Wishing someone "Happy Holidays" can get you in trouble
By Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun
The Rev. Jerry Falwell is standing up for Christmas.
Fair warning to any public official or retailer responsible for calling a Christmas tree a "holiday tree": You may receive a call from a lawyer or become the target of a boycott.
Two groups, Liberty Counsel, affiliated with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, and the Alliance Defense Fund, say they have almost 1,600 lawyer-volunteers ready to battle what some conservative Christians view as a secular movement against Nativity scenes, Christmas trees and even the greeting "Merry Christmas."
Governments that have put "holiday trees" on display have been lambasted, and retailers that wish customers "Happy Holidays" have been threatened with boycotts and pestered with phone calls and online petitions. Started three years ago, the campaign will be the groups' largest.
Falwell launched a "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign" with a stated goal of preventing religious discrimination. He has said he wants to take back Christmas from "grinches" such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
"The fact is," he told ABC News, "we've gone on the offense now. We've put them on the defense. We're kicking their butts, and they're unhappy."
City leaders in Boston on Thursday night lighted what until a few days ago had been called a "holiday tree." Under pressure from conservative groups and after the Canadian logger who has long donated a tree to Boston said he would have thrown the tree into a wood chipper if he had known the city would relabel his gift, Mayor Thomas Menino changed the evergreen to a Christmas tree.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., this week ordered the Capitol Holiday Tree, so called since the 1990s, be renamed the Capitol Christmas Tree.
And Lowe's home-improvement stores took down "Holiday Trees" banners at its locations this week after receiving more than 1,000 complaints. A spokeswoman said Lowe's has "proudly sold Christmas trees in our stores for decades."
