Atheism, Islam give Christmas life

By JAMES P. PINKERTON
SPECIAL TO NEWSDAY
So Christmas has survived yet another year.
Yes, there has been a war on Christmas, fought by a few lefty lawyers who managed to buffalo some multiculturalist bureaucrats and politicians. But it's been a losing war: First, and most obvious, there's the steadfast religiosity of the American people; polls routinely show that 90 percent of Americans believe in God. Secular progressives have done their best to knock the faith out of people, but it doesn't seem to be working.
Part of the problem is that those who are most inclined to accept "modernity" are oftentimes the least inclined to have children. So "converts" to atheism have a way of disappearing without heirs, while those who stick with their faith, including the injunction to go forth and multiply, are more likely to have kids who inherit at least some degree of devotion.
A second reason for the survival of Christmas is that people seek out rituals and traditions to help provide meaning and context for their lives. The self-declared forces of enlightenment and progress thought that they could demolish the structures of belief, and that after those structures had fallen, people would be free and liberated. Well, it didn't work out like that: People who were liberated from the old ways often found they had become slaves to some new ideology -- made worse, as Winston Churchill said of the Nazis, "by the lights of perverted science." In which case, Christianity starts to look pretty good to Christians. And so, to adapt a witticism from 18th-century writer Voltaire -- himself an agnostic, at most -- if Christmas didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent it.
A third reason is backlash. Around the world, conservative, even reactionary, religions are on the rise. In India, for example, Hindu fundamentalism is gaining strength, as Indians react to their neighboring Islamic countries and also to the increase in commercial interaction with the West. In China, millions are moving toward Christianity, while the government is pushing a neo-Confucianism.
Islamic fundamentalism
And the Middle East -- well, Americans know about that. Islamic fundamentalism has been the guiding energy behind suicide bombers and al-Qaida, and we can bet there's an even bigger religious revival occurring in Iraq, as both Shia and the Sunni look to heaven for inspiration.
If that's the climate around the world, it makes sense that Christianity would grow in its homelands, too. If others clutch their holy books, Americans will respond by reaching for their own comfortable Bible.
So we might consider the reaction to the recent announcement by a black Muslim, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., that he would hold his hand on a Quran when being sworn in as a member of the 110th Congress. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., wrote a letter to his constituents in response, warning that if Americans "don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration, there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Quran." Liberals and open-border advocates were outraged, of course, but you might ask yourself: Do you want more Muslims moving to America? Do you look forward to more Muslims in Congress -- you know, with access to classified national-security information, including counterterrorism plans? If the answer is "no," then it's likely that you are moving closer to Goode's immigration position -- and that, in addition, the sturdy observance of Christmas looks like a better and better bulwark.
That's why Christmas survived 2006. Christianity is more than a religion of peace; it includes a doctrine of self-defense. And sometimes, that's a fighting faith.
Pinkerton is a columnist for Newsday.