The historian John Steele Gordon writes to comment on Paul Mirengoff’s “We’re not the grinch after all.” He writes:
I too had the same reaction to Keillor’s bizarre column.
Just two notes. First Christmas is not the most important Christian holy day. Easter is, by far. Christmas wasn’t even celebrated until the 4th century AD, and in the Reformation, many Protestant sects (Pilgrims, Puritans, and Presbyterians among them) banned Christmas. It’s the wholly secular holiday that is called Christmas that makes Christmas such a big deal. See my WSJ article on the subject.
Second, it has always seemed to me that it was not Jews but atheists (a religion of its own in that it is a belief system that is untestable) who have led the charge against public celebrations of Christmas as an “establishment of religion.” See the ludicrous brouhaha in Sonoma County, California (where else?).
Merry Christmas,
JSG
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.