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Trump's 'War on Christmas' is Nothing More than a Political Tactic

As the president touts support for religion, his administration seems hellbent on pushing policies largely seen as decidedly un-Christian.
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Politicians have always invoked religion as a tool for their political agenda, and as subtlety has never been President Trump’s strong suit, this tactic is currently on full display. Rallying crowds around the concept of taking back Christmas from the politically correct may garner cheers from those looking to exclude and isolate, but truly religious people from every background value actions over words.

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“What our Christian faith teaches us is we’re supposed to worry about our actions,” Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of Network lobby, a faith organization in DC that lobbies for social justice, told VICE Impact. “The phrase ‘Merry Christmas’ has very little to do with our faith and everything to do with our culture wars.”

In one moment, President Trump attempts to woo his predominantly Christian supporters with his campaign to end the “War on Christmas”, but in the next, he publicly endorses the decidedly un-Christian values of an accused sex offender like former Senate Republican candidate Roy Moore.

“The use of faith,” said Sister Campbell, “especially most recently, to say that sexual abuse of minors doesn’t matter because he’s a faithful man, is an abhorrent abuse of faith. Quite frankly, it’s not rooted in faith. It’s rooted in power politics.”

“The anchor of all faiths is community, and inclusion, and stepping away from fear. Faith has consequences and they are political, but you can’t manipulate the faith to fit politics.”

Religious leaders have also taken issue with the Republican tax overhaul, which many say is a gift to the wealthy and an attack on the poor and middle class. A coalition of more than 2,400 religious leaders) recently wrote to Senate leaders to say the tax bill “violates our moral principles of equality, justice, and fairness.”

Still, Trump has established a comfortable rapport with Evangelicals, many of whom have somehow managed to overlook his less-than-Christian tendencies. And it’s paid off for them: the nomination of conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and the rollback on contraceptive care in the Affordable Care Act are big victories for the religious right.

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Religion has been a convenient tool for dividing people and creating wars over ideas, even when the heart of each religion has more that is shared than is disparate.

“The anchor of all faiths is community,” said Sister Campbell, “and inclusion, and stepping away from fear. Faith has consequences and they are political, but you can’t manipulate the faith to fit politics.”

Nida Allam, 3rd Vice Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party and devoted Muslim American, sees this campaign as yet another Trump swipe at our nation’s founding principle of freedom of religion. She pointed out in an interview with VICE Impact that this was the first time in 18 years a President has not hosted an Iftar at the White House during the month of Ramadan.

“An Iftar isn’t just an event to celebrate the holiday,” said Allam, “but an opportunity to build relationships with community leaders, to say we are a nation built on freedom of religion.”

She sees Trump’s attempt to take back the phrase “Merry Christmas” as not only a divisive tactic meant to undermine the many other faiths and beliefs of Americans beside Christianity; it also demeans the religious significance of Christmas.

“It reminds me of the Starbucks cup controversy,” said Allam. As a Muslim American who holds Jesus Christ in high esteem, she found the controversy offensive. “Muslims believe in Jesus as a prophet, and even though we don’t celebrate Christmas, we wouldn’t bring him down to the level of a cup.”

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In fact, Allam studied Jesus’s teachings in depth in her Islamic studies, and there’s an entire chapter of the Koran devoted to Jesus’s mother, Mary (Maryam).

“The whole chapter is about the patience of this woman,” explained Allam, “and how she raised such a pious human being who has become this religious and historic figure for many religions.”
For Rabbi Dan Geffen at Temple Adas Israel on Long Island, the religious implications of Christmas don’t play much of a role in Jewish tradition, because the Torah was written before the birth of Christ. But the cultural implications for a Jewish American are significant.

If Trump truly cared about religious beliefs, he might be able to use Christmas as a unifier.

“We are not participating religiously,” Rabbi Geffen told VICE Impact, “but there is a draw to connect culturally. There are so many aspects of Christmas that are positive: the giving and receiving of gifts, the sharing with those less fortunate, the happy, thoughtful mode.”

If Trump truly cared about religious beliefs, he might be able to use Christmas as a unifier. Even though everyone doesn’t celebrate it, everyone can honor Jesus’s teachings of compassion and humility. But these are not the adjectives most frequently used to describe Donald Trump, “defender of Christmas”.

“I can sympathize, and maybe even empathize, with the argument of a Christian person who grew up in an era before ‘Happy Holidays’, when the only religious thing you’d see at this time of year was about Christmas,” said Rabbi Geffen. “It’s a lamenting and a longing for something that is no longer present.”

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He believes that we should be working on finding the delicate balance of celebrating that we are a melting pot, but also honoring the things that distinguish us from one another, and allowing people to maintain their traditions. Instead, that sense of nostalgia is used to further isolate people, to blame minority religious groups for taking something away.

“The idea that there was ever intended to be a dominant culture or religion in this country is not what the founding fathers intended,” he said.

He just wants to respect people’s deeply held beliefs, no matter what they are.

She sees Trump’s attempt to take back the phrase “Merry Christmas” as not only a divisive tactic meant to undermine the many other faiths and beliefs of Americans beside Christianity; it also demeans the religious significance of Christmas.

“I have no problem wishing people a Merry Christmas when I know they celebrate Christmas,” said Rabbi Geffen. “But when I go into a store and I don’t know what someone celebrates, I think ‘happy holidays’ is a good way to wish them happiness in this time.”

Sister Campbell spent a long time trying to figure out what religion President Trump was – with all his talk of faith and Christmas, he must have had a church. “He doesn’t know faith,” she said. “Eventually, he claimed Presbyterian, but he didn’t know anything about the bible. He doesn’t know the deeper consequences of things. He thinks religion is a secret handshake, that he can pretend to be a faith person.”

The dangers of this inability to see the truth and the depth in people, issues, and religion are well-known by Christians.

“We want to make sure that in the 21st Century,” said Sister Campbell, “Jesus doesn’t get born in a manger again.”