How Atheist Grinches Are Trying to Steal Christmas
Almost a December tradition, the American Atheists group is posting two different “Atheist Christmas” billboards in Virginia this month, encouraging Americans to essentially leave “Christ” out of Christmas.
According to WSET ABC-13, covering Lynchburg, Danville and Roanoke, the first billboard shows a text message exchange where a young woman says she’s not going to church this Christmas because she doesn’t “believe in that stuff anymore” and her parents will “get over it.” The second blatantly uses President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign slogan by stating, “Make Christmas Great Again—Skip Church!”
This Christmas, says religion and culture expert and author Dr. Alex McFarland, atheists are on the wrong side of history—again.
“Even some of the most noted non-believers assert that Jesus’ death is irrefutable,” McFarland said. “Yet, each December, atheists use the Christmas season to leverage any opportunity to spread their irrelevant message. For someone as insignificant as atheists say Jesus was, they sure capitalize on the Christmas season to market their non-beliefs. If He wasn’t born in a manger and if His life was a fable, why not put these billboards up around the country in June? Because they know that millions celebrate—and revere—Jesus’ birth and know that He alone is the reason for the season.”
The billboards will be up all month in Virginia, and others are planned for Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina, where McFarland also serves as Director for Christian Worldview and Apologetics at the Christian Worldview Center of North Greenville University.
“It is important for people to know religion has nothing to do with being a good person, and that being open and honest about what you believe—and don’t believe—is the best gift you can give this holiday season,” said American Atheists President David Silverman, whom McFarland will debate in February in Canada.
McFarland added that even the attempt to generalize the Christmas season with a “Happy Holidays” greeting falls flat, as that phrase is actually based on “Holy Days.”
“So even in their quest to generalize and water down Christmas and avoid the ‘C-word,'” McFarland said, “atheists miss the mark yet again.” {eoa}
