?  Celebrate, yes.  Jobs, yes.  Spend lots of money for presents, yes.  Travel, yes.  Christ, no.

     Then, again, if some guilty people want to spend an hour in church, that’s up to them.  Same with prayers, just do it in private.  Most liberals can grudgingly tolerate hearing “Merry Christmas” now and then, or look the other way when a Christmas stamp shows upon on their mail.

     But fiscal conservatives in both parties know that Christmas is increasingly about the God of Money.  Helping the economy is what’s best for people, they say.  Growth and material well-being is what it’s all about.  Just a matter of time before Christmas will be 100% secularized.  It’s still at about 47% right now.  Will Santa and Rudolph and Frosty  reign supreme as the new “cool” Trinity?

     Sarah Cunningham’s new book The Donkey In the Living Room: A Tradition That Celebrates the Real Meaning of Christmas might remind people of the Democratic Party and its headlong rush to our New Secular Utopia.  Much of the GOP could be included as well, secretly though not publicly, since the Christian Right still is a factor at the ballot box.  Is Christmas becoming another Cinco de Mayo?