Losing our battle for Christmas

Dear Rev. Jerry Falwell:

As a loyal follower of yours, I write to say that you are absolutely correct. Christmas is being purged from our culture. I checked it out myself. I heard of your crusade to preserve the story of Jesus' birth in the one place Americans will have some hope of seeing it. Namely, our retail core.

You said stores ought to trumpet "Merry Christmas" instead of this bland "Happy Holidays" stuff. You said you were going to sue them and boycott them until they heel to the Christmas spirit.

In fact, you told ABC News: "We're kicking their butts, and they're unhappy."

I hope so, for Jesus' sake. But reverend, I have doubts. I spent a few hours recently in Seattle's downtown shopping district. And evidence of Christmas was as hard to find as the remains of Noah's Ark.

Take the City Centre mall, on Fifth Avenue. No "Christ" in there, that's for sure. Ann Taylor's window theme is " 'Tis Dashing, 'Tis Essential." Butch Blum just says "Cheers!" as if the way to get through the holy days is by drinking.

At the front door of Barneys New York are two headless mannequins with T-shirts that read: "WE ALL HAVE AIDS."

Reverend, you warned that the abortionists and feminists and gays are ruining the country. But this isn't true, is it? That WE ALL HAVE AIDS?

Anyway, the message didn't seem all that Christmasy. So I went to Westlake Center. There, the sight of a 35-foot Christmas tree filled me with joy. But when I looked closer I saw it was actually the "17th Annual Westlake Holiday Tree."

The joy drained from me like sap from a tapped maple. Someone — atheists probably — had stripped all meaning from this religious symbol.

It was then that I understood the stakes. This is a war. You're either for Christmas, or you're against it.

Downtown Seattle is against it. Here's a typical Nordstrom display: A mannequin in stiletto heels lounges on a curved divan the color of sin. The theme is: "Share a little happiness."

Can anyone dispute that this is more "bedtime at the brothel" than "away in a manger"?

I went into Macy's, with its blasphemous "Holiday Lane." Reverend, you'll be proud to hear I marched up to a clerk and barked your question: "Christmas, friend or foe?!"

She pretended not to know what I was talking about. She replied: "So, all ready for Christmas yet?"

She said "Christmas" as if it was something to ward off, like bird flu. I made a note to report her as a "foe," and ran out.

Reverend, I don't want to bring bad tidings. But we Christians are losing the battle for Christmas.

Jesus has been totally drummed out of the shopping experience. For U.S. Christians, it's getting to be so the atheists make you check your faith at the mall door. It's lonely and dispiriting for the 230 million of us there are left.

And here's what's truly sad. After we are persecuted from the malls, how are we supposed to observe the birth of the Lord? What's left for us? Just church? The family hearth?

I can't imagine what Jesus would have said about that.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.