Look out Grinch — there’s a new misanthrope in town.

Speaking to the Values Voter Summit in Washington last week, President Donald Trump pushed one of the so-con Right’s most reliable buttons — the so-called War On Christmas.

“They don’t use the word Christmas because it is not politically correct. We’re saying Merry Christmas again,” Trump brayed as the gun-loving, gay-hating, born-again crowd stood up and roared its approval. Yes, it’s Christmas again in Trumpland.

Personally, I hear people saying ‘Merry Christmas’ quite a lot during the season. But the important point about Christmas is living it — not talking about it. And that’s where Saint Donald and his flock face a few challenges.

Christmas, after all, is meant to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ — whose politics would not have been popular at the Values Voters Summit, which invited National Rifle Association champion Dana Loesch, warmonger Oliver North, right-wing fanatic Steve Bannon and a host of the country’s other leading ultra-conservatives.

Here’s the thing: Jesus was a snowflake, a virtue-signaler and a liberal. He believed in turning the other cheek, putting down weapons, embracing one’s enemies, giving away wealth, feeding the poor, welcoming foreigners and ejecting profiteers from the temple. Ouch.

He was especially harsh on those who had too much money. From the Letter of James: “Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire.” Again, ouch.

If anything, Trump stands as the very personification of the attack on genuine Christian values and virtues — a living example of so much that the radical Jesus opposed. If anything, Trump stands as the very personification of the attack on genuine Christian values and virtues — a living example of so much that the radical Jesus opposed.

Here’s Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” Make the wording a little more specific and you’re looking at a demand for socialized medicine, open immigration and the welfare state.

I happen to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, who came to change the world, liberate us from sin and bring universal peace and love. Contrary to what Trump and his followers constantly claim, I am allowed to say that — even shout it — wherever I want.

There is no war on Christmas in North America, no war on Christians. The former is a mere holiday, secularized by capitalism generations ago and now having as much to do with sales and Santa as with beatitudes and Bethlehem. The latter is a faith that demands personal reformation and a rejection of selfishness and worldly ambition. As such, it stands in direct contrast to Donald Trump’s bombast, arrogance, aggression, dishonesty, sexual bullying and his attempts to divide people and replace informed debate with screaming platitudes.

If anything, Trump stands as the very personification of the attack on genuine Christian values and virtues — a living example of so much that the radical Jesus opposed, and for which He eventually died.

When the president told the excited, angry crowd on Friday that, “we are stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values,” he was reciting a line, an empty phrase from a conservative mantra that was developed just a few years ago. The “Judeo” bit was added only relatively recently, and considering Trump’s reluctance to condemn the Jew-hating Nazis in Charlottesville in August, his use of it is particularly fraudulent.

The audience drank it up because, for so many of them, the Christian faith has become a hiding place — an excuse for homophobia, racism, an obsession with violence, support for American triumphalism and adoration of the free market.

How tragic that the prince of peace has been perverted into the god of war, a champion of the poor twisted into the hero of the rich. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven,” said Jesus. “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”

By the way, the original Santa, Saint Nicholas, was born in Turkey to a Greek family, and Jesus was a poor Galilean Jew. I can’t imagine either of them would have been allowed entry into the U.S. these days. And as for those elves …

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