{"id":613,"date":"2010-12-10T19:21:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-10T19:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/12\/the-merry-christmas-police.html"},"modified":"2010-12-10T19:21:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-10T19:21:00","slug":"the-merry-christmas-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/12\/the-merry-christmas-police.html","title":{"rendered":"The Merry Christmas Police"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Every year at this time some Christians get themselves all in a tizzy about what greeting is considered appropriate for the holidays.\u00a0 Bill O\u2019Reilly is famous for this particular brand of demagoguery.\u00a0 Frankly I\u2019m not one to get upset about being wished a \u201cMerry Christmas,\u201d but I always just assumed that people said\u00a0 \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d just to be considerate.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t realize that it was an assault on the very core of their sacred beliefs.<\/p>\n

I regularly challenge people\u2019s sacred beliefs and if I were going to do so it wouldn\u2019t be by wishing them \u201cHappy Holidays.\u201d\u00a0 Pastor Robert Jeffress is a frequent Fox News guest, host of a televangelist show and founder of grinchalert.com<\/a>.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t take any deep insight to figure out that this new brand of \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d police has a \u201cChristian nation\u201d agenda.<\/p>\n

Last night Alan Colmes<\/a> interviewed him and easily uncovered his actual intentions:<\/p>\n

Colmes: When you do this thing for fun, which you\u2019re having fun with this this Christmas season and the so-called War on Christmas and you\u2019re doing this to have some fun with this Grinch Who Stole Christmas concept. But behind that is a point of view that you have that Christians are a superior religion and non-Christians should not hold public office. You truly have a bias against those who are not of your particular faith. Is that what Jesus taught?<\/p>\n

Jeffress: Well I believe that Christians have a right to elect Christian leaders. I\u2019ve never suggested, Alan, that they ought to be codified into law.<\/p>\n

Colmes: So you\u2019d never vote for a Jew? You\u2019d never vote for an Atheist? You\u2019d never vote for a Muslim? You\u2019d never vote for a Buddhist? You would only cast your vote, and urge your flock to cast their votes, for those of the Christian faith.<\/p>\n

Jeffress: Well, I believe that a competent Christian is better than a competent non-Christian.<\/p>\n

Colmes: Why?<\/p>\n

Jeffress: Because that is my religious belief.<\/p>\n

Colmes: Is a non-competent Christian better than a competent non-Christian \u2026 Can you see an election where a non-competent Christian is running against a competent non-Christian and the non-Christian would be the better candidate?<\/p>\n

Jeffress: I can see that possibility and I think at that moment, it has to be a matter of conscience with the Christian.<\/p>\n

Colmes: So could you see yourself voting for a non-Christian?<\/p>\n

Jeffress: I could see if there were two non-Christians running, I could.<\/p>\n

Colmes: But if one is a Christian, even if that person is the less competent person, you\u2019d still vote for the Christian?<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

Jeffress: Alan, I\u2019ll have to pray about that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After Jesus reviews the candidates, he\u2019ll get back to us with a list of approved non-Christians.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year at this time some Christians get themselves all in a tizzy about what greeting is considered appropriate for the holidays.\u00a0 Bill O\u2019Reilly is famous for this particular brand of demagoguery.\u00a0 Frankly I\u2019m not one to get upset about being wished a \u201cMerry Christmas,\u201d but I always just assumed that people said\u00a0 \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-fundamentalist-christianity"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Merry Christmas Police<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every year at this time some Christians get themselves all in a tizzy about what greeting is considered appropriate for the holidays.\u00a0 Bill O\u2019Reilly is\" \/>\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\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/12\/the-merry-christmas-police.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Merry Christmas Police\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every year at this time some Christians get themselves all in a tizzy about what greeting is considered appropriate for the holidays.\u00a0 Bill O\u2019Reilly is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/12\/the-merry-christmas-police.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-10T19:21:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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