The Tenth Annual Attempt to Undermine Christianity at Christmas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Liberty Counsel\u00a0and the American Family Association have\u00a0posted their Tenth Annual "Naughty and Nice" list, encouraging Christians to shop at stores that\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Tenth Annual Attempt to Undermine Christianity at Christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Liberty Counsel\u00a0and the American Family Association have\u00a0posted their Tenth Annual "Naughty and Nice" list, encouraging Christians to shop at stores that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-25T05:12:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/withoutanet.typepad.com\/.a\/6a01156ed948ea970c015438a41ecd970c-500wi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html\",\"name\":\"The Tenth Annual Attempt to Undermine Christianity at Christmas\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-25T05:12:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-11-25T05:12:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"Liberty Counsel\u00a0and the American Family Association have\u00a0posted their Tenth Annual \\\"Naughty and Nice\\\" list, encouraging Christians to shop at stores that\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Tenth Annual Attempt to Undermine Christianity at Christmas\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Tenth Annual Attempt to Undermine Christianity at Christmas","description":"Liberty Counsel\u00a0and the American Family Association have\u00a0posted their Tenth Annual \"Naughty and Nice\" list, encouraging Christians to shop at stores that","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Tenth Annual Attempt to Undermine Christianity at Christmas","og_description":"Liberty Counsel\u00a0and the American Family Association have\u00a0posted their Tenth Annual \"Naughty and Nice\" list, encouraging Christians to shop at stores that","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2012-11-25T05:12:39+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/withoutanet.typepad.com\/.a\/6a01156ed948ea970c015438a41ecd970c-500wi"}],"author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html","name":"The Tenth Annual Attempt to Undermine Christianity at Christmas","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-11-25T05:12:39+00:00","dateModified":"2012-11-25T05:12:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"Liberty Counsel\u00a0and the American Family Association have\u00a0posted their Tenth Annual \"Naughty and Nice\" list, encouraging Christians to shop at stores that","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Tenth Annual Attempt to Undermine Christianity at Christmas"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":10833,"date":"2012-11-25T00:12:39","date_gmt":"2012-11-25T05:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=10833"},"modified":"2012-11-25T00:12:39","modified_gmt":"2012-11-25T05:12:39","slug":"liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/liberty-counsels-tenth-annual-attempt-to-undermine-christianity.html","title":{"rendered":"The Tenth Annual Attempt to Undermine Christianity at Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ Liberty Counsel<\/a>\u00a0and the American Family Association<\/a> have\u00a0 posted their Tenth Annual \u201cNaughty and Nice\u201d list<\/a>, encouraging Christians to shop at stores that wish them a Merry Christmas rather than a mere \u201cHappy Holidays.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Am I the only one who remembers a time, not so long ago, when Christians thought that their goal should be to being the Christian message to those who needed to hear it, and not merely to surround themselves with other Christians to exchange Christian greetings with one another?<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

Liberty Counsel\u2019s and the AFA\u2019s lists are an attempt to bolster a form of cultural pseudo-Christianity by circling the wagons of that identity. Their aim is clearly not<\/em> to encourage Christians to proclaim any sort of Christian message to others \u2013 even the minimal one of going to places where people don\u2019t themselves wish others a Merry Christmas, and wish them one. Indeed, their aim seems to be to get Christians to form a \u201choly huddle,\u201d to live in a religious ghetto. While claiming to be opposed to the censoring of Christmas, they are in fact getting Christians to censor themselves, only taking their business \u2013 and so only saying \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d \u2013 in stores where their beliefs appear to be shared.<\/p>\n

I hope that anyone who is a Christian and takes their faith seriously will oppose their stance, recognizing it for what it is: something profoundly anti-Christian.<\/p>\n

I likewise hope that anyone who has a genuine Christian faith and feels it appropriate to wish others a Merry Christmas will go out and do so, not merely to those who wish it to them first. Surely the Golden Rule applies here?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s quite some time until Christmas. But in the mean time, perhaps someone should warn Liberty Counsel and the American Family Association that they might just be on Jesus\u2019 \u201cNaughty List\u201d?<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"