Here’s a quote to stick on your fridge:

It has been my view that the steady secularizing and insistent effort at [sic] de-religioning America has been dangerous. That danger flashed red in the fall into subprime personal behavior by borrowers and bankers, who after all are just people. Northerners and atheists who vilify Southern evangelicals are throwing out nurturers of useful virtue with the bathwater of obnoxious political opinions.

The point for a healthy society of commerce and politics is not that religion saves, but that it keeps most of the players inside the chalk lines. We are erasing the chalk lines.

This is a fellow who would equate the supposed “War on Christmas” with the complete economic meltdown of his country. Blaming atheists on a crisis that was a direct consequence of the deregulation of very sensitive markets makes about as much sense as crediting the alignment of certain planets for the characteristics of human beings (more on that another day). This whole argument is baseless, ignorant, and shows a complete lack of any fundamental understanding of the economy. No, evangelical parishes having more power to influence people would not have saved America, sir.

I have a bit of a message to all the Christians getting up at arms and worried about their precious holiday losing ground in America: A lucky thing called the 1st amendment protects people from having YOUR religion shoved down their throats. That people choose to use Holidays instead of Christmas just demonstrates people are respectful of other cultures and traditions. Some of these same ‘oppressed’ Christians are the same people who vote to disallow gays from marrying or adopting kids. Yeah, not being able to say Merry Christmas really sucks compared to that, doesn’t it?