The AFA's Christmas Silliness...

Last year I posted a fairly long article about the American Family Association's "Naughty or Nice" list. Basically, the AFA is a conservative Christian organization that spends most of its time complaining about homosexuals and running political commentaries by such intellectual stalwarts a Chuck Norris. Throughout November and December of every year, however, the AFA changes its focus to poring over every advertisement they can get their hands on to see if they use the word "Christmas" or not. Any company that doesn't slather its ads with heaping dollops of "Merry Christmas" is labelled naughty and placed on a boycott list for AFA members.¹

Not much has really changed since last year, save that now the AFA finds it offensive not only to fail to mention Christmas by name, but also to mention it alongside other winter holidays. Seriously. Complaining about a Gap ad that mentions Christmas alongside Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and the solstice, the AFA fumes that:

...Gap compares Christmas to the pagan holiday called "Solstice." Solstice is celebrated by Wiccans who practice witchcraft!

A "pagan holiday called Solstice"? Seriously? Does the AFA not know that the winter solstice is an astronomical event, not just something the "Wiccans" made up? Lots of cultures have holidays situated around the winter solstice.² Dare I even bring up the fact Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December in order to make it correspond roughly with the winter solstice?

The American Family Association seems to have a problem seeing past the end of its own nose. Not everyone's a Christian, and not everyone celebrates the same (or any) holidays at the end of the year. It's ridiculous to have a hissy fit just because a company doesn't direct every single one of its advertisements at you. And really, is any well-balanced person going to let his holiday celebration be tarnished by the wording of a Gap ad?

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1) This is in addition, of course, to the AFA's permanent boycotts of Movie Gallery (for renting porno) and Pepsi (for not hating gays enough).
2.) Let's not overlook Festivus, either.