’tis the season:  for last-minute gift-buying, red starbucks cups, and for some, the annual declaration that christians are under siege.

i’m talking, of course, about the “war on christmas” that resurfaces every year, where right-wing evangelicals claim that saying “happy holidays” is a form of oppression, make lists of stores to boycott for not saying “merry christmas,” and take this shift in language as a portent of more significant persecution to come.

as someone who identifies as christian, i wince at this hullabahoo every year.  and i shake my head in disbelief, because if there’s any religious group in america being oppressed on a broad scale, it is not christians.  a basic understanding of power and privilege is enough to comprehend this.