Happy Holidays From The White House!: Is President Bush Commander In Chief Of The ‘War On Christmas’?

For at least the third year running, President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush have joined the “War on Christmas.”

The 2007 White House holiday card is just out. Yep, that’s right. It’s a holiday card. Once again, the annual December greeting fails to contain the word “Christmas” and features no Christian symbolism.

Yesterday on the daytime television program “The View,” host Barbara Walters showed the card and opined that it was the most religious one she had ever received from the White House. But it’s actually very similar to the cards that went out in 2005 and 2006. All three cards featured a soft, watercolor painting of a White House scene and a passage from the Old Testament inside.

This year’s card quotes Nehemiah 9:6, which reads, “You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.”

The painting on the card depicts a snowy scene of a White House portico. A pool of water, a bare tree trunk and some kind of statue appear in the forefront. Almost as an afterthought, one can see, inside the White House, a lighted Christmas tree. There is no mention of Jesus, the savior or Christianity.

Several Religious Right groups went ballistic earlier this year, asserting that they would boycott any store that refused to use the words “Merry Christmas” on Web sites, in sales fliers and on in-store decorations. Yet Mr. and Mrs. Bush, funded by the Republican National Committee, just send out a card that says to people, “May the joy of all creation fill your heart this blessed season 2007.”

Now, what season might that be? Are the Bushes afraid to say the word “Christmas”? We at Americans United will wait for the press releases denouncing Bush that will surely be forthcoming from Focus on the Family, the Alliance Defense Fund and Liberty Counsel. After all, these organizations are certainly not going to hold Home Depot to a higher standard than the White House, are they?

Surely they are offended and will speak out, right? Otherwise, one might mistake them for partisan hacks and hypocrites.

By Rob Boston