"There's one group of people who get bullied all the time, and that's..."

You'll never guess.

African-Americans?

Gays and lesbians?

Nerds?

Nope - Christians!

This L.A. Times article details one pastor's crusade to force department stores to say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays." This stuff is really amazing. One Rev. Creech of the Christian Action League of North Carolina (I wish I belonged to more Action Leagues) says, "It's a cultural war. We are in the thick of it. It's not so much an attack on us. It's an attack on Christ."

Of course, it isn't. It's a defense against offending shoppers who don't celebrate Christmas. Frankly, I don't know any non-Christians who are offended when they're wished a Merry Christmas, but then again, I don't know any Christians who won't shop in a store where they don't say it, so maybe I'm just living in the wrong part of the country.

Regardless, there's a point to this. How much time are we as progressives wasting on political correctness? In the new issue of NDM, Jon Stein urges Democrats to find populist issues that can resonate with the greater public.

Well, that's a great idea, but we also need to stop handing conservatives issues to mess around with. By insisting on removing every remnant of faith from public life, we're just granting conservatives who want to use the "God gap" against us something to talk about. I talk about this more in my piece this month, in which I argue that our fear of faith is holding us back. Even as a Jew, I'd be perfectly happy to be wished a Merry Christmas if it meant never having to hear from Rev. Creech in the newspaper ever again.